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The remains of the 17th Century Church of San Jose Coneta, Mexico
The furniture-maker's grandson,Vietnam
Temple ruins, Angkor Wat, Cambodia
Atlantic Cliffs, Northern Ireland
Figurehead, Cutty Sark, Greenwich, England
Detail in the upper left corner: a carved stone
fountainhead from Dubrovnik, Croatia
Please see additional photography and writing excerpts below:
The Crown of St. Stephen's, Budapest, Hungary
Maskmaker's Shop Window, Venice
The Yaquina Head lighthouse, Newport Beach, Oregon
A salt crystal chandelier in the Wieliczka Mine
near Krakow,  Poland, a World Heritage site.
Venice's Simple Treasures: Light Opera and Pizza

Eat an entire four-tier caramel fudge wedding cake topped with buttercream frosting, and you have an idea of how
rich and filling Venice can be, culturally speaking.  After three days of bingeing on Titian, Tintoretto, and Canaletto,
gorging on the golden Byzantine mosaics of St. Mark's Basilica and pushing to cram in just one more Renaissance
palace, your senses are super-sated, and beg to slip back into the real world.

You'll find it in the Campo Santa Margherita, where light opera and a pizza work miracles.

The Campo Santa Margherita is tucked away in the quiet Dorsoduro district.  It offers no massive church or marble
monument, as do so many dozens of exquisite small piazzas on Venice's absurdly complicated map. No, this wide,
open space is just that, a field of pavers a hundred yards wide and twice as long, ringed by centuries-old buildings.
Here, neighborhood boys play a pick-up game of after-school soccer, using an ATM entrance for a goal and the
long-suffering newstand with bent newsracks next door as the out-of-bounds marker.

Mothers stroll babies in tandem, lamenting the price of shrimp at the morning's fish market; a silver-haired
grandfather in a checked cap explains again to his toddling namesake why pigeons don't want to be petted. His left
hand holds firm around tiny fingers; his right talks in concentric, sweeping circles.

Along the perimeter, university students shove aluminum cafe tables together and lift a spritzer of white wine and
aperol in a toast to a grinning, tousled young man in jeans at the head of the table. A henna-haired girl in cherry-red
horn-rimmed glasses plunks a crown of fresh green laurel leaves on his head.

"Dotore, dotore!" cheer his friends, then they duct-tape him to the chair.

Dusk falls and the campo fills...continued (907 words)
Walk on Cozumel's Wild Side
While throngs of cruise ship passengers comb downtown San Miguel for gold jewelry, colorful crafts and tee shirts,
and hundreds more snorkel its coral reefs, there is a less-traveled side to Cozumel: its wild eastern side, where
powerful waves pound miles of bare beach,  hammocks sway in the cool, salty spray and open-air, thatched-roof
“palapa” bars welcome barefoot patrons for a laid-back afternoon.

Drive 15 minutes south from the Presidente InterContinental through mangroves, palms and scarlet bougainvillea to
reach the island’s southernmost point and its prize reggae shack, the Freedom in Paradise Cafe, self-styled as “a
sunny place for shady people.” Palapa tables are steps from the surf and you can groove to rasta tunes, sample
ceviche or shrimp quesadillas, sip a cold beer from one of a half-dozen hammocks or, if you need a challenge, play
volleyball.

After some miles of broad, sweeping beaches unmarked by footprints, you’ll reach a grove of stately coconut palms
where Chen Rio serves Mayan seafood prepared on an open grill to diners of all ages at beachside tables.  Ask for
Guillermo, who may recommend the lobster platter for two: Six fresh Caribbean lobster tails with all the trimmings, ...
continued (464 words)
Temple ruins, Ayutthaya, Thailand