Here you can browse through my blog posts prior to February 2022. Currently I'm sharing my travel experiences, candid opinions, and what's on my mind solely on my Facebook page. — Rick

Marketing Travel — Paradise Beyond Imagination

To me, consumer travel shows are carnivals of crass materialism. Walking the halls, I wonder how many of the participants really believe in what they’re selling. Sure, there’s good information hiding — but it’s a challenge for a visitor to sort through the advertising to find it. Slaloming past human Statues of Liberty and boy-toy human peacocks marathon-dancing to steel drum bands, I considered the various slogans tourist boards and travel companies posted to lure potential travelers to their booths.

Puerto Rico — No passport required. (Why would a traveler want one of those?)

Rock N Roll Fantasy Camp. (Imagine lunching with Elvis look-alikes on your next vacation.)

Jamaica — Once you go…you know. (You do?)

Eldertreks — Exotic adventures for travelers 50 and over. (I made it…old enough for a tour company with “elder” in its name.)

Nevis — Everything you’ve heard is true. (Can “nothing” be true? I learned it’s an island in the Caribbean…apparently a nice one.)

Bimini Bay — A paradise beyond imagination. (They underestimate me.)

Israel — Who knew? (Is there something I should know?)

Fiji Me. (Kalamazoo you.)

LOT Polish Airlines — You’re under our wing. (How does it smell?)

Air Ambulance Card — We bring you home. (No thanks.)

At the Saxony tourism booth, at first I saw no sign or slogan, just two men in black suits.

Still, each year we ship our best tour salespeople and tons of brochures to these shows (in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York)…getting the word out to people who come by the booth to say, “You’re taller than you look on TV. I love your TV show and we never miss your radio podcast. Oh, I didn’t know you did tours.” I fly home thinking, “I guess travel shows are worth the effort.”

Love Fest in a Roman Stadium

I’ve always wanted to go to a football (“soccer” to Americans) game in Europe. But it takes the better part of a day, and my research and filming schedule has never allowed it. Last Sunday, my son Andy and I finally got to see a game…courtesy of Stefano (who runs Hotel Oceania). It was Rome against Florence.

Converging on the stadium, Stefano parked on a curb (tipping a couple of thugs to watch — or maybe just not vandalize — the car). I find Rome’s stadium evocative: surrounded by Mussolini-era statues (each a stern and glorious fascist hero), and mosaics still heralding “il Duce” and showing the fascisti(“bundle of sticks” — so much stronger than a single, easy-to-break one).

They’re cracking down on football fan violence all over Europe, and real progress is being made at taming the stands. Stefano said this particular game was considered high-risk for violence, so a single purchaser could only buy three tickets, and they wouldn’t sell seats together (something he’d never encountered). In order to lower the provocative police presence at stadiums, legions of security “stewards” are posted everywhere. You must show ID to buy a ticket, each ticket has your name on it, and you must show ID proving the ticket is yours to get in.

As it turned out, it was a tame game. But the spirit in the stadium is almost comically mean-spirited. At American college football games, when a player is down on the field, silence falls over the stands as players get down on one knee and pray. In Italy, when someone’s injured, they chant, Devi Morire! — “You must die! You must die!” Then, when the injured player is carried off, they sing, “You’re coming back, you’re coming back…in B division.” Why? Injuries are routinely faked.

The area beyond the goal is filled with the cheap seats designed for the most avid fans — they stand and sing the entire time, waving huge flags and tossing firecrackers that sound like a cannon firing. Every so often, the loudspeaker reviews the various financial, criminal, and team penalties that come with violent actions and racist and outlawed slogans.

Stewards surrounded the small contingent of Florence fans like a riot squad. After the game, they stayed in their seats while the Rome fans departed. Then the Florentines were escorted safely to their awaiting buses to return home (in this case, sad after a 1-0 loss).

The Bloggy Joy of Travel (with Politics)

For a year now, I’ve been injecting politics into my travel blog. It’s what I do. This blog is my selfish delight: to sort through impressions I pick up on the road in search of real meaning…and then share them with others. I find writing for this blog curiously enjoyable.

If you want chat about fun in the sun, duty-free shopping, and frequent-flier miles, and you’re still looking here…I have to wonder why. There are piles of other, much better travel blogs for you.

Peter referred to me “starting problems” with comments about the Marine, and so on. What problems? I don’t expect everyone to agree with me. In fact, I hope everyone does not. (If I want easy compliments, I just call my mom. Here, I crave smart people to disagree with me and explain — without insults — why.)

I float these observations in the hope that others can share related travel-inspired responses. We are just finding that a few people waging one-on-one debates on tangential issues takes away the focus of this blog.

I like Jimmy’s comment about the spirited debates in the British House of Parliament as being fun as well as pointed. That’s what I’d love to foster here.

If my travel experience causes me to think my Dad is needlessly afraid of Muslims, and then I teach my child to finish table grace bobbing his cute little arms up and down while saying “Allah, Allah, Allah” — I can’t think of a more appropriate story to share on this blog.

If that offends you, and you insist on coming back for more…the beatings will continue until morale improves.

Until Morale Improves…the Beatings Will Continue

Thanks to everyone who’s been posting insightful comments to my blog. I always enjoy hearing from this great bunch of “Road Scholars.” But we’ve noticed that a few people are beginning to dominate the conversation, which makes other readers uncomfortable.

It’s important to me that this blog remain fun, upbeat, and open to all travelers. Before you post a comment, please review our Posting Guidelines. Please stay focused on the blog’s topic, and refrain from conversing back and forth with another individual (that’s what email is for). Please don’t post more than two comments to a single blog. If you feel you must do so, first ask yourself: Am I really adding something new to the discussion of Rick’s topic? (Simply responding to other posters doesn’t count…and contributes to the negative tone we’re trying to avoid.)

As always, we reserve the right to delete comments that we feel are inappropriate — especially if it singles out another individual’s comments, or if it’s a back-and-forth chain between two or three readers. Again, I’d like to hear other travelers’ take on issues I raise in my entry.

Thanks for everyone’s participation, and for your help making this blog continue to be a fun resource for travelers!

The High Price of Wax Paper and Other Thoughts on Rome

The big sightseeing news in Rome: A new elevator zips people to the very top of the Victor Emanuel monument (€7, best view in town); the Forum is no longer free (entrance is now included with the Colosseum ticket); and the Vatican Museum finally has consistently long opening hours. (I wish I could credit my earlier blog entry, where I wondered if it was “un-Christ-like” for the pope to keep all those religious and art pilgrims waiting in interminable lines by limiting the Vatican Museum hours. But the wonderful new policies are thanks to the arrival of Antonio Paolucci, the new Vatican Museum director who earned hero status after sorting out the chaos of museum policies in Florence.)

Again I learn that for years, I’ve been screwing up my Italian. When sleepy, I’ve been saying, “Io sono stanco,” which means “I’m physically tired.” To be sleepy tired — as in, ready for bed — I need to say, “Io ho sonno.”

A new wine-appreciation trick: Order tap water rather than bottled water at restaurants, and invest the savings in a better glass of wine. These days, while wines of Tuscany and the north (Brunello, Barolo, Amarone, and so on) are more famous and expensive, the wines of the south are rivaling them in quality and a much better value (look for Montepulciano d’Abruzzo and wines from Pulia, such as Pier delle Vigne).

Another change for the intermediate eater: osteria used to mean a humble, rustic, good-value eatery. Now an osteria is likely to be trendy and pricey. The new word to look for to find good value: enoteca.These wine bars serve great yet reasonably priced wine by the glass and pride themselves on simple menus featuring quality local and seasonal ingredients, well-cooked and economical.

Picnic-shopping, I bought 100 grams of prosciutto.At the cashier, after a generous triple wrapping of wax paper, it weighed 130 grams — you buy paper for the price of meat.

Always interested in new ways to connect with locals, I enjoyed a tip from an American woman I met in Rome: “When I see anyone with a dog, I make eye contact and put my hand out as if to pet an animal. This earns me a fun encounter and conversation with a local each time…along with a chance to pet a local dog.”