by Susan Mary McReynolds I confess. Up until just a few years ago, I was still a virgin tippler. But I took a deep breath and plunged right into the fragrant well of Scottish single malt whisky. Serendipity made me do it. My good friend Sheila, a Glasgow native, had two tickets to Whiskies of…
by Audrey Mei I did hear some peeps and squeaks from some of you since I didn’t send out a travelogue for two weeks, so here it is! After Rome, I stayed briefly in Florence, where the eyes nearly go blind from the wealth of artwork collected by the Medici family. Michelangelo’s David (completed when…
by Stephanie Block Today I was looking at pictures from our recent Tango Diva trip to Club Med Crested Butte. Pictures of our gang shoulder to shoulder on top of the ice bar at the Paradise Lift, or me cheek to cheek with my hot ski instructor, Cowboy, who doubled as the lead singer in…
by Cheryl Dalhe In December of 2001, writer Cheryl Dahle visited the frozen continent with two polar explorers, Ann Bancroft and Liv Arnesen, whose story she was researching and writing. This is the story of her trip. The book about the explorers, No Horizon is So Far, is available from Penguin Paperback (www.bancroftarnesenexplore.com). * *…
I had the fortune of actually being at the Olympic Stadium to assist with the Opening Ceremony, and after a few seconds all my pre-Olympic scepticism about Torino’s adequacy disappeared. That night all of Italy was proud of Torino and most of all the Torinesi, who reveled in the chance to show their city to…
by Janet Bein, Young at Heart Diva When I first heard about Toscana Mia, a Bay Area–based group offering luxurious, customized tours of gorgeous Tuscany, Italy (with enticing names like “Live Like A Tuscan” and “Under Your Tuscan/Amalfi/Rome Sun”) I jumped at the chance to meet with the group’s founder and tour leader, Serenella Leone,…
by Sarah Naimark It was a painfully cold afternoon in Val Gardena, an Alpine border town where it’s hard to tell the Italians from the neighboring Austrians. The Dolomite mountains are mammoth, with rounded peaks and patches of snow, as different from one another as faces; they appear close enough to touch. It looks like…