This shot of Cathedral’s beach in Galicia really caught my eye among many, many amazing photos posted over at the gadling Flickr Group. Shot by gbalirac, it has a great mixture of light and shadow with, of course, some awfully lovely rock formations to boot. This is one of those shots that just take themselves, but of course gbalirac did a fine job with it.
Lesser Known Italy
I’m beginning to learn that I know Jack about Italy. Sure, I know Rome, and Venice, and Florence and a couple of other famous tourist locations, but there is so much more of Italy out there I know nothing about.
Take, for example, Basilicata. Isn’t that where basil comes from? Er, no. Not exactly. Basilicata is a small region of Italy which I had never heard of until I picked up a recent issue of Travel & Leisure. And now, of course, I want to go.
Journalist Helene Stapinski traveled here in search of her family tree and discovered a land rich in so much else. To get to her destination, she “drove east on the empty and pristine Basento Valley highway…passed through vineyards, white hilltop villages, and the craggy Lucanian Dolomite mountains.” Her goal was Matera, “a city the color of old bones” in which Mel Gibson filmed The Passion of the Christ. Just check out that photo above!
Take a moment to follow Stapinski’s adventure tracking down relatives, eating local food, and living in the region’s famous cave dwellings. It ain’t Venice, but it sure seems to have a charm all its own.
Pauline Frommer Travel Guides
Like father, like daughter is what they say in this biz these days, I suppose. Pauline Frommer, daughter of the famous guide book extraordinaire, is introducing her own line of guidebooks catering to the adult budget traveler, but not the backpacker. On the market for purchase now include popular destinations such as Hawaii, New York and Italy. The Baltimore Sun online notes that 40 year-old Pauline will edit all the books in the series and write some of them. So least she’s not just using her name to sell I guess. The Pauline Frommer guides range from $16-$20 and can be purchased at Frommers.com.
I wouldn’t mind testing one out myself and if I had to choose from the three I’d go with Hawai’i. I’ve lived there / been before, but could always use a few recommendations on how to eat and sleep in paradise for cheap.
Diddy Spends Thousands on Private Jet for Luggage
Usually, I wouldn’t bother opening the forwarded crap my friends feel the need to flood my email with, but this one caught my eye. Why? Because it is travel related and I thought even if I didn’t want to know or care there is someone out there drooling and waiting for this type of material to pop up in the blogosphere. In other words it is my loyal duty to Diddy lovers across the planet to spread the news.
So where was I? Ah, Yes…If all the world could have the luxury of spending $16,200 dollars on a private jet to have their excess Louis Vuitton luggage transported from France to Rome, what might the world be like? Apparently Diddy (also known as P. Diddy, Puff Daddy, & Sean Combs) dropped this kind of dough on a private jet when he was informed there wasn’t enough room on his private flight to lug it all.
Lifestyles of the rich and famous – I just don’t get it at times. Diddy if you’re out there listening or reading I’d love to skate off to France and Rome. I’m more than willing to stay in hostels and pay my airfare over if you’d like to donate $16,200 to SallieMae, my sweet student loan provider – yeah. Um, call me.
Fried Olives…Yum
My wife LOVES olives. We have jars galore inside our fridge, and I have to confess I’m not such a fan. Olive oil on bread? Sure, delish. But olives alone? Nah. You can have them. But this story over at NPR alerted me to a new way to prepare olives that kind of made me drool (it could be because it is just before lunch and I am very hungry). But in the small Italian town of Cagli, about four hours northeast of Rome, in Italy’s eastern Le Marche, they make a yummy-sounding little dish whereby they stuff olives with spiced ground meat and then fry the suckers. Too bad the folks at Google, or someone else for that matter, hasn’t yet invented a way to download food, because right now I’d pay a pretty penny…or Lira…to have some of these babies come right through my modem.