All posts tagged: World Heritage Sites

Uplifting Preservation

There are times when the personal takes on global implications. Last week was one of those times. It began when I discovered that a former National Trust colleague, Raina Regan, has begun a fascinating self-help project for preservationists. Here is Raina’s description of this work: “One of my goals for 2019 was to be more intentional with my free time, which resulted in a rekindled love of reading. I was really drawn to self-help books, and according to my count, I’ve read two dozen of them in 2019. As I read each one, I considered how they would apply to me and my work in historic preservation. At some point, I decided I wanted to take what I’ve learned and share it more broadly with the world—and Uplifting Preservation was born.“ Uplifting Preservation is a once-a-month newsletter on the Tiny Letter platform where Raina shares her perspective on a specific book, such as Brené Brown’s Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead, and its relevant concepts …

View of Florence

48 hours in Tuscany

48 hours barely counts as dipping your toes in the water that is Tuscany, but it is what we had for this first visit over last weekend.  With Claire in the country for a limited time, we opted to experience a few sites and then return later for a longer drink of more that the region has to offer. But first, let me detour to talk about trains. At the suggestion of our friends Tom and Rod, we booked our trip on the Italo high-speed train from Rome to Florence.  Ninety minutes after boarding – following the smoothest train ride I’ve ever experienced and going 260 km/hour (that’s about 160 mph for the metrically challenged) – we pulled into Florence and walked ten minutes to our cozy little historic hotel. For those who talk about American exceptionalism, I’d beg to differ. When it comes to train travel, we aren’t even on the same planet! On Monday, while we were coming back from Florence on the train, our DC Metro apparently had another fire in a …