Infinity a double helix spiraling piece rises before the wooded shores of White Rock Lake in Dallas, Texas. If you’re like me, Travel is your oxygen. So when 2020 shut…

    On my most recent visit to Italy, I’d found an apartment a block or so away from Piazza S. Maria Maggiore. Located quite near the Staztione Termini train station,…

It was well after midnight. I was comfortably settled into sleep, when the merriment reached my ears. I rolled over, confident that the revelers would soon find their ways to…

    My Italy and Rome stays are forever changed! Early last November, I had no idea that I’d make two new friends and find a home in not just one,…

  Calling all fabulous women 50 and beyond to experience La Dolce Vita (The Sweet Life) If you are a woman who is seeking to get Unstuck, Revitalized, and re-inspired…

Rome’s hottest iconic museum for modern art and newest star burns brightly near the Flavian Stadium. The Museo delle Arti XXI/ Museum of the Arts of the Twenty-first Century showcases…

Had I gone pazzo/crazy? I could hear the voices of tourists expressing their less than favorable opinions of Italian drivers as I fastened my helmet. Between my experience and genuine…

Sometimes, public transportation can save soles. Sunday morning, initially, that idea was more urgent than the state of my soul, though I was keen to reconnect with my home church…

When You Least Expect It Barefoot. Standing with the hose on, pouring out cool water to make a nice, squishy mud puddle. Our very own clay quarry. I remember laying…

Two days before Halloween, extremely high winds racked Rome to the point that public schools were closed. I walked briskly through the cobblestone streets of Trastevere, pivoting at the school,…

Awaking came with the bittersweet awareness that this was my last day- this trip – in Italy and in Rome. My beautiful room in the Albergo del Senato surpassed what…

I laughed imagining myself as a smuggler delivering “contraband booty” of cat-themed potholders. Not to sell, well, not for me, anyway. These were for a special non-profit organization. Underground, sort of, but completely legit. The Largo del Torre Argentina contains the “Area Sacra,” an expansive ruin that was built on top of the senate building where Caesar was assassinated. The top layer of ruins lay at a good 4-5 meters below the surrounding street level.

Rome, Italy Ceramics Artist Residency opportunity awaits for Diane Van Buren, later this Autumn. Diane took classes here in 2016, and is looking forward to a 5 week long creative adventure! Building upon her artistic base and growing her community in Rome, Diane is elated to embark on this new adventure.

The Forum School, Rome, Italy My head buzzed eerily as I heard the Headmaster’s words reverberate in my brain.  Expelled?I walked out of his office and passed his smirking secretary…

The hub is the central, serene courtyard. Within the surrounding colonnade, students paused to socialize before classes. In the basement cafeteria area, there was a game area with pinball machines and a jukebox. One of the popular tunes I recall at that time, was the bubbly, quasi-techno instrumental “Popcorn.” I played foozball often enough to get pretty good at it. 

“No one sleeps in the front bedrooms tonight.” I’ll never forget my father’s directive. It was September 1, 1971. A military coup had swept into power in Tripoli, Libya. My…

Slipping out of a stack, something flutters and lands face up.

I was ten arriving with my parents and three brothers in Tripoli, Libya, on a hot August day. The man holding our passports didn’t look at us. He wore military…

The villas in Tripoli were generally hidden behind enclosing garden walls. Built of concrete block, workers sprayed the two meter tall walls with tan or cream pigmented cement. Once in…