Dear Reader,
I apologize for the delays in my posts. In an effort to create as vivid a picture as possible, much of the of work to create these postings consists of sorting through 200-400 photographs per city, research to find unbiased sources regarding the details I wish to report on, researching the sites I am visiting for L A S T O R I A, and, most importantly, experiencing these places. While I am trying to keep the delay in posts to a one week minimum, and I hope to catch up this weekend, please continue to bear with me.
Also, thank you for reading and I hope enjoying the tales of this, as my good friend, Will, called it, expedition. While I intended to write solely about the Italian cities I am collecting data on, I have been learning so much about many different things—culture, cities, architecture, food, people, art, literature, myself—that it seemed only right to recount the stories from these places too. Even if my mother’s response to the fact that I am keeping a blog was, “Why do I want to read your blog? You’ll tell me about it when you get back.” I could not help but laugh when she told me that because it is very true.
Again, I wish to express my sincerest gratitude to the many individuals who have bestowed their influence, time, and support in numerous ways to help make all of this a reality. While I was not this year’s recipient of the Deborah J. Norden Travel Grant (Congratulations to Ylan Vo for “Ecologies of War and Recovery: A Case Study in Vietnam’s A Luoi Valley.”), I am delighted to say that this experience has provided me with what I hoped to gain from that grant and more drive to continue to apply for it in the coming years.
Kind regards,
Diedre