Sometimes, something just strikes you as neat or interesting even if it’s not really anything special in the grand scheme of things.  For some reason, I really enjoyed New Year’s Eve here in Innsbruck.  We were in good company, having gone to our friends’ place for dinner, but I also really enjoyed the fireworks. Innsbruck…

Normally, Innsbruck on a Sunday afternoon is dead.  Once when we were out and about, it was so silent and deserted looking that it looked like aliens had come and taken everyone away. This weekend, however, that is not the case.  The city has been invaded by Italians.  It’s a three day weekend both here…

I normally try and stick to things I know well in my writing here, because I think that makes it a bit more relevant and interesting.  However, this one was too good to pass up: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8056739 In short, the co-pilot went crazy, and had to be restrained, leaving the flight without a co-pilot.  Luckily, it…

"Törgellen" is a south-Tirolean (Alto Adige in Italian) "festivity" related to the newly pressed wine, or "Vino Novello" in Italian. it.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%B6rggelen or, in German, de.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%B6rggelen Summing up in English: the modern tradition is an excuse to have a big meal with friends and sample some of the vino novello. Our experience in Innsbruck has been that…

Like the monster from a cheap horror movie, Alitalia reared its ugly head on Haloween.  The threat this time is that the negotiations to implement what everyone signed up for in principle broke down, and over the past couple of weeks, the battle has been joined once again.  Most of the main unions are more…

Berlusconi today really outdid himself.  First, he said he would be available to "give Obama advice"…  yeah right!  But what really caught people’s attention was this phrase, commenting on Obama, saying that he’s   bello, giovane e abbronzato   In other words, he’s "good looking, young, and has a nice sun tan".  I think no…

As most of the news reports say, the rest of the world is pretty happy about Obama being the president elect.  A lot of people here asked about the election and my thoughts about it.  I don’t want to get into the details, but I did want to describe the experience abroad: people are really…

There are things that jump out at you about any place, that are obvious to even the most oblivious of tourists.  Other things are subtler and take a while to notice, and while perhaps not of great import, can tell you a little about a place. One of the ‘little things’ we’ve noticed here in…

So far, it’s not that exciting for me because it doesn’t cover "my" part of Italy (Milano, Firenze, Roma, and along the shores of Lake Como are covered so far, as well as some roads that the Tour de France went over last summer), but the Google street view guys are starting to cover Italy:…

It’s election season in the US again, and as always, I get lots of questions and comments from my European friends.  Here are some common ones, and my answers.  In terms of the election itself, this map pretty much says it all in terms of what people throughout the world think about who they’d like…