Browsed by
Month: May 2010

NEWS TRIVIA FROM EUROPEAN PAPERS

NEWS TRIVIA FROM EUROPEAN PAPERS

Comments 0 Comment

While we were in Europe, I enjoyed reading the European newspapers. One item I thought amusing was in the London Daily Mail. It reported that billionaire socialite Goga Ashkenazi was at a charity auction when an expensive painting was being auctioned off. She made the mistake of spotting her new friend, Jennifer Lopez, at the auction. The mistake was she waived to her and that resulted in her inadvertently buying a $240,000 pound ($347,544.00 in U.S. dollars) painting by accident. I had…

Read More Read More

FINAL TRAVEL REPORT

FINAL TRAVEL REPORT

Comments 0 Comment

We left our hotel in Positano and drove for an hour and a half to the Naples Airport on Friday. The weather was clear and cool. The Naples airport is small and easy to get around. Security was quick and we ended up at our gate with much time to spare. The intercom continuously is broadcasting flights and flight departures with gate changes in Italian and English. The door alarm would go off for no reason. Frantic calls to someone…

Read More Read More

REPORT FROM SUNNY POSITANO

REPORT FROM SUNNY POSITANO

Comments 0 Comment

Today is Thursday here at the San Pietro Hotel at Positano. On Tuesday we had bright sun and after all the poor weather it was welcome. We got a ride to the top of the walk at Positano and headed down ending at the beauty salon. Lita had her hair fixed and they gave me my buzz cut for $30 Euro's. We came back to the hotel and had lunch at the main dining room. I realized I had lost…

Read More Read More

REPORT FROM HOTEL SAN PIETRO

REPORT FROM HOTEL SAN PIETRO

Comments 0 Comment

Today is Monday here in Italy and we have moved to a new hotel. This morning we were picked up at our hotel Santa Cantrina at 11;00 am and driven on Amalfi Drive about 20 minutes or so to the San Pietro Hotel close to the town of Positano. The sun was out, but the forecast was for rain in the afternoon. This small, unique hotel is one of our favorite in the world. Named after Saint Peter (the owner was…

Read More Read More

HOTEL SANTA CAGTERINA AMALFI

HOTEL SANTA CAGTERINA AMALFI

Comments 0 Comment

Lorenzo picked us up at noon and we loaded our luggage. We wove through the Rome traffic to the autostrada and headed for the Amalfi coast. Traffic wasn’t heavy and we were at Naples in a couple of hours. Once we exited the highway for the local roads they because narrow two lane roads. At each small town we would find cars parked bumper to bumper against the stone walls on the side of the road which reduced the width…

Read More Read More

THE BLACK SWAN

THE BLACK SWAN

Comments 1 comment

In logic there is a "black swan" concept. In its simplest terms it refers to the fact a proposition is scientific only if it can be proved false. That idea was made popular by Karl Popper. For example if we see a white swan we know there is at least one white swan, but it is conjecture to conclude all swans are white. The fact is that finding one black swan would falsify the conclusion all swans are white means it is capable…

Read More Read More

ROME UPDATE

ROME UPDATE

Comments 0 Comment

Somehow in my narrative report I managed to overlook the fact that we didn't go directly from the airport to the hotel in rome. Instead we spent the first night at the wonderful La Posta Veccecia located on the ocean some thirty minutes from Rome. It is one of our favorite hotels. Previously the vacation home of J.Paul Getty, this wonderful small hotel has beautiful landscaping around it and is right at the water. We were only able to spend one…

Read More Read More

ROME THE ETERNAL CITY

ROME THE ETERNAL CITY

Comments 0 Comment

Greeting from Rome, Italy. Today is Wednesday in Rome. Our flight from Seattle to London Sunday was without problems We arrived Monday morning and caught another flight from London to Rome. We were met by Lorrenzo who had been our driver several years before on a trip to Italy. He drove us to the Vatican where  we met Marco our guide. The trip through Rome was an experience. Too many cars all jammed together ;playing who will blink first. It takes hours…

Read More Read More

THE AMAZING ROMAN COLOSSEUM

THE AMAZING ROMAN COLOSSEUM

Comments 0 Comment

We are going to Rome on Sunday (Iceland’s volcano permitting) for a three day legal meeting and then on to Amalfi for a week with our return overnight in London before returning home. We’ve been to Rome often. Big cities, including Rome, are not my favorite places. The exceptions are London and Paris. We’ve done our touring of Rome previously and plan only a visit to the Vatican & the Sistine Chapel during our three days in the city. The…

Read More Read More

DYING LAST WORDS AND A STRANGE WAY TO CHOOSE TO DIE

DYING LAST WORDS AND A STRANGE WAY TO CHOOSE TO DIE

Comments 0 Comment

A book I'm reading says that Poncho Villa’s last words before dying were: "Don’t let it end like this. Tell them I said something." I found that very amusing. He knew he was dying, but had nothing significant to say as his last words so he asked that they make up something instead. That made me curious about "last words" so I did some checking. Here’s some information I found interesting. There was Luther Burbank’s last words, that turned out to…

Read More Read More