April 29, 2016. Today I headed out on a self-guided day trip from Florence to Cinque Terre – which is Italian for “Five Towns”, and refers to five neighboring  villages that hang on the edges of the seaside cliffs along the northwestern coast of Italy.  Apparently Rick Steves “discovered” this area, much like a director…

April 24-May 2, 2016.  On my first full day “in Florence” I saw nothing of the city at all – instead I took a bus tour to Siena, San Gimignano and Pisa.  (That experience deserves its own post – and space for pictures – which I’ll write later).  I felt the start of a cold…

April 7, 2016.  Was  up very early this morning for an excursion to Cordoba, Spain – a two hour drive from my resort. Met and immediately bonded with another solo traveler, Diane from Houston. She was the first American I’d met since arriving in Spain a week earlier.  It was the beginning of a new…

April 3, 2016.  After a few days of being focused on tech issues, it was a nice break to get in the car and drive out into the country. Southern Spain is very mountainous (at least the area that I drove through) – with fun, windy highways and LOTS of tunnels – some of which…