Welcome to Chris Brady's Blog
"The only way to be happy, is to give happy."
Category: Travel
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Raised in Michigan, a state with bountiful shoreline and beautiful state parks, I didn't venture too far from home for most of my youth. There were the occasional family trips across the country, the most memorable being the one to California and back after my High School graduation, complete with a robbery, car accident, and…
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(And for my final installment of Italian musings): Francis Mayes, the author that put Tuscany on the maps of recent tourists with her book (and later movie) Under the Tuscan Sun, wrote of Italy: “Italy is an immortal playground. Does any country come close to its sustained, heady concoction of joys – serene…
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We’ve got it wired; this language thing. On our first night in Tuscany, just settling into the little town of Terontola that would be our home for nearly a month, Terri trucked into a small grocery store of sorts in search of some key essentials to get us through the weekend. In her best…
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People matter, it goes without saying. But there is something special about getting to know someone, learning their background, building a bond. Architecture strikes me the same way. When I see an interesting building, normally the old kind, I can’t help wanting to know the history behind the arches, the decisions behind the layout,…
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Siena is an old city. The world-famous Palio horse race held in the large central square, Piazza del Campo, officially dates back to 1283, though many think its origins go back to Roman military training. One can learn many things in Siena, like the fact that its main bell tower, Torre del Mangia, is…
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I learned it the hard way, really, by dragging bulky bags through crowded bus terminals, onto packed trains, and up stairs at a five-hundred year-old hotel. I will never forget slugging two huge suitcases through Narita station in Tokyo, stopping at a trash can and throwing a way a bunch of stuff to lighten my…
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I had what might be called a conversation with the steward of our cliffside villa, inquiring about the limited routes over or around the mountain range behind us and back over to Naples (Napoli). He spoke some English, he thought, and I some Italian, I think. It seems there are as many as three routes,…
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He and his family are occupying the space above ours in this unique, cliff-side perch above the Mediterranean. In a short conversation by the cliff platforms for sea diving, Alan made a simple yet profound statement. His words carry the weight of a man older than me in years and twenty visits to Italy or…
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Just getting back from a whirl-wind tour of the MORE Project in Brazil. I have posted a new photo album in the margin for anyone interested. From the Amazon River and Acai berry harvesting, to a processing facility, to a jungle island school, to the many different initiatives comprising the MORE Project, to the favellas…
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