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Visiting Pompeii: A City Preserved Under Ash
Pompeii has long been lauded as one of the top places to visit in Italy. In a country famed for its ancient relics and well-preserved ruins, the archeological site in Mount Vesuvius’ shadow may just be the cream of the crop. Visiting Pompeii is a poignant reminder of the incredible power and breadth of the Roman empire. I have now seen Roman ruins from Morocco to the United Kingdom and from Tunisia to rose-colored ruins of Palmyra, Syria. And yet, the ruins extend even beyond what I have seen. The Roman…
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Southern Italy Road Trip: Exploring the Puglia Region
Italy is like my second home. As the daughter of an Italian mother and an Italo-American father, I spent many of my childhood summers visiting family in the Marche region of Central Italy. When I was old enough to appreciate traveling, my parents began taking me on road trips through Tuscany, Umbria and Abruzzo. By the time I graduated high school, I’d already been to Italy nearly a dozen times and seen the country from top to bottom. But—save for a short road trip when I was six years old—I’d…
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One Million Golden Onion Domes: The Churches of Kiev
Of all the great European capitals, I never expected Kiev to be so high on my list of must-see places. In my mind, Ukraine had always conjured images of a flat wasteland with little more than rolling plains and large, industrial cities. I never imagined its capital to be so vibrant, culturally significant and dazzlingly beautiful. We visited Kiev because we were looking for a city near Chisinau that was connected to Italy by budget flights. After a bit of research, the closest places we could find were Cluj (our entrance…
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Traveling to Transistria: The Country that Doesn’t Exist
Ever heard of Transnistria? Before researching Moldova for my Eastern European course in university, I hadn’t either. And that may very well be because—according to the United Nations and every other government in the world—Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria is a country that doesn’t exist. Where (and What) is Transnistria? Transnistria is a little strip of land about 20km wide that fought fiercely for its independence from Moldova after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Though nobody takes it seriously, Transnistria remains adamant about its place in the world. The…
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Is This Still Europe? Visiting Chisinau, Moldova
Last Spring, I took a course called Ethnicity and Nationalism in Central and Eastern Europe because I felt as though, despite my familiarity with the area as a tourist, I knew next to nothing about its history. In the course, we studied the ethnic makeup of the countries, their postwar histories and life before and after Communism. The class gave me an informative, sweeping history of the area that served as a reference point during much of my trip. The course also gave me the opportunity to study one particular…
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Painted Monasteries of Bucovina Romania
Bucovina offers a glimpse into pre-industrialized Europe. Situated in the upper righthand corner of Romania, the bucolic region is a place where natural and architectural treasures have yet to be discovered by mainstream tourists. In Bucovina, daily life hearkens to a simpler time. It is a land where horse carts rule the streets, where livestock roams freely, and where old couples sit in the shade, spitting sunflower seeds and watching daily life go by. Northeastern Romania is not only a romantic vision of the past, however. Concealed amongst its rolling…
