Author Archive
Heading home
What seems like a theme to this trip, we both had trouble sleeping. But, we got up, had breakfast and headed to the airport. We got there early but they don’t open checkin until 2 hours before the flight. So, we walked over to ticketing and cajoled the guy to give us seats – aisles […]
March 27th, 2009 by alephnaught
The Taqwacores
Title: The Taqwacores Author: Michael Muhammad Knight Paperback: 256 pages Publisher: Soft Skull Press; Revised Edition edition (January 1, 2009) Language: English ISBN-10: 1593762291 ISBN-13: 978-1593762292 This book claims to be about Muslim punks, but in reality its a coming of age, and coming to his personal understanding of Islam, story of a Muslim young […]
March 26th, 2009 by alephnaught
Leave Siena, arrive in Bologna
We got up, ate breakfast, cleaned up, finished packing, and made the train, first to Florence, then changing trains there for Bologna (we got to go first class from Florence to Bologna, which was nice, as there is a basic drink and snack service). By the time we hit Bologna, we were already a bit […]
March 25th, 2009 by alephnaught
Siena
This is our last day in Siena, and I haven’t mentioned the Palio yet. To understand the Palio, you need to know some things, most importantly that Siena is a city of neighborhoods, called Contrade. Families stay in their Contrade typically their whole lives, and children often marry other members of their Contrade; each Contrade […]
March 24th, 2009 by alephnaught
March 23rd, 2009 by alephnaught
Leave Florence, arrive in Siena
We got up early, showered, had breakfast, and went to the train station. We got the 10:40A train to Siena. We arrived and found our hotel, Hotel Duomo. Its inexpensive, the rooms are reasonable size with a reasonable, workable bathroom, but no internet access; it turns out wireless doesn’t work well through thick stone walls, […]
March 22nd, 2009 by alephnaught
Florence
We got up a little later and haven’t rushed around this morning; its Sunday and so most things open later today. Walked by a funny window for lingerie (apparently a big seller in Florence given how many shops sell it here). There were some kids using pastels to draw copies of famous art works on […]
March 22nd, 2009 by alephnaught
Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
Title: Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us Author: Seth Godin Hardcover: 160 pages Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover; 1 edition (October 16, 2008) Language: English ISBN-10: 1591842336 ISBN-13: 978-1591842330 I’ve read a few of Seth Godin’s books before and always learned something from them. So, I decided to bring this along on my vacation to Italy. […]
March 21st, 2009 by alephnaught
Prato and Florence
We got up pretty early, got cleaned up and are ready to take the train to a couple towns outside of Florence. Its another cold day but at least today it looks mostly sunny. We took a train from Santa Maria Novella to Prato. Prato is the home of biscotti, the famous hard, twice-baked cookie […]
March 20th, 2009 by alephnaught
Florence
We both took sleeping pills; this is one of our tricks to switch timezones, stay up as late as you can and then take a sleeping pill to help you sleep through the night. We got up and had breakfast; the hotel has a great buffet breakfast including fresh eggs and bacon. That little girl […]
March 28th, 2009 by alephnaught