italy

Travel tool experiments and experiences

June 12th, 2012 by alephnaught

Travel tool experiments and experiences

I just got back from almost two weeks in northern Italy, and I used a different set of tools for this trip than our other trips. I left my laptop at home – I used my new iPad And iPhone for everything. And it worked well – they took up less space, were a lot […]

Birthday dinner – Firenze Osteria

July 3rd, 2010 by alephnaught

Birthday dinner – Firenze Osteria

We’ve eaten at quite a few Osteria in Italy – those eateries are typically high quality but offer a more limited menu than restaurants; we’ve usually had great success eating at osterias. And Firenze Osteria is no exception! Here is the description from their flyer: A stone’s throw from Universal Studios, Firenze Osteria is setting […]

Pictures from West Hollywood and Lookout Mountain

April 11th, 2010 by alephnaught

Pictures from West Hollywood and Lookout Mountain

We decided to play hookie on Saturday afternoon and shopped around West Hollywood. On the way home we saw Lookout Mountain, which was a big hippie spot in the ’60s and has some great lookouts, so we drove up it part way; we got to a narrow section and had to back out to let […]

March 31st, 2009 by alephnaught

Many Italian tourist attractions are getting more savvy

We’ve been traveling to Italy for years (my first trip was 9 years ago).  We’ve noticed that tourist attractions are getting more savvy. For example, most churches and museums no longer allow photography inside, but they have nice full-color books available for purchase (when they don’t have a book they should allow photography – pet […]

Posted in Travel - Foreign, Tags: ,

March 29th, 2009 by alephnaught

A Short History of Siena

Title: A Short History of Siena Author: Giuliano Catoni Paperback ISBN-10: 8877813199 ISBN-13: 978-8877813190 Bought this book in Siena with high hopes; unfortunately, it was mostly a waste of time to read this on the flight home from Italy. The author’s writing style is scattered; at times I thought Catoni would have some unifying themes, […]

Posted in Books, Tags:

February 8th, 2009 by alephnaught

“The Wrestler”, Magellan’s and dinner in Santa Monica, CA

I had a manicure and pedicure at 8:30A (those that know me know I’m a morning person) and a haircut at 11A, so we lost our morning, although I certainly enjoyed both. So Aviva and I headed out for Santa Monica after lunch.  Our first stop was the cinema, as we both wanted to see […]

June 25th, 2008 by alephnaught

What makes for a common culture?

In these days of declining birthrates in the developed world along with greater immigration and rising third world economies, what makes for a common culture? What makes the US a desirable place to live, and what makes us Americans as opposed to Italians or Dutch? I thought of this while reading a NY Times article […]

October 23rd, 2007 by alephnaught

More paper models!

I built two more paper models, one of the Duomo and the other the Campanile, both in Florence. I also started a web page on my paper modeling hobby. I made two more paper models, which I bought on eBay and from Daedalus Books (a good overstock and discount on-line bookstore). The models are of […]

October 16th, 2007 by alephnaught

My Brother Is An Only Child

A good Italian film from the Chicago International Film Festival. Since I’m between jobs I’ve been trying to spend more time with Aviva.  She and I don’t typically like the same films, but I agreed to go with her to see this one for a Saturday night out. We ate dinner at a restaurant next […]

Posted in Movies, Tags: ,

October 1st, 2007 by alephnaught

Gates of Paradise

We visited the Gates of Paradise exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago. We went to the Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago to see the exhibit “The Gates of Paradise.” The show includes art work and three of the panels of the east doors of the Bapistry in Florence; these panels are considered […]