Category Archives: Cultural Focus

A story, tradition or experience relating to people in a particular place…

Tonight is a very special time to be in Pisa, Italy…when the Leaning Tower of Pisa glows from hundreds of oil lamps. Each year on the evening of June 16th, Pisa’s architectural structures are beautifully transformed into a magical sight when 70,000 candles illuminate the night. This Luminara festival honors their patron saint, San Ranieri, […]

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Day 3 of our Transumanza Journey The Maremma sheep dogs–mere yards away from our tent– had been barking since 4am. A couple of hours later, my 16 year-old daughter and I crept out of our tent in the darkness, seeking warmth in the agriturismo farmhouse where the majority of our group was sleeping inside. Nunzio, […]

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  Day 2 of our transumanza adventure— the age-old tradition of leading animals on an annual migration to higher mountain pastures in the Apennines Mountains of Abruzzo, in central Italy. My 16 year old daughter and I had joined a group of mostly Italian people, an Italian guide, and some Maltese, who had collectively joined […]

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It’s almost Thanksgiving…the time when we’re traditionally reunited with our families. Outside my window, cool winds whip through bare trees, and temps drop low enough to snow. But my thoughts drift to the shepherd and the flock of sheep that we left high in the mountains of central Italy this past summer. It’s certainly cold […]

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Something wicked this way comes… Mystery and intrigue are packed into the ancient stone walls of medieval Castel del Monte, a little village tucked into the hills of northern Abruzzo, in central Italy, where 450 people live. The setting is beautiful, perched on a slope overlooking the mountains and valleys of Campo Imperatore in the Gran […]

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