Mourning the Last Male White Rhino
Working in the news business I feel so bombarded by news events that, sadly, I sometimes turn off and become indifferent to it all – earthquakes, planes crashes, floods, bombs, terror attacks, ships sinking… Then there is a news story that unexpectedly jumps out and hits me…the death this week of Sudan, the last male […]
Nigerian Sex Slaves in Italy
Dear Blog Readers, I have been working for months on a long story for AP on the tens of thousands of Nigerian girls who are victims of sex trafficking to Italy. AP finally came out with the story for International Women’s Day on March 8th. Here are the links: TV VERSION: https://vids.press/ap-archive/only-on-ap-italy-failing-to-help-migrants-trafficked-as-sex-slaves/ WIRE VERSION: https://www.apnews.com/df4b0f007cd7475e90754e99189f5572 […]
Tiffany’s Turtle Fountain Mystery
Dear Blog Readers, Tiffany Parks, my fellow Roman-American blogger Mamma buddy, has just written a marvelous new mystery for 8-12-year-olds about one of my favorite fountains in Rome, the Turtle Fountain in the Jewish Ghetto. The protagonist is a 13-year-old American girl named Beatrice Archer who moves to Rome from Boston with her historian father […]
Kicking off Venice Carnival
Dear Blog Readers, Ok, I admit it. I needed an excuse to get out of Rome and be distracted. I got a nasty flu after Christmas and at the last minute had to back out of going on the Papal Trip to Chile and Peru. That was a big, important trip and I missed it. […]
Babington’s Tea Rooms 125th Birthday Bash
Dear Blog Readers, This week, Rome’s most famous tea rooms, Babingtons, celebrated their 125th anniversary at Villa Wolkonsky, the British Ambassador’s residence. For those who have never heard of Babingtons, it is a Tea Room that serves a proper English Tea with scones, cakes and biscuits just at the foot of Rome’s Spanish Steps. On […]
Precious Cargo
Nineteen-year-old Precious is a smiling, laughing, living testament to human resilience. She sits at the end of a table in a safe house near Rome for Nigerian sex slaves who have managed to escape their exploiters and tells me her story. The first impression of Precious, with her beautiful, gentle face, smooth skin, lively brown […]
The Marvelously Ugly White Truffle
Dear Blog Readers – I am on a train headed back to Rome after a busy weekend bouncing around the Piedmont region of Italy with Italy’s Foreign Press Association’s “Gruppo Del Gusto” a sort of Culinary Club of journalists who travel around Italy visiting towns looking at local foods and food production, eating a lot […]
