6 cool places (just) off the beaten path

These six destinations are close enough to common travel routes that there are a lot of chances to get to them, but still often fly under the radar.

Ohrid, Macedonia

In Montenegro or Greece? Swing through Macedonia!

Sleep with an actress, catch an octopus

I was staying in one of the little villages on the Ligurian coast, steep rocky cliffs tumbling into crystal clear sea. I love coasts with giant boulders. Much better than sand. And it faces West which I love because I am an evening person.

We had formed a nice little group at the beautiful hostel at the top of the winding road in the tiny village. It had a big balcony overlooking the sea, the village, and the church bell tower immediately below us. This put the bell at our level which was VERY loud in the morning.

She was Scottish, pretty face, slim, hilarious. In Italy on her family vacation, but decided to stay on an extra week after they left by herself. She would later become a succesful actress.

Agrigento, Sicily – “Valle dei Templi”

Agrigento, Sicily – “Valle dei Templi”

Oops – Sorry about the finger in the next one, stuff happens (also, low res on some of these, somehow lost the original higher res images 😦  )

On the next photo, we were in our favorite, completely deserted swimming place, and there was a FULL solar eclipse – while we were swimming – kind of cool!

“Young Until We Die…This is the Must!”

Years ago in Italy there were some songs I really liked, but as I was just beginning to try and learn Italian, I couldn’t catch all the lyrics. So a good friend wrote some of them down for me – very nice of him, and had included his own little contribution – I love how his Italian comes through in English. From time to time I run across this in my papers, and it always cheers me up and encourages me, so I thought I’d share it.

Thanks Michele!

Michele can be seen here (lower right corner of the Legambiente picture) with me and other Legambiente volunteers in Italy

Il Palio di Siena, Italy

Not good photos here – was using a VERY ancient AGFA digital camera (funny – tilt-shift is way trendy right now – even that England rowing scene in The Social Network- and this camera got, as you can see in other photos elsewhere too, some crazy looking tilt-shift type effects – all on accident!),… and also the jostling crowds made everything impossible – mostly skipped out of town during Il Palio