My travel year: a look back and a look forward

So here we are on the penultimate day of 2009. It was a pretty good travel year for me. I spent six months in Oxford and made a lot of friends there and got to hike the length of Hadrian's Wall. I also spent some time in Missouri and spent a long weekend in Amsterdam, doing some research in Delft and a couple of Dutch castles.

The year 2010 is shaping up to be even better. In fact, it will be the best year since my big Kumbh Mela year of 2001! I'll be spending seven weeks in Ethiopia, and Almudena will be joining me for three weeks so we can celebrate our anniversary. I'll also be headed to Rome for some research, doing the usual stop in Missouri, a couple of months in Oxford, and another long weekend in Amsterdam. I can't miss Amsterdam, after all! I'm also hoping to meet my friend Thomas somewhere in North Africa as he's on his final leg of his trip across Africa as part of the Africa Heart Beat Project. If we can't make our schedules jive, I'll probably end up spending a week in The Gambia.

What will 2011 bring?

Internet Plagiarism at the White House

In a move reminiscent of lazy high school students, the White House issued a press release that included a biography of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi lifted straight from a website called Encyclopedia of World Biography. Both BBC and CNN covered this because the biography of one of Bush's few European allies says he is "one of the world's most controversial leaders" and his government is known for "corruption and vice."

And the insults just kept on coming. Whoever wrote the biography obviously didn't like poor old Silvio that much. The entry has since disappeared.

What the news sites didn't talk about was the fact that the flaks at the White House press office lifted the information off the internet (probably without attribution) and didn't even read it. If they had, they would have probably changed the bit where it said Berlusconi was "hated by many."

This is what happens when the Internet generation cheats their way through school and ends up with important jobs.

As an author of four books and hundreds of articles, I wonder how many times I've been plagiarized?

Book Review: A Journey into Michelangelo's Rome

For travelers who like art, there's a new series out from Roaring Forties Press called ArtPlace, which looks at popular destinations through the eyes of their greatest artists. A couple of days ago on my other blog, Midlist Writer, I interviewed Angela K. Nickerson about how she landed a job writing A Journey into Michelangelo's Rome. Today I'm reviewing the book itself.

First off, the book is beautiful. There are high-quality color photos on every page, many being the talented work of Nickerson herself, and the layout is clean, well-presented, and friendly to the eye. The whole project shows the typical love of the book you get from the small press. There are also readable maps showing all the major sites where you can see Michelangelo's art in Florence and Rome.

The text is well-written, lively without being pat, informative without being burdensome, and at 163 pages, it's easily readable on the plane as you head to Italy. It is not a comprehensive guide to Rome, but rather a supplementary book for a visitor who already has a guidebook but would like to know more.

There were a couple of rocky bits in the first chapter, where Nickerson is talking about the world into which Michelangelo was born. Christopher Columbus did not land on the coast of North America, but on various Caribbean islands and the coasts of South and Central America. The Portuguese, not Spain, conquered Brazil. But once she gets to her main topic Nickerson hits her stride. She leads us through the master's early work in Florence, to his first commissions in Rome. She's especially good at putting him in the political and religious context of the time, where popes and powerful merchants tried to prove their worth through patronizing art. Sidebars fill us in on such things as Renaissance manners, some of Michelangelo's sonnets, and the Bella Figura of the Italian woman.

Even avid history readers will discover something new here. I had no idea the ruinous cost of expanding St. Peters was a major cause in the selling of indulgences (forgiveness for sins), which in turn was an important impetus for the Reformation.

In all, A Journey into Michelangelo's Rome is a worthy addition to your luggage.

Cover shot courtesy of Roaring Forties Press. Other images courtesy Angela K. Nickerson.

Spain's First Female Defense Minister Gives Birth

Carme Chacón, Spain's first female Minister of Defense, gave birth to a son yesterday. Congratulations, Carme! I wish you well even though you're a rich politician. The kid's name is Miquel and he weighs 2.8 kilos.

After Prime Minister Zapatero got reelected this year, he made Spanish history by creating the first cabinet containing more women than men. This set off a wave of nasty comments in the conservative press both inside and outside Spain, with Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi making a fool of himself as usual by referring to Zapatero's "pink cabinet". Other commentators wondered how much maternity leave Chacón is going to take, which is a valid concern, although I doubt Morocco will try to take over Isla de Perejil again.

Poor Miquel, he's going to have to become a hippy to rebel against Mommy.

Travel Withdrawal Symptoms

I need to go to a new country! Some people collect stamps or coins or Lady Diana tea sets, but I collect travel memories (and books, ask my wife about our lack of shelf space). But sad to say, my collection of countries hasn't expanded for three years, when we took a trip to Morocco, unless going to the Canary Islands to attend the World Congress on Mummy Studies counts as a new country, which it does, sort of.

What's happening? Am I getting lazy? I've been traveling plenty during that time, but it's mostly been around Spain, England, and the U.S. I'm getting some serious withdrawal symptoms from my travel addiction! Fellow writer and perpetual interviewer Abha Malpani took me to task about this a few weeks ago, and tomorrow she flies off to Prague. Sigh.

Luckily, help is on the way. Almudena and I are headed to Italy this summer, first to Florence, then Ravenna, and hopefully the Dolomites. Despite having been an archaeologist for ten years, I've never been to Italy. I've always favored cheaper countries, figuring I could do the easy European ones when I'm a grizzled old traveler, which now apparently I am.

But my current dream is to go to Ethiopia. I just need to figure out a writing project that will pay my way.

Travel Through Time: Rome Reborn

The University of Virginia's Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities has created an amazing 3D walk through of ancient Rome. Ten years in the making, it recreates what Rome looked like in 320 AD, at the time of the great Emperor Constantine. Parts of Rome Reborn version 1.0 are now available online, including views of the Colosseum, Forum, Basilica Maxentius, and panoramic views of the city.

Maybe they'll put in on Second Life so people can have their avatars walk through ancient Rome and get in gladiator fights. But don't expect to see me on there. My First Life is interesting enough for me.