I’m going out on a creative limb here. Readers of The Roads Traveled know I tell stories about people, places, and passions I encounter as I travel. This post is different…more personal, more self-revealing, and maybe even more informative forRead more
It’s a quiet, low-traffic morning in the ancient hill town of Ragusa in southeastern Sicily, Italy, a noted UNESCO World Heritage Site. I’m trudging, ever upward, on Corso Italia to the neighborhood butcher. The salmon-hued Palazzo Bertini and the sober-lookingRead more
Artisan Chef Adeline Borra of Terroirs by Adeline has filled a large, turquoise-tinted bowl with half a dozen breasts of pintade. The poultry is French guinea fowl, which is related to chicken. Into the deep bowl she pours – ofRead more
A verdant sea of feathery green surrounds me in the magnificently restored Victorian Fernery at Benmore Royal Botanic Garden in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. Warm, moist air that frizzes my naturally curly hair and dampens my skin envelops me. IRead more
Unlocking the imposing, creaky door with a brass skeleton key, our guide, Jennifer, escorts us into the hushed and hallowed grounds of the Argyll Mausoleum of Historic Kilmun Church. Here, in the village of Kilmun, Dunoon, Scotland, is the finalRead more
Unexpectedly, a potent aroma – eye-watering, nose-piercing, heat-inducing – engulfs me. Next, the ground beneath me shimmies, accompanied by loud rumblings overhead. Fortunately, the shake-rattle-and-rolling gyrations are nothing like the undulating tremors that years ago startled me awake from aRead more
I’m walking along a promenade on ancient ramparts (La Promenade des Remparts). The pathway encircles the old town of Beaune, the celebrated wine capital of Burgundy (Bourgogne) in the Côte d’Or department in eastern France. This strategic fortification, with itsRead more
Dallas-born pastry chef Molly Wilkinson stands behind the butcher block counter in the kitchen of her charming, light-filled, 18th-century apartment in Versailles, France. She’s demonstrating how to make a simple puff pastry dough for a French apple tarte tatin. SheRead more
A richly pungent aroma envelops us as thoroughly as the warm, humid Italian air wafting through open windows and doorways of a rustic and rural building. The bouquet, at once sweet and acidic and potent enough to tear up ourRead more
We’re standing in the presence of Italian royalty. The experience is not only humbling, but also…mouthwatering. More than 30,000 uniform wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, in various stages of aging, rest row after row on long wooden planks stacked inRead more