I just finished my 28th year of leading tours and it was a truly spectacular one. From the new destinations (Cuba! Morocco!) to the satisfaction of rolling smoothly into the second year of my new company, Wild Sage, it was one to remember!
Manu and I began the year with our first international trade show, and we put out some new merch:
Our first tour of the year was a huge step out our tag-line "Southern Europe," to the island of Cuba. After decades of touring around the Mediterranean, we jumped at the chance to go to Cuba when the opportunity arose, so we just added "& Beyond" to our tag-line and packed our bags for the Caribbean!
I wrote a whole post about the Cuba tour so won't re-hash it here, but love how it made such a fascinating transition to my next tours in Sicily. Both islands were part of Spain's colonial empire for centuries, so the similarities were uncanny given the distance between them. Can you tell which is which?
Sicily is on the left, with the cupola of a church in Palermo in the background, while Havana's Capital dome is on the right. Here below, the grand buildings, churches, and fountains of Cuba (top) and Sicily (bottom). They have ONE very specific thing in common: Havana's lion fountain is made of Carrara marble from Tuscany while Palermo's garish "fountain of shame" was commissioned in Florence for a Spanish member of the royal Medici household. Small world!
We had four trips to Sicily this year, all with slightly different itineraries, and next year I've got another new one: a two-week, round-the-island tour with 4 hikes thrown in to make it a half-hiking tour (you can see that tour here; it's basically closed to sign-ups but I could open it up again if anyone really wanted in). You can see our classic Sicily tour here and invent your own varitations: Sicily classic tour.
I've posted a lot about Sicily but here are a few NEW things I did this year: spent a few nights in Taormina, with its impressive Greco-Roman theater; did a cooking lesson in Palermo; saw cool painted stairways in Noto; went to a fascinating WWII museum in Catania; did some gorgeous hikes with Manu; saw a totally NEW roomful of Roman mosaics at the Villa del Casale depicting mythological creatures in battle!
One of the coolest experiences I had was taking a Sicilian-American family to their tiny native town of Montaperto, near Agrigento. The town was practically deserted and we attracted a bit of attention as 10 of us wandered around, looking for signs of life. Eventually a man came up and asked what we were doing and I explained that their grandparents had left 100 years ago and they were curious to see it. When I told him the last names he brightened up and said that a woman with that name was probbaly home taking a nap and did we want to wake her! We thanked him and said No, but then another man walked over and said that it was also HIS last name! Can you tell who's the native??
I had three more fun tours in the Fall: a Naples & Amalfi Coast tour, an extended Istanbul city tour, and then the new two-week Morocco tour.
I always love visiting Naples, with its rich and chaotic urban sprawl stretching out under the watchful eye of Vesuvius (see the Naples/Amalfi tour here). This tour came packed with "extras," however, as we picked up in Rome and added the ancient ruins of Ostia Antica:
We also stopped at the Abbey of Montecassino, which was tragically destroyed by Allied bombing during WWII. It was rebuilt with a mix of styles and some Baroque to rival Palermo!
I finally got to see one of the cool new metro stations in Naples:
We visited the colorful tiled cloister of Santa Chiara, or Saint Clare, my namesake 😍
We also went to the San Severo Chapel, with the famous statue of the Veiled Christ, but you can't take pictures! 🙁 Another astounding work is the "Release from Deception" that has a full fishing net carved painstakingly out of marble! Enjoy this pic from the internet:
Naples itself is just so much fun to walk around!
From there we took a private boat ride to the Amalfi Coast, because of course!
Lemon gelato with fresh figs, lemon pizza with yellow cherry tomatoes, and lemon cocktails -- yes please! 🍋🍋🍋
Yes, it's super crowded (I'm talking to you, Positano!) but how can you resist these colors?
And as an extra bonus, en route back to Rome we stopped in Tivoli, home to the Villa d'Este:
These opulent 16th century gardens and Renaissance villa are only an hour away from Rome:
It also makes a wonderful counterpart to the ruins of Hadrian's Villa, just a few miles away:
Built in 120 AD for Emperor Hadrian, it was the largest Roman villa ever built and served as country (and sometimes primary) residence for subsequent emperors until the fall of Rome. It had thermal baths and a series of water features like a private island inside a moat and an Egyptian-themed reflecting pool featuring crocodile statues:
We happened to be there on a day when local re-enactors from Rome were visiting so we saw the senators, dancing girls, and gladiators in action!
I loved seeing a Senator calling his grand-son on Facetime, and I heard the little boy's voice say "Why are you dressed so funny, Grandpa?" 😍
NEXT UP: ISTANBUL! Normally I go there as part of a Turkish Coast tour that you can see here.
Okay, the photo above is not mine but was taken by a woman with a MUCH supeior phone. I need to upgrade!!!
What can I say about Istanbul?? It is without a doubt one of the most fascinating and historically complex cities in the world, as former capital of not one but THREE empires: Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman. The Romans built amazing things, like hundreds of underground cisterns to collect water for the city, now done up with colored lights and art:
I could do a whole post on Istanbul since it just has to be seen to be believed: from the colorful neighborhood of Balat to the astounding archaeological museum, the Genoese-built Galata tower neighborhood, the original Orient Express tration station, opulent Topkapi Palace, and the very modern Istiklal Avenue and Taksim Square.
And finally, the pièce de résistance, two weeks in marvelous Morocco! (see the tour here) We're running it again next October but it's almost sold out, so contact me if you're interested and/or would like to be put on the waiting list.
I have around 2,000 photos in my folder so here are just a few from the cities: the coastal city of Essaouira, the glitter and the gardens of Marrakech, the rooftops and mosques of Fes, and the "blue city" of Chefchaouen:
Then, yeah, we did this:
We spent five days driving through the Atlas Mountains, past red-rock villages at the edge of green oases, with mud-adobe Kasbahs (fortified homes) and serpentine roads that stretched into infinity:
-- THE MOST AMAZING EXPERIENCE OF THE YEAR was when we drove off into a desolate landscape of rock and sand to find a family of nomads, living a way of life my ancestors gave up long ago in the mists of time. Most of our drivers had been raised in nomadic families until climate change made it harder to find green areas for their herds, so they settled into towns, but they still knew families who kept the tradition. High winds whipped little tornadoes of sand into the brown sky and eventually we pulled over by a series of hand-woven tents made of camel and goat hair that were anchored to the ground:
We felt uncomfortable, not wanting to seem rude or prying, but were assured that it was okay, they understood our curiosity. Eventually we went inside the tent and were given tea by a young mother. When her young son started playing with her veil I saw the most beatific smile I have ever seen. 💛
Sitting there in a hand-woven tent, buffered against the howling winds and sipping warm tea, I felt like I was reaching back through history to a time before "civilization," before the first farmers settled into villages to grow grain and raise animals. These were the first humans, the way we ALL began: nomadic, fluid, in synch with nature's rhythms. I wanted to stay longer and try to really understand what her life was like, but it was time to go. 🌜💫⛺
As spectacular as my tour season was, it wasn't all fun and games at home. While I was in the U.S. thieves broke into my apartment and stole my road bike (the only thing I had of value!), I ended up single again since I'm never home, and by mid-summer an MRI confirmed I have a torn meniscus in my left knee. Oufffff... cue nightmares of me limping through Istanbul and Naples (yes, I did), or needing surgery and having to CANCEL Morocco (I did NOT). Irony of ironies, the more I walked the better it felt, and by the time my feet hit the sands of the Sahara I was able to walk, and I REJOICED.
🌞🐝🍃
Next year I have Cuba, Sicily and Morocco back on my calendar, as well as an exciting new Algarve (Portugal) mulsti-sport and a "light active" (cultural) tour in Spain that will take in Madrid, Barcelona, Girona and more. I guess in my own way I am a modern nomad, moving around with the seasons and just locking up my "tent" when I go away!
THANK YOU for joning me on this photographic journey (or in person!). I end the year single and with a gimpy knee, but I've got my freedom and a new lock on the door so I'm good to go. I'd love to chat more over a glass of wine or two, so look me up, come on over, and I'll see you out there! 💙 💚 💛