I’m on a train, bound for Rome. Yes, Rome, and yes I’ll be there for the funeral of Pope Francis tomorrow – Saturday. Crazy idea? Well, maybe. I’m sure the city is going to be nuts, and I’m not sure I’ll go through the effort to try and attend the mass at St. Peter’s Square. […]
I’ve parked myself in Barletta. It’s a beautiful, bustling, smallish seaside city in southern Italy – perfect for a two-day layover, even more perfect because it’s Easter weekend and the city is abuzz with local families spending the holiday weekend together, lingering in the piazzas during the day, attending mass, strolling the narrow streets by […]
As I write, I’m sitting on the very old, very hard mattress of my room at a bed and breakfast north of the town of Mesagne in southern Italy. Looking out the large window to my right I see that another gray, windy day awaits me. It will be Day 3 of my bicycle journey […]
Snow is on the mountain peaks of the Austrian Alps out my train window. The valley fields are green or a newly plowed under shade of dark brown. The Inn River guides our way. I departed Munich, Germany this morning at 7:30 a.m. This train will take me south, over the mountains, through Austria, and […]
There are days when I struggle to get out of bed. And yet I’m choosing to ride my bike for 30 days across Italy. Depression still has a hold on me. Some days are okay. Some days are extremely difficult. Some days it takes all the energy I can muster just to get out of […]
