Dear Blog Readers, Last week I went for four days to Venice to cover the official launch of the Carnival season. For Venetians the Carnival season opens on January 7th after the Feast of the Epiphany. But the official launch of Carnival festivities begins with the Flight of the Angel when a beautiful, young woman …
The Vatican Pontifical Council of Culture is holding a plenary this week on “Women’s Cultures: Equality and Difference”. Unfortunately, in its first step on the project the Vatican tripped and fell flat on its face. They issued a video calling for contributions from women starring an Italian TV actress, Nancy Brilli, who looked like she …
This week my colleagues and I have focused our attention on several elegant brown and gold wicker baskets, with green satin cloth on the inside, and Italian tri-color ribbons and delicate locks and chains on the outside. Into these baskets, 1009 Italian electors – mostly members of parliament—have been placing their ballots for the Italian …
(SEE BELOW FOR UPDATE WITH INTERVIEW WITH FEMEN PROTESTER JANA ZDHANOVA) After my last post “The Roman Holiday Hamster”, I vowed I would take a break from writing about the Vatican and concentrate on Christmas. It took a lot of effort, but I resisted the temptation to write about Pope Francis’ Christmas speech to the …
Dear Blog Readers— Yes, that photo above is me—a crazed Roman Holiday Hamster running frenetically, non-stop in my wheel and never getting anywhere. This week, a young man asked me if I would contribute a blog post to his travel blog. I asked him what specifically he would like and he suggested a post describing …
Dear Blog Readers – I am learning through my tweeting experiences that animal photos are popular. My “Cataturk” waiting for the Pope at the Haghia Sophia was a big success, so I will start my Turkey Post 2 with another animal moment. The photo above is of the Pope releasing two doves outside the Cathedral …
Dear Blog Readers- I am sitting in the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul waiting for Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew I to arrive. A couple of blog readers have written to me asking “Where are you?”. They say they don’t see me in any of the shots on TV of the Pope in Turkey and I …
Dear Blog Readers— My blogger buddy Adri Barr Crocetti, the famous foodie who reveals her secrets on her blog adribarrcrocetti.com, asked me this week if I was going to write about the vandal at the Colosseum, so here goes… It was mid-morning last Friday when a security guard working in the Colosseum spotted a 42-year-old …