I was in the Tuscan town of Orvieto doing my best to stay in my hotel room and finish some writing, but there was a Pentecost festival going on outside. I could hear it out my window. I couldn’t resist, so I joined the multitude that had gathered on the square in front of the cathedral, just as the citizens of Orvieto have done for generations.
My husband, Leo, and I were going to take a cruise out of Istanbul, Turkey, and decided to also visit a nearby country first. Our choice was Bulgaria, which is small, uncrowded and loaded with antiquities and history. We arrived on Aug. 18, 2013, and spent the next eight days touring from Sofia in the west to the Black Sea coast and back.
13 days, 12 nights, June 16-28, 2014. Highlights: In Madrid, Prado Museum/in Avila, Monastery of Incarnation, Cathedral of Avila, locally made sweetmeats/in Segovia, Alcazar Castle/in Castile, palace and monastery El Escorial/high-speed train to Seville for Alcázar, Plaza del Triunfo, flamenco dancers/Cádiz/sherry tasting in Jerez/in Granada, Alhambra, Generalife Gardens/El Greco paintings in Cathedral of Toledo. Land, $4,668 or, cash only, $4,399. Single supp., $995.
Trinity World Tours (Burbank, CA; 626/791-3111, cssmythe@charter.net).
We received a surprising number of essays on the subject “Roamin’ in Romania,” but one essay was judged by ITN staff to be far more inspiring than the rest. It was written by ANNE SUPSIC of Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania. Anne’s prize is two 50-dollar gift certificates from Magellan’s Travel Supplies (800/962-4943, www.magellans.com). (Hey, we’re not messing around here!) Our second-place winner is HELEN HASENFELD of Los Angeles, California, and she will receive one 50-dollar gift certificate from Magellan’s Travel Supplies.
12 days/11 nights, June 6-17, July 4-15, 2014, and summer 2015. Focuses on Sephardic culture and effects of German deportation of Jews in Balkans in WWII. Highlights: In Sofia, BULGARIA, Alexander Nevski Cathedral, Sofia Synagogue, Sephardic food, crafts, Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) singing/Plovdiv Synagogue/Rila Monastery/medieval Veliko Tarnovo/in Skopje, MACEDONIA, Holocaust Memorial Center/Ohrid, one of Europe’s oldest settlements/in Thessaloniki, GREECE, 15th-century White Tower. Land, $2,360. Air from New York City, approx. $1,300. Single supp., $340.
14 days/13 nights in SPAIN, departing May 10, June 14 and Sept. 4, 2014. Highlights: Visit stone villages, monasteries, cathedrals on 120-mile walk from Roncesvalles in the Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela. Special Mass at Roncesvalles monastery/visit historical sites with art historians/meals include gourmet picnics with chef as guide. Land, €3,400 (near $4,620). Spanish Steps (Aspen, CO; 877/787-9255).
In Christchurch, New Zealand, after the Cathedral in the Square was badly damaged in the 2011 earthquakes, the church decided to construct a Transitional Cathedral while deciding whether or not to rebuild the primary cathedral.
When my husband, John, and I were making arrangements for a March ’13 hotel stay in Bali, Indonesia, we were advised that we could not arrive on March 12th because that was Nyepi Day, the Balinese day of silence, a 24-hour respite from all noise. Even the airport is closed.
A precarious pyroclastic perch? August’s photo depicts the lovely Taung Kalat Buddhist monastery, which sits atop a 2,417-foot-high, sheer-sided volcanic plug that formed way off on the southwestern slope of 4,981-foot-high Mount Popa in central Myanmar.
