Tag: Friends
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Kindness, Part Two
I spent my second to last day in Vienna — of this trip anyway — visiting the summer place of the Habsburg clan: the Schönbrunn Palace. Marie Antoinette spent her summers there, Mozart played a concert at the palace when he was 6 years old. The Google will fill you in – but wait: my…
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Social-izing
I have travelled a fair amount – much of it abroad. Even lived in Rome for three months. Go to my Archives, if interested. rulingwoman.com began as a tool to let friends know about my adventures. Primitive social media when you think about it. In “those days” Instagram (October 2010) and Twitter (March, 2006) didn’t…
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New Adventure
Time to pack the bags and experience something new. I have had the good fortune and, yes, the honor, to have been included with a dozen other journalists to travel to Germany, and learn about that country, its people, its Identity. A perfect opportunity — I have spent a few days in that city (in…
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Not Constantinople
A dear friend decided he wanted to spend his 65th birthday with 24 of his closest friends. We’re not talking ice cream cake and candles here: we celebrated in Istanbul. I understand now why they call those Sufi mystics Whirling Dervishes. My head was whirling after just one week in Turkey — that mad, exotic,…
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Last Week in Rome 2001 Edition
GRAZIE E ARRIVEDERCI Thank you and Goodbye. This is the phrase printed on the bottom of every receipt you get in Italy. It seemed somehow fitting as I bid farewell to my ancient city. Writing my final dispatch from Rome was almost impossible. What could I possibly say to wrap up this adventure? That last…
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Festa del Ringraziamento 2001
During the week of Thanksgiving, folks back home were having their Festa del Ringraziamento. Back here in Rome, we were having our own festival, an international party of foods from our home countries. The international festival at school was a party to which we are all asked to share typical dishes from our own countries.…
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Florence Trip with Friends 2001
OUR VISIT TO FLORENCE This week it was clearly time for me to visit this Tuscan city of Michelangelo, Dante, and leather jackets. And so, my friends and I hopped onto the Eurostar and headed to the sepia city of Firenze. We didn’t need our tour books for this visit, because one of my favorite…
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Due Ragazze from Marion Street
Two girls from Marion Street in Albany, Oregon, together in Rome. My best friend from childhood visited me with her family during my tenth week. It was, without doubt, my best week in Italy. I have known this woman since I was three years old. When Sandy found out I was coming to Rome, she decided, on…
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Trip to the Villa 2001
One of my best friends here took me for an excursion outside of Rome. A Dane and former Lutheran minister, he is in Italy studying to be a Catholic priest. My friend Gregers is living in the English College in Rome, where he is staying while he studies for the priesthood. The college was built…
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Sempre Diritto: Week 5
Loosely translated: straight ahead. In my fifth week in Italy, 2001, I traveled to the village of Serra Pedace in Calabria, in search of my roots. My grandparents emigrated almost 100 years ago. Although they did not meet and marry until they arrived in America, they came from the same small town in Italy–Serra Pedace. For…