My wife was looking around the internet, and found this article from the New York Times archives: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9803E0DE123BE733A25755C0A9679D946597D6CF Pretty amazing to think that this was only 100 years ago, and that significant parts of what is now Italy belonged to Austria (as well as an area of what is now Italy and remains ethnically Austrian),…

The US Customs agents apparently take their marching orders from The Grinch: Then he slunk to the icebox. He took the Whos’ feast! He took the Who-pudding! He took the roast beast! He cleaned out that icebox as quick as a flash. Why, that Grinch even took their last can of Who-hash! Then he stuffed…

This is an excellent article summing up a lot of what’s wrong with Italy these days: In a Funk, Italy Sings an Aria of Disappointment What I find so frustrating about it, is that, as Beppe Severgnini says, a lot of what makes Italy wonderful is unique. You simply can’t find another Venice or Rome…

We did a double take when we saw these in the supermarket the other day: Apparently, someone has decided to use Arnold Schwarzeneggers’s image to sell Austrian apples for a Euro a piece. On the side, they write: Healthy and Strong “Arnold” the Incomparable This apple grows and ripens at the foot of the Austrian…

We knew that we were in for a long, cold winter when we moved up here to Innsbruck, but what we weren’t counting on was such a cold, brief summer, with so much rain. Being from “rainy” Oregon, I know something about the subject, and I can say without hesitation that it is actually wetter…

Everyone in Oregon knows that our Springfield is the real one, because Matt Groening himself is an Oregonian. Having named several of the characters after his immediate family, and other characters after streets in Portland, it seems evident that he didn’t cast a wide net, and Springfield is certainly the kind of working class town…

This summer, we went to Oregon with my wife Ilenia’s parents. This was their second time in the US, but their first in Oregon. One of my favorite parts of Oregon to show people – especially Europeans – is the eastern part of the state. In most of Europe, you’re never very far away from…

You can often size up the major likes and dislikes about a place pretty quickly. Some of them are widely known – good food and bureaucracy in Italy, for instance. However, it takes a while living somewhere to start noticing the little annoyances or pleasant little things. One of the things that I still can’t…

Herein, I present a glimpse into the maw of Italian bureaucracy, as seen while attempting to register a domain name, welton.it, for my own use. It’s well known that in Italy there are so many laws and regulations that many people simply ignore them, and don’t look askance at others that, say, don’t pay their…

Despite having moved to Austria, both Ilenia and I still follow Italian news. Mostly it’s frustrating (corrupt politicians), or inane (where did the famous people go on vacation, and with who), but if you pay close attention, there are some things that are really odd, from time to time. Last week, a priest accused of…