The Pleasure of Old Travel Guides – Part II

Guides to Italian inns and b&bs, the red Michelin with recommended restaurants and hotels in cities and larger towns, guides to specific provinces like Umbria or the Veneto, and some for wineries fill a couple of my bookshelves. But there are three that I keep separate, not for their usefulness, but for their historical interest. I love to thumb through them for insights into the past: one from the early 1900s, one from the 1950s, and the third a guide to one of Italy’s colonial possessions – that in East Africa.… Read more

THE PLEASURE OF OLD TRAVEL GUIDES – PART I

When I can’t travel, it’s time to pull out one of my small collection of travel guidebooks. I’ve picked them up in used bookstores and antiquarian book fairs over the years to allow me to time-travel backwards. Other travelers at other times saw new sights differently; if they had a camera their viewfinder found different angles; and as they moved from place to place their mode of transport was often different than anything I’ve experienced. What could be better on a rainy day than to imagine myself somewhere else in location and time?… Read more

BUCHART GARDENS – A feast for the eyes

One goal of the trip to Victoria was to revisit nearby Buchart Gardens, 55 acres of glorious shrubs, trees and flowers developed in 1904 on grounds of an old limestone quarry. It had been years since we’d enjoyed the gardens. As beautiful as ever, they must be one of the premier gardens in the world no matter the season. Happily for us, fellow garden lovers were few and tour buses not in evidence this post-Labor Day time when the gardens are beginning to be readied for fall.… Read more

Victoria – waterborne city of flowers

Covid was waning and the U.S. – Canadian border was finally open again. The weather was good and the Black Ball Ferry Line from Port Angeles to Victoria was finally back in operation. So, we decided to head out for a change of scene to refresh our thoughts after the seemingly endless months of contagion concern.

I like some really old-fashioned expressions such as “sea-girt” a term that perfectly describes the city of Victoria, British Columbia perched on the rocky shores of the southern tip of Vancouver Island reached by sea or air.… Read more

ARIZONA – Excursion to Tumacacori and Tubac

What is it about ruins that many, including me, find so compelling? The melancholy half-fallen buildings make me try to visualize the labors of those who built them. What were their lives like and why were the buildings abandoned? What does a tiny graveyard say about the injury and disease that must have wracked the local people? My attempts to imagine what their lives were really like is doomed to failure because of the passage of time and mostly unbridgeable cultural differences.… Read more