My second novel, Untimed, is a YA time-travel adventure. And I just finished the rough version of my second draft. Whew! Happy to be done with that. The book grew to 84,000 words (it’ll probably get trimmed down a bit…
Restaurant: Pizzeria Santa Lucia Location: Santa Margherita, Italy Date: June 29, 2011 Cuisine: Ligurian / Pizza Rating: Good pizza ANY CHARACTER HERE On our last night in Italy (/cry) we wanted an early and quick meal prior to getting up…
Restaurant: Trattoria dei Pescatori Location: Santa Margherita, Italy Date: June 29, 2011 Cuisine: Ligurian Rating: Solid lunch ANY CHARACTER HERE On this particular morning we had actually visited the nearby town of Camogli and wanted to eat lunch there but…
Restaurant: Da Michele Location: Santa Margherita, Italy Date: June 28, 2011 Cuisine: Ligurian Rating: Solid ANY CHARACTER HERE Another evening pick in central Santa Margherita, just a block away from the previous night’s Antonios. Right in the main drag. The…
Restaurant: Antonios Location: Santa Margherita, Italy Date: June 27, 2011 Cuisine: Ligurian Rating: Best we had in Liguria ANY CHARACTER HERE I did my best at internet research to pick this restaurant in the heart of “downtown” Santa Margherita. It was #2…
This is a very interesting little video showing off how the Game of Thrones locations are built up using Computer Graphics, substituting effectively for matte painting in traditional film. In my extensive reviews of the show one thing I’ve noted…
Restaurant: N/Naka [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] Location: 3455 S. Overland Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90034. 310.836.6252 Date: July 22, 2011 Cuisine: Modern Kaiseki Rating: Awesome _ N/Naka opened only three months ago. It’s the brainchild of chef/owner Niki Nakayama and is…
Restaurant: Gianni Franzi Location: Vernazza, Italy Date: June 27, 2011 Cuisine: Ligurian Rating: Solid local lunch ANY CHARACTER HERE We took a little train ride down to Cinque Terre, a very pretty region of five small towns clustered by the…
Restaurant: La Paranza Location: Santa Margherita, Italy Date: June 26, 2011 Cuisine: Ligurian Rating: Straightforward ANY CHARACTER HERE This restaurant was around the corner from the hotel, had a typical menu, and appeared very crowded at lunch. So we gave it a…
Restaurant: Grand Hotel Miramare (Breakfast) Location: Santa Margherita, Italy Date: June 26-29, 2011 Cuisine: Ligurian Rating: Mid level Italian breakfast ANY CHARACTER HERE As I’ve written about earlier, almost all hotels in Italy include buffet breakfast. The Grand Hotel Miramare…
Restaurant: Grand Hotel Miramare (Dinner) Location: Santa Margherita, Italy Date: June 25, 2011 Cuisine: Ligurian Rating: Old school ANY CHARACTER HERE Finally, we enter the final phase of our epic trip: Liguria. This is another seafood area, but quite different…
Martin’s books are among my all-time favorite novels. I enjoyed the book immensely, and eagerly await the the next volume (and I’m sure I’ll be waiting for a long time), but I can’t help but think it could have been SO much better if Martin had taken all the material in both Feast and Dragons and reedited them together into two chronological and slightly leaned down volumes.
Restaurant: Il Castello Certaldo Location: Celtaldo, Italy Date: June 24, 2011 Cuisine: Tuscan Rating: Nice view, ok food ANY CHARACTER HERE Ah, the last meal in Tuscany! (except for breakfast) We took a couple hours to visit the cute little…
Restaurant: Pizzeria Pretorio Location: San Donato, Italy Date: June 22, 2011 Cuisine: Pizza Rating: Best pizza we had on the trip ANY CHARACTER HERE The wine guide who took us to Montacino seemed to have very good taste in food,…
Restaurant: Gelateria Santa Trinita Location: Florence, Italy Date: June 21, 2011 Cuisine: Gelato Rating: Awesome! ANY CHARACTER HERE On our first day in Florence we had walked by this Gelateria with huge lines (not far from Nove IX). And then…
Restaurant: Caffe Pitti Location: Florence, Italy Date: June 21, 2011 Cuisine: Tuscan Rating: Touristy location, very good food ANY CHARACTER HERE On our second day in Florence we came out of the Pitti Palace starved and thirsty. One of our…
Restaurant: Ristorante Le Potazzine Location: Montalcino, Italy Date: June 20, 2011 Cuisine: Tuscan Rating: Tasty traditional ANY CHARACTER HERE We took a most excellent wine tasting tour of Montalcino (the home of the one and only Brunello). This was led by a…
Restaurant: Ristorante Babette Location: Poggibonsi, Italy Date: June 19, 2011 Cuisine: Tuscan Seafood Rating: Great food, great value ANY CHARACTER HERE After our self selection failure on Saturday, we got another restaurant recommend from our host (the owner of our villa). He sent…
It’s interesting that in the last year or so there have been two movies about the Roman legion “lost” in North Britain during the Hadrianic period. It just goes to prove that Hollywood loves to copy. Two volcano movies? Two Wyatt Earp films? Two Lambada films? And, to boot, it’s unlikely the legion was actually “lost” (as in militarily). More likely it was just disbanded and the sketchy historical record makes it seem to have disappeared.
What better intersection of my interests than a meal based on Ancient Roman cuisine. On Thursday July 14 and 15th the Getty Villa offered a combination of lecture on ancient food and a meal of authentic Roman dishes based on…
