by JHowatt | May 24, 2023 | Life Style
Last Days in Florence April 2023. Packing a suitcase for what one hopes will be a memorable trip and repacking that same suitcase for the trip home can be filled with cherished memories, unexpected disappointments, or somewhere in between. I’ve done both. The night... 
by JHowatt | Mar 29, 2023 | Crime Writing
From a Turtle Poem to True Crime: A Writer’s Journey March 26, 2023. My love affair with books began before I could walk. The best part of the day was when my father would read to me. He’d help me turn the pages of a cloth book with buttons to button, shoelaces to... 
by JHowatt | Mar 22, 2023 | Life Style
Enough Pizza, Music and Dominique. Meeting Francesca. November 27. On our fifth day in Florence, the sun shone bright and hot. Jim wanted to find a bench and read. I wanted to prowl and photograph. Across the street, half a block away, I saw a walkway that led... 
by JHowatt | Feb 28, 2023 | Life Style
Viva Florence! Long Live Clowns! Opera! Orchestra Toscana! Four Seasons! November 24, 2023. By day two, our dream vacation to Italy felt more like Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown than a romantic interlude in our favorite city. After almost an hour of Dominique’s... 
by JHowatt | Feb 20, 2023 | Life Style
Welcome to Florence! Just a Few House Rules – Chapter Three November 24, 2022. Jim and I finally got to the front of the taxi line at the airport and climbed in with no luggage But so what? We were in Florence! “We did it!” we cheered, relieved to be on our way to...