Winding through the mountains of Andalusia, passing miles and miles of olive groves, small villages, and peaks, our excitement approaching Ronda grew each minute. Maite in Malaga told us we really ought to consider rearranging our schedule and spending a couple of days in Ronda. She was right about every recommendation thus far, so we [...]

When you arrive in Granada at the bus station, it is like so many other European cities in that it slowly builds from the countryside. More apartments and business and traffic circles on the outskirts, landscaped medians as you get deeper into the city. But the bus station isn’t at the city center or really [...]

I think I am pretty good at geography and culture. I know that Madrid and Barcelona were in the past and in the minds of millions continue to be capitals of different countries. I know that Andalusia is a province in the south of Spain rich in history and culture. I know that James Joyce [...]

Cultural Debris Excursions are headed to Bavaira the first two weeks in July! Alan Cornett and I are building on the success of our Genoa Excursion from October 2022 and leading intimate small group trips to Salzburg, Austria and Oberammergau, Germany the first and second weeks of July 2023. Each week is limited to six [...]

We walk into La Medina, the spice shop on Via San Luca in Genoa and I greet Sabri, the owner. “Salaam, sadiqi. It is so good to see you again.” He steps around the counter and hugs me and says, “It is good to see you, as well. This is your shop.” I tell him [...]

Friends, Alan Cornett, host of the Cultural Debris Podcast is joining me to host a Cultural Debris Excursion to Genoa in Autumn 2022. This is a small group (6 guests plus the two hosts), highly curated  excursion that will explore the cultural debris of Genoa, Italy. This is a nearly completely missed jewel of Italy [...]

We watched Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief, recently. Hitchcock's delightfully light and masterful work set in Nice, France, made me long to return to that stretch of the Cote d'Azure, or French Riviera. What a lovely place to visit. To see the mingling of Roman aqueducts and Roman roads with [...]

  Walking down a rainy Istiklal in December with the old school streetcars passing seeming to flow through the crowded avenue made me feel like I was in a film noir. Dark, yet alive. Bustling street, yet alone. A real and very present air of mystery and not something made up by being in a [...]

There's popular places like Paris, which, if you were unlucky enough to have bought tickets to visit this December, would find you gridlocked due to a strike on all railways, including [...]

I remember taking a group of young professionals to Hamburg in 2007. They kept saying it wasn't what they expected Germany to look like. It was so new. Concrete. Glass. Steel. I asked what they [...]

  If you’re looking for a special place to take a special get-away, away from crowds of tourists and with few Americans, a lovely coast, mountains and the most enchanting city center, then Genoa is for you. With a culture that is at once Italian and deeply unique, Liguria’s capital, Genoa, is a fantastic [...]