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February 2009 issue

Sublime setting in Rome

My wife, Elissa, and I were in Rome Oct. 13-18, 2008, and reinforced our opinion that we had found a wonderful ristorante in a magical setting.

Halfway between the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon is Piazza S. Ignazio. It’s dominated on one side by its eponymous church and on the other side by some architecturally pleasing buildings. Most of these buildings are apartments, but the one across from the church houses a local carabinieri (police station).

On another side of the small piazza is the Ristorante da Sabatino a S. Ignazio (Piazza S. Ignazio, 169; phone 06-6797821, www....

August 2009 issue

Double-check Delta, Northwest tix during merge

Because I planned to use a companion ticket for my wife, Betty, I had to book our Delta round-trip flight from Los Angeles (LAX) to Chicago O’Hare, Oct. 14 and 21, 2009, by phone rather than online. I made my reservations on May 31 and was placed on flights actually operated by Northwest and stopping in Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) both ways.

I confirmed the schedule and transaction online on the Delta website. My printouts showed the Delta flight numbers along with the Northwest flight numbers, with the notation that Northwest would be operating the flights.

I’ve had some...

November 2009 issue

No help in reaching ship

The following lists a series of events that occurred when my two friends and I were scheduled to leave Sacramento, California, on Jan. 15, 2009, and go to Buenos Aires one day prior to boarding the Star Princess for a cruise to Antarctica.

The 16-day cruise “Antarctica and South America,” Jan. 17-Feb. 2, left from Argentina and included stops at Montevideo, Uruguay; the Falkland Islands; Ushuaia, Argentina, and Punta Arenas, Chile. We were to cruise the Antarctic Peninsula for several days as well as Cape Horn, the Beagle Channel and the Strait of Magellan.

Our flight...

March 2009 issue

Traveling with a wheelchair

In response to Thora Jervey’s request for accounts of wheelchair travel (Sept. ’08, pg. 63), might my wife, Gerry, and I offer some thoughts?

We have traveled by land and sea around the globe with Gerry being dependent upon a wheelchair. It takes planning!

First, for land travel we require a wheelchair-accessible room as a base. We have found Holiday Inns to be very dependable here and abroad. They book wheelchair rooms as a separate category. That is to say, it’s like reserving the honeymoon suite. They are reserving that specific type of room; it’s NOT ‘We know you prefer...

December 2008 issue

Yosakoi Soran in Sapporo

Seventeen years ago, a university student in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, upset with the island’s horrible winters (average snowfall is 240 inches), decided to start Yosakoi Soran, a celebration in early June, as a sign that winter was finally over and everyone could enjoy a few months of relief.

From a small group in the first few years, this event has grown to, in 2008, over 340 groups comprising over 45,000 dancers seen by well over two million spectators. The population of Sapporo more than doubles for the duration of the 5-day festival.

This year the festivities...

April 2009 issue

Off the beaten path in China

My wife, Joan, and I are inveterate independent travelers with 45 years’ international experience. We usually travel by car or rail, with vaguely planned itineraries and seldom with prebooked overnight accommodations.

We lived in Chengdu, China, from January to May ’05 and traveled widely throughout the country. Our “organized” tours included five nights on a 3-star Yangtze boat with two Italian tourists and 162 people who spoke only Chinese and a one-day round-trip minibus tour from Kunming to the Stone Forest with 16 Chinese tourists. Following are some tips on traveling in China...

May 2009 issue

Lightweight walkie-talkies

While spending several weeks in Spain in March-May 2008, my husband, Duane, and I found walkie-talkies to come in very handy for keeping in touch when apart.

A last-minute decision that Duane thought of while packing, we purchased a set of professional, 22-channel, 2-way, voice-activated BellSouth Walkie Talkies (model 2276GY) at a Walgreens drugstore for only about $20.

Palm-size and lightweight, they use four AAA batteries and have a 5-mile range. We used rechargeable batteries and brought with us a small recharger, which we had to use a few times during the trip.

We...

June 2011 issue

Cut ’em off at the pass

My husband, Tom, and I are in our eighties and, while it’s true that people drive fast in Italy, we had no problems driving there in September 2010. My husband is 86 and did most of the driving in Italy, though I did some.

In 2005 we spent three weeks in New Zealand, and we can’t understand why we’ve read no complaints about driving there. As in the US, there are broken painted lines to indicate that one can pass, but in New Zealand these lines are on curves and over crests of hills. On both the North and South Islands we had some near misses. Never again!

ANITA TOMASI Santa...