In December ’04 we visited Rome for the first time. Prior to leaving home, we booked two half-day “courses” with IDC Rome, Institute of Design & Culture (in the U.S., leave voice mail at 214/853-5603 [we did not use this], e-mail rome@urban-iconography.org or visit www.idcrome.org [the best place to get information]). IDC’s website says, “We don’t give tours; we lead discussions.”

Our family had a wonderful time with IDC guide Susan Sanders (cell phone in Italy, 333 931 3432)....

Only those who have witnessed Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) will fully appreciate Dr. Larry Baratta’s May ’05 “Travel & Health” column on that subject. I’ve observed its debilitating effects twice: in an elderly man crossing from Pakistan into China on the Karakorum Highway at more than 15,000 feet and in a young physical education instructor in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. In the first case, we had to descend quickly, and in the other the woman stayed in the lodge during the only...

The Wieliczka Salt Mine (www.kopalnia-wieliczka.pl/english) in Poland is still a working mine, but not the part where tourists are allowed. The section we saw on our trip in August ’97 is a museum with figures carved in salt. There are two chapels dating from the 17th century made entirely of rock salt.

The highlight of the tour was the cathedral of the Blessed Kinga, a huge salt cathedral many feet underground. It was beautiful, and the artwork was magnificent. The tour involved...