Covering the G7 in Taormina, Sicily
Dear Blog Readers, I am sitting in the airport waiting area in Catania, Sicily trying to take advantage of the sugar high from yet-another cannolo to get started on a post about the past six days in Sicily working on AP coverage of the G7 summit in Taormina. Thanks to a well-timed Alitalia strike at […]
Mr. Walls Vs. Mr. Bridges at the Vatican
The AP Television Rome bureau team is getting ready for a big meeting coming up this Wednesday with two of the most compelling figures on the world stage – Pope Francis and US President Donald Trump. Trump is scheduled to meet the Pope at the Vatican Wednesday morning at 8:30am. His motorcade will pull into […]
Wax Limbs and Rose Petals – Following the Pope in Fatima
Dear Blog Readers – I am trying to whip off this post while flying from Lisbon back to Rome after five days in the town of Fatima, Portugal. I am so zonked I won’t get it done if I don’t finish it in this 3 hour window of opportunity. Associated Press Television sent me at […]
A Pope’s Bitter End
Dear Blog Readers – I just spent the week taking a journalism course in the small town of Fiuggi, in the hills a little south of Rome. I loved going back to “school” and spending hours in the classroom learning about Italian law, the modern history of Europe, and economics. While I was there, I […]
Europe’s Day in Rome
Dear Blog Readers— Yesterday was an historic day for Europe, although it seems to have gone by without much of a blip on the worldwide news radar. I won’t write much about it, but I wanted to share a few behind-the-scenes notes and photos. The leaders of the 27 nations of the European Union gathered […]
Lucia’s Battle
Dear Blog Readers, I have been working with my AP wire colleague Fran D’Emilio on a story on women fighting back against violence in Italy that went out this morning as part of the AP’s many stories for International Women’s Day. Fran wrote an excellent story (see link here: Scarred Survivors) – I handled the TV […]
High in the Sky over Lazio
Dear Blog Readers – This post is the story of how I found myself with sweaty palms in a plane about the size of a firefly looking out over the rolling hills, green fields, and tiny medieval villages around Rome. It all started with the French language. I have been taking an intermediate French language […]
From Palmyra to Rome
Dear Blog Readers, Just a quick blog post to tell you about a little gem of a story I was working on yesterday. The foreign press was invited to visit the restoration laboratory at the famed Superior Institute for Conservation and Restoration in the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome to see two funerary busts damaged by […]
