Consultant, Environmental Science and Policy

An occasional travel blog

Once in awhile, somebody calls me Sylvia "Poggioli." Perhaps it is only because we can both pronounce our last names, and also spell "Sylvia" with a "y". For those outside the U.S. who may not have even heard of National Public Radio, she is the NPR European correspondent based in Rome who has become some sort of an icon. (Even Italians who aren't named Sylvia report having been associated with "Sylvia Poggioli...."). I've never met this person, am not a journalist, and live in the U.S., but I did spend some time in Italian schools, and have been called a "storyteller"... and there is nothing like taking a trip to get another perspective on things. Once in awhile, it gives me the urge to report, from somewhere...

Elephant at high noon, Victoria Falls Zimbabwe, May 2001

I finally managed to see an elephant - trying to get into a swimming pool, to no avail....

 

 

Agua o Muerte! Arequipa Perú, May/June 2003

I went to Peru to study spanish and attend a conference on watershed management. The day after I arrived was also the beginning of a national state of emergency....

 

 

Pisan Hills, Early December, 2003

Some say this is a bad time of the year to go to Italy because it mostly rains. But it is also when the olive oil is fresh and green, with a delicate, pungent and heavenly taste of like, well, olives. Some things change. Some stay the same. (I was too busy dipping bread into it to write anything during that trip - but I was back there again 6 months later - see below..)

 

 

In the footsteps of Galileo,Pisa, May 2004

I was in Pisa for a wedding and stuff, but to find out what Lisa was doing there, and more, enter this labyrinth...

 

 

 

Updated: June 2004