This legacy post from May 2013 serves as a helpful backgrounder for the first-time reader of this writer’s work in China.   On this rainy Saturday in old Chongqing my host students take me to visit an ancient restored village … Read more

  To China this time I have brought the Soul of America. Literally, in the form of Jon Meacham’s new bestseller of the same name, subtitled, “The Battle for Our Better Angels.” The jacket notes explain, “We have been here … Read more

  A Chongqing photo portfolio; a work-in-progress. Scenes from spring commencement with students posing proudly in front of the library or leaping for joy by the iconic “Book of Law” at Southwest University of Political Science and Law remind us … Read more

While it’s only been two years since I was here last, it’s a different China in 2019. Trump is in the White House, Xi is president for life, there’s a trade war going on and China thinks its winning. The … Read more

“Travel is a journey into one’s own ignorance.” So writes American travel writer Frances Mayes. Truer words never spoken — especially if that travel takes you to the Middle Kingdom, a place so radically different from the U.S. — in … Read more

Why do we choose to return to Italy? Is it the food, the wine, the scenery, the rich history? Yes, all these things are indeed fabulous. But no, it’s more than that. What draws us back each year? Why, it’s … Read more

  As if to match the event’s somber mood, a light misting rain fell on Montepulciano’s annual Armistice Day ceremony and parade, marking the end of the Great War exactly 100 years ago today which claimed the lives of an … Read more

    Just outside Montepulciano, on the quarter mile drive down the Viale della Remembranza to the elegant Temple of San Biagio, one can’t help but be impressed by the 98 tall and elegant cypress trees, pointing straight to heaven … Read more

Tuscany is not only known for its amazing wines, but also for its world-class olive oil. On retreat in the XII century hilltop town of Montepulciano, we were welcomed by local olive farmers into their green groves and then into … Read more

    Dear Reader, permit me a brief introduction, I am not a travel writer. But I am a writer. And I am traveling. Since a writer is compelled by internal hard wiring to record what he or she sees … Read more