This essay about Henry Miller in Paris is included in my new book The Modern Salonnière, which is available on Amazon in print and on Kindle. The 34 other essays in the book feature similar literary adventures and essays about traveling with intention. Henry Miller: Hungry, Homeless, Happy There’s only one historical figure I’ve ever come…Continue reading Henry Miller the Paris Years
Category: Travel
I have always enjoyed travel but since I have hit upon the idea of writing literary adventures that happen as I’m gallivanting, I can’t wait to book trips to the cities where my favorite literary heroes and heroines have lived.
I’ve had some thrills along the way. Imagine my surprise when I found a museum dedicated to a French Empress in Parma, Italy! When Napoleon I was exiled, Marie Louise of Austria took her role as the Duchess of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, holding court in the Riserva Palace on Strada Melloni. I have another shocking surprise during my walk-through of her former home there so I urge you to read Rococo Style in Italy to see the other French courtier I found there!
In Stalking Petrarch in Parma, I return to the Italian town where I visited as many places as I could find where the poet might have walked, his role as a clergy in the region guaranteeing I set foot in at least two places he’d visited often. It was such a thrill for me! My post Seeing with New Eyes find me in Paris shadowing the places where Edith Wharton and her lover Morton Fullerton had lived or met as secret lovers. Paris is one of my favorite cities for literary adventuring.
Beyond my own literary travel adventures, I am inspired by design or art that brings a place alive. In Traveling Through the Looking Glass, I am inspired by Timothy Oulton’s design of the Glazebrook House Hotel in the UK, his references to Lewis Carol’s Alice in Wonderland the perfect segue between design and literature. And in Impressions of Venice, I illustrate one of Sophia Khan’s favorite books A Daughter of Venice with her striking watercolors of the Italian town. You really should click through to see her art—it’s hauntingly beautiful.
Shadowing Petrarch in Parma
This essay is included in my new book The Modern Salonnière, which recently debuted on Amazon in print and on Kindle. The 34 other essays in the book feature similar literary adventures and traveling with intention. Shadowing Petrarch in Parma The haunting strains of a bandoneon were wafting through the drizzly air, compelling me to follow…Continue reading Shadowing Petrarch in Parma
Medieval Calamities in Paris
It was winter in Paris and the Père Lachaise Cemetery was awash in grays. The sky, the bare limbs of the trees, the pavers and the stone cladding the tombs coalesced into one monochromatic composition as I climbed the hill. I walked along a path made knotty by the roots of trees as they attempted…Continue reading Medieval Calamities in Paris
Libraries Are My Temples
Libraries are my temples, the places I go to worship my tribe. The desire to record, to put words down as a way to cement thought, to unfurl storytelling are the liturgical acts that compose a writing life when it simply cannot be resisted, and many of them begin when a book is slid from…Continue reading Libraries Are My Temples
Café Society as Cultural Interpreter
What do the Paris and New York City cafés that served as historical backdrops for some of the world’s most brilliant creatives say about the differences in France and America? Quite a lot, actually. Since the fabric of New York is woven by revolving real estate, citizens of Gotham learn not to get too attached…Continue reading Café Society as Cultural Interpreter
The Nature of Noble Loyalty
It’s spring in London and the flowers are bursting forth on Cheyne Walk, which skirts the edge of the River Thames until it gives way to the Chelsea Embankment. I have ambled along the street for nearly an hour identifying plaques representing the famous people who’ve lived on nearly every block. Finally, I’ve reached Roper’s…Continue reading The Nature of Noble Loyalty
The Tapestry of History
In just a few hours, the modern ideal of a fairy tale wedding will take place at Windsor Castle. A trip I took to the medieval palace several years ago had a legendary feel to it that may not rival the experience of a young American woman marrying her prince charming but it was no…Continue reading The Tapestry of History
The New Face of Religious Zeal
As I circle the domed space, I approach the front of the pulpit for the third time. I can’t believe how perfect it is that I am seeing the chapel at night; that I am alone. There is an eerie feel to the room that’s intensified by the few thin slices of light glancing off…Continue reading The New Face of Religious Zeal
The Personality of Place
So, this is how it feels to experience a medieval Tuscan village that has existed on a hillside in some form for almost 1000 years! My view from the courtyard of Castel Monastero encompasses a string of buildings that meander along the edge of a quaint piazza. The bricked courtyard is paved in a herringbone…Continue reading The Personality of Place
Far from Oblivious in Bologna
If you find yourself strolling along the streets of Bologna near the city’s center, don’t be surprised if you turn a corner and come upon an anomaly. It will stand unapologetically as traffic whizzes by, a thumb of unruly masonry with its flanks sawed off. The amputations were necessary to make way for thoroughfares teeming…Continue reading Far from Oblivious in Bologna