December 2006

Out With the Old, In With the New

December 31, 2006

The first time I visited Milan was in early January, 1991 – it must have been right after the New Year. We arrived in the city late at night and had to walk some way to find our hotel. As we went, I asked Enrico if Milan’s garbage collectors were on strike or something. I [...]

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Lake Como Travel Tips

December 29, 2006

^ View from the central western shore, above and north of Menaggio. Want to enjoy this view during your Italian vacation? You can rent the place where I took this photo Lake Como, shaped like an upside-down Y, is easily reached from Milan by car or train. You can take the train to Lecco (on [...]

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Gallery: Chiavenna in December

December 28, 2006

From our family post-Christmas lunch trip to al Cenacolo in Chiavenna.

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How Now John Chow?

December 27, 2006

A Useful Site If You’re Looking to Monetize I’ve mentioned him in passing, but I’ll be more explicit now: if you are interested in making money from your website/blog, John Chow is full of good advice. Though already a “Dot Com Mogul”, he started a new blog about a year ago which focuses mostly on [...]

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A “Typical” Italian Christmas

December 26, 2006

Of course , our family is far from typically Italian. Even my husband’s family isn’t very typical: his mother moved around a great deal while she was growing up, and had only two brothers (who both died young), and Enrico’s father was an only child – hardly the norm in his day! So the close [...]

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Evidence of Global Warming?

December 23, 2006

I’ve seen this view many times (and it’s always astounding), but never captured it on film before. Unfortunately, it demonstrates unusual dryness and lack of snow in the Alps for this time of year. Global warming? Climate cancer? Whatever you want to call it, it ain’t good.

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Milan: Sant’Ambrogio by Night

December 18, 2006

Though not as grand as the Duomo, Sant’Ambrogio, named for Milan’s patron saint, is older, and decorated with bits of Roman architecture even older than itself. All these shots were taken without flash or tripod.    

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Gallery: vlogEurope, Videobloggers Invade Bellagio

December 15, 2006

All the photos I took at and around vlogEurope in Milan and on Lake Como, November, 2006.

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Earning from Advertising Online

December 15, 2006

My new goal is to earn a living wage from this site. I’ve got a long way to go, but at least the trend is upward. I’ve been using Google AdSense since May, 2004, to place "context-sensitive" ads on my pages. I earn money whenever a site visitor clicks on one of these ads. The [...]

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Tag, I’m It! – Five Things Not Many People Know About Me

December 13, 2006

Jeff Pulver said: As a blogger, people may know you, but how good does anyone ever really know anyone? … Turns out there is a game of Blog-Tag going around the blogosphere in which bloggers are sharing five things about themselves that relatively few people know, and then tagging five other bloggers to be “it.” [...]

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Travelling in Italy – Tips, Tricks, & Places Off the Beaten Path

December 9, 2006

Venice sunset Travel Tips Rent a Tuscan farmouse from my friends Rita and Lino Tour Tuscany, Umbria or Sicily the relaxed way, with Tartaruga Tours. Travelling by train in Italy? Go here for all the information you’ll ever need. Article: Venice’s Anti-Pickpocketing Squad (read between the lines for tips on how to avoid having your [...]

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Living in Italy: Personal Reflections of a Long-Time Foreign Resident

December 9, 2006

NB: As of early 2008, I no longer live in Italy. But I still visit there, and write about it. If You’re Thinking of Moving to Italy… Many foreigners dream of living in Italy, and some manage to make that dream come true – and then may find it’s not so dreamy after all. This [...]

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vlogEurope 2006: A Horde of Vloggers Descends on Italy

December 8, 2006

my daily commutes were far more entertaining than usual! NB: The links on this page are mostly to video, of course! There are also lots of photos. Be aware that some of the language in the videos is Not Safe for Work. What did I do at vlogEurope? I barely participated in the conference, and [...]

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School Cheating in Italy

December 7, 2006

School continues to be hell, not just for Rossella, but also for her parents. She scraped through her repeat second year at a new (private, Catholic) school with two academic debits (failed classes) – math and physics, as always. Being in private school has advantages: last year she had private tutoring in math from a [...]

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Roman Street Signs

December 3, 2006

During the Imaging in Italy course I attended in Rome in October, 2003, I was much taken with the ancient signage I found all over – both the lettering and the language were charmingly antique. Several were on the theme of “do not litter”, in this case “on pain of ten scudi (coins) each time”, [...]

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Pinching Italians

December 3, 2006

Recently asked on the Fodor’s travel forum: “We’ve been told it is customary and acceptable for men in Italy to pinch women’s bottoms. Is this true and, if it is, what is the customary and acceptable response?” Over the years I’ve lived in Italy I’ve been asked this question several times. And it always makes [...]

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Digital Camera Fixes: When Your Camera Jams, Try Fixing It Yourself

December 3, 2006

We now have three digital cameras in the family (not counting cellphones). The first was a Nikon Coolpix 775, purchased in New York for $500 in early 2002. I can’t remember how many megapixels it has, but certainly its capabilities are unimpressive by today’s standards. It takes a proprietary rechargeable battery, of which I’ve bought [...]

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Return to Bormio

December 1, 2006

My birthday present this past weekend was a trip to Bormio, to indulge in the natural hot spring water as we have before. Enrico and I left Saturday morning, while Ross was in school – we are thankful that she is now old enough to be left home alone from time to time! To get [...]

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