Ancient History
Helena of Egypt, whose story looks mighty familiar
Roughly a year ago, I wrote a post about Tamaris, a woman in the fifth century BCE who was the daughter of a painter and an acclaimed artist in her own right. Recently I learned of a similar story, courtesy of novelist Joanne Harris, who is running occasional posts titled “Women You Deserve to Know”…
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In which we visit a salt flat
When I thought about going on a food tour of Italy, I thought of wine, and pasta, and seafood, and olives and olive oil. I did not think about salt. And once I knew we were visiting a salt flat, it did not occur to me that our visit to the Saline Culcasi salt flats…
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Cheese, Chocolate, and Siracusa
Our second stop in Sicily was the city of Siracusa, which is a history nerd’s delight, or more accurately would have been a history nerd’s delight if we had been on a different kind of tour. (Two areas of the city are UNESCO World Heritage sites.) Instead of spending our time at the city’s archeological…
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