The world’s first and only museum devoted entirely to harps opened in January ’06 in Piasco, Italy: Museo dell’Arpa Victor Salvi (Via Rossana 7, Piasco, Italy; www.museodellarpavictorsalvi.it).

The exhibition of 30 harps (from a collection of over 70) includes 13 from the 1700s, 11 from the 1800s and six from the 1900s. Sixteen were made in France, six in the United States, five in England and one each in Italy, Germany and Ireland. I do not play the harp, myself, but it was...

Hotelink, Ltd. (Southways Park, Lowfield Heath, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 9TQ, U.K.; phone [01293] 552251, fax 531131, e-mail tmale@hotelink.co.uk or visit www.hotelink.co.uk), serves all London hotels. In May ’06 we paid £23 (about $45) per person for the transfer service, arranging it through our hotel. They told us to be ready at 10:30 a.m. At 10:45 a 12-passenger Mercedes van pulled up to the hotel door. The driver took our bags and put them in the rear of the van. He then picked up...

My wife and I started planning in the summer of 2005 to take one of the Russian ships of Viking River Cruises (5700 Canoga Ave., Ste. 200, Woodland Hills, CA 91367; 877/668-4546). We were interested in specific dates in 2006, in order to celebrate one of our birthdays and our anniversary. Our time slot fit the schedule of the Viking Surkov, with a departure from St. Petersburg on June 25 and arrival in Moscow on July 5.

We made our cabin reservation with Viking and then made our own...