A deep dive into unusual places around the world
In case you are imagining that while you are shivering through winter, we are lounging on a Mediterranean beach, umbrella drinks in hand, think again. It is January, after all. On average, January is the coldest month in Sardinia (highs of 14C), with the fewest hours of sunshine per day (4), and a mediocre amount of rain. We’ve been able to[…]
Read more
After several days of cloudy, rainy skies, the sun appeared in all of its splendour yesterday. As we drove through town on our way to the climbing crag, it seemed that the townsfolk were as happy about the change as we were. People were walking about, pushing baby carriages, standing in groups on street corners laughing and gesticulating. An old[…]
Read more
There is a flock of old men who congregate every morning at the corner of Via Roma and Via Principe Umberto. They appear sometime before we have managed to get out and about, coming from who-knows-where with their canes and their old-guy hats. They gather like barnacles on the benches in front of the bakery, sometimes chatting with each other,[…]
Read more
You know that famous Stanford experiment? The one where the researchers told kids that they could either have a small reward immediately, like one Oreo cookie, or if they waited 15 minutes, they could have two Oreos? The researcher then left the room and the kid was left on his own to battle the temptation. In follow-up studies, researchers reported[…]
Read more
Wednesday, January 16, 2019 Our house in Tertenia consists of perhaps 320 square feet spread over two floors, separated by the narrowest spiral staircase I have ever seen. Everything inside is shiny and new: the oven hadn’t been used before we baked spigola in it on Monday evening. The stove looked like nothing had ever boiled over or even been[…]
Read more
It’s four in the morning and I am sitting in the living area of the small, recently renovated house we’ve rented for a month in Tertenia, Sardinia. I am doing one of my favourite things: eating a big, beautifully sweet persimmon. I am also doing one of my least favourite things: coping with the aftermath of staying awake for 32[…]
Read more