Summerlike conditions in Rothenburg. Temperature today was nearly 90 and the evening smells like a heavy rain is coming, sometime. I don’t know, the sky is full of stars. It feels more like August than late May. After doing some work with the Night Watchman on our new film, I joined friends Georg and Martina […]

The long and scenic drive home from Rome to Rothenburg after my most recent tour had ended was marred by problems with my Volkswagen “Multivan.” I thought my turbo was slowly losing its steam. Who could blame it? I have 156,000 kilometers on my 2005 adventure machine. Still, I was sweating bullets as I crept […]

No, don’t straighten it! Instead, clear out all of the crap surrounding it on the south side of the Field of Miracles. This nonsense can be sold outside of the gate or better yet, far, far away in a field near the road. The hectoring of the Africans offering a beautiful “Rolex” for (Oh take […]

Bookings for the 2010 Passion Play in Oberammergau continue at a fast clip, but will there actually be anyone at the show? The tickets are being reserved by big tour companies, who have hopes of reselling them (at a profit, of course) to the end user. Word on the street in Bavaria is that while […]

The first trip of the 2009 season is now history, and what a trip it was! From Rome to Orvieto and explorations of Umbria, to Tuscany and Liguria and back to Tuscany. We covered more than 2,000 kilometers together, and very little of that was on straight roads! This was Art and Carol’s second trip […]

This has to be one of the most scenic drives in Tuscany. The twisting road between San Gimignano and the ancient Etruscan town of Volterra rewards the traveler with vistas of farmland, isolated farms and hilltop towns. The greenery of this time of May knocks your eyes out.

Staying two nights in one of Tuscany’s most fascinating and popular hill towns. San Gimignano is a real magnet for the bus tourists, who enter the southern gate in a non-stop flood starting around 10:30. First stop – the gelato shop just inside the first town square, winner of the award for “Best Gelato” several […]