For many people there a just a few selections of words or phrases that will come to mind immediately when asked to name something associated with the city of Rome. I actually tried this on a few different people, in different places and from different demographic backgrounds and aside from my brother, who said, pizza, they all responded by saying the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican, the Colosseum, the Pope , the Catholic Church or architecture. Okay, a few more people said pizza than my brother. In fact quite a few said pasta, pizza, Italian food or wine. I was just anticipating that they would all say something from the above-mentioned list. And while many, maybe even most did, there was actually a much larger percentage that first thought of the food and drink of this historic city than what I expected.

So, it turns out that Italian food isn’t just popular in the United States, it even has quite a following right there in Rome. And there are plenty of cafes and restaurants that serve the finest of local cuisine as well as great food from around the world. However, for my brother and other individuals in my study, not to mention the many guests in some of the historic suites in a Rome hotel , pizza, pasta and dessert and wine are on their minds.

Da Baffetto is one of the local pizzeria’s that is perfect for eager tourists who want to enjoy some of Rome’s best pizza as well as take in the city’s ambiance. This is also an inexpensive and affordable place to enjoy a delicious pizza and there is seating both indoors and out on the sidewalk. It is covered and heated during the colder winter months, but is open and a great place to sit and enjoy the passersby as you eat your pizza. Trattoria Monti is a great option for a wider variety of pastas and foods and most of its selections are based on the regional offerings of the Marches, which is located just northeast of Rome. And while so many people are interested in the great food of the city I’m sure that as soon as they’re finished eating, they’re planning on running straight over to view Michelangelo’s work in the Sistine Chapel.

Great Pizza and Pasta in Rome is a post from: Sexy Savanah

I drove out from Albuquerque and got to witness tons of hot air balloons in the sky, I knew the city was known for its hot air balloons , but I had no idea just how much; there must be a festival going on this weekend. They were beautiful floating up in the sky; kind of made me sad I was leaving, but I was on my way to San Antonio, Texas.

After about 200 miles driving through New Mexico, I entered into Texas. Texas is approximately 870 if you continually drive through on the I-10 interstate, San Antonio is only 572 miles, which is still pretty far, especially the drive is pretty boring going through desert nothingness. When I drove only about 100 miles, I was stopped by a US Customs station! That really perplexed me, I mean, what was a Customs station doing in the middle of the I-10? It’s not like I anywhere near the border, or that I crossed the boarder to get here, really confusing. So, I pull over and the Border Control agent asked if I was a citizen of the United States and then wanted to know where I was going! I can’t believe my taxes are paying for this!

I told her I was heading to San Antonio, and then she wanted to know why, and then where I was going after that! She then wanted to know why I was going to Baton Rouge! Then she asked if my bags are with me in the car…I mean, really! I can see that it’s important to make sure no terrorist are crossing our borders, but this is not the border! She asked to see what was in my trunk, I popped the trunk open for her and she saw that my bags were indeed in my trunk. She came back around and told me I could go. I drove through California, Arizona and New Mexico, all on the I-10, and there wasn’t a US border station in any of those 3 states. Texas really is in a different state of mind.

I finally arrived in San Antonio and I got all confused, the I-10 splits with an upper level and a lower level, my GPS didn’t help me at all. So, I pulled over and pulled up the map that my hotel provides at this site and saw that I was heading in the right direction. I found the hotel with no problem after bringing up their map online. After I checked in and went to my room, I took a nap and had all these strange dreams about being in Texas. I just hope that San Antonio has a different atmosphere then what I’ve experienced of Texas so far. If the hotel staff is any indicator, then I believe I’ll have a great time.

San Antonio is a Different Texas is a post from: Sexy Savanah

It is rather refreshing and even a bit delightful, although it feels a bit contrary, to think that there’s another Churchill that immediately  comes to mind when we think of London now.  Perhaps it shoud be a bit contrary, when the other person is Caryl Churchill.  She’s been writing plays for a few decades now, and the idea that she’s still writing new work is reason enough to go to check into a hotel in London and start waiting right now.

When she comes out with a new work, it is a very big deal, and she’s been so very prolific all her life that there are lots of opportunities to enjoy these big deals.  Maybe enjoy isn’t the perfect word, because although her plays do offer a certain pleasure, but they can also be very tough.  One of the last productions  I saw by her was a version of the Skriker, and it was an astounding and riveting evening of theatre.  But it was also incredibly disorienting, being about mad faeries that haunt two women in London.  This was her most fantastical work, in the pure sense of the term, but by no means unexpected.

She has had quite a career.  Her first writings that got attention were radio plays in the 1960s, and even in these first works, we see a profoundly developed sensitivity to the forms of drama, coupled with an enormously astute critique of the world at large, but London social norms in particular.  She moved into plays, working with the Royal Court Theatre, and then the Monstrous Regiment, where she developed a collaborative way of constructing her remarkable works.  They continue to serve the audiences with an enormous wit, deep intellect, and a profound sadness that makes her the logical successor to Bertolt Brecht.

Churchill’s London is a post from: Sexy Savanah

Get what I did on my recent trip to New York. Oh, and keep in mind while you’re thinking up options that the production of Hamlet that starred Jude Law has already closed and that I went there with my good friend Charlie. Okay, so obviously I’m a Shakespeare or Law fan and that might be a clue save for the fact the show as closed. Of course I could just be a fan of Broadway, and hey who isn’t, but then why did I say that show specifically? Oh, yeah don’t forget about all of the great art galleries and museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art located across from Central Park. And that reminds me of all there is to do at the park itself, such as the Zoo and Hayden Planetarium and stuff.

Okay, with all of those head starts, if you’re thinking about any one of those you’d be going in the wrong direction. So far you’re not even close. Okay, yeah, it’s true I love pizza and am a little bit Italian, but don’t get too excited, that’s still not a bell. And all of the clubs and places that play live music like CBGY’s and other places are off the list too. Okay, so I guess you could use some help and here is the sad truth. After we settled in the hotel room Charlie announces that he has free bus passes to Atlantic City and that I should get ready to go.

I didn’t object, and of course Atlantic City is a cool place in itself, but come on, we’re in New York City and I don’t get to go there that often. Charlie on the other hand is always going to New York and he’s the one who invited me on this recent trip. So, I agreed to go to Atlantic City and Charlie being something of, well I’ll just say passionate gambler, we stayed there the entire weekend. We got back in the city just in time to check out and make it to Kennedy for our flight home. So, I bet you never would have guessed that’s what I did on my recent trip to New York, huh?

Visiting Atlantic City Via New York is a post from: Sexy Savanah

This year comes on with all the force, and all the drama of a tiger.  It is a perfect fit, too, because this Year of the Tiger will demonstrate very large changes.  The New Year began on Valentine’s Day, and all of these things will come into play.  We don’t know how it will turn out, but we can guess.  She wants me to keep in mind that everything is negotiable, and everything that we decide can be reconsidered, if it becomes clear that the one true path is not as true as it looked from afar.  This is the time when things are not what they seem, and can’t be decided until we can see them when they are sleeping.

We might, however, find ourselves learning the next part of our romantic cycle from the inside of a Chinese restaurant.  Singapore is lovely most any time of year, and the city-state is built for travelers, it seems, or at least it is particularly welcoming for those who come when they are in love.  I want to ask the Tiger if we will be in love for the entire year, and if there is a year beyond this one.  All this is to say, I want to know where this is going.  But the tiger is a year, and the way a year speaks is by unfolding, week by week, and you can’t ask it to skip ahead.

Time understands itself, however, and maddeningly is always assuming that everyone else has the language and thought to understand it too.  I am not stuck in any particular moment, but am becoming very fond of the present one.  A day can sometimes determine a future faster than a year, even if that year is a Tiger.  The year might be asking me to move too quickly, to plan a wedding before the first kiss, but the day will always open up to tell us both that everything we ever wanted is possible in this moment, and no other moment.

Singapore Tiger Year is a post from: Sexy Savanah

As in any great business, in a business that is run well, there are key elements which are necessary. Many companies do okay, but there is more to being a great property management company than performing an okay job. What it takes begins quite simply, with honesty. There are many options for online advertising today, be it for goods or for services. This is one area where honesty is particularly valuable because when doing online business, the customer or client is not face to face with the property manager . If a website is not truthful, it will come out in the end so what is the point? This leads to the next element, one that is necessary to attain in order for a business to grow and to thrive and one in which is a direct result of honesty and truthfulness in business transactions . That is integrity. Integrity is the way in which transactions and relations are handled, a way that is open, honesty and direct. This is a viewpoint of others that must be earned. In order for a business to be referred to as operating with integrity, they must themselves, conduct operations in such a manner. Transparent operating procedures mean that everything is above board. There are no secret or hidden agendas. There is actually truth in a company’s advertising and in their services. People who manage the rental properties of others have a responsibility to both the owners and the tenants. They have two different kinds of people to take care of. They will need to make promises to both parties and they will need to keep those promises. Whether it is by collecting the rent on time or making the bank deposits, or whether it is fixing leaking plumbing, the only way the manager will be successful is to honor those promises each and every time one is made. People say that it is hard to do business in the world today. But it has always been simple to do good business. Good and honest business filled with integrity just comes from doing what is right.

Principles Valued in Property Management is a post from: Sexy Savanah

Grand Prairie Texas became a host city for the defense and aviation industry during W.W.II. There have been a few great air craft built in this town by the North American Aviation plant. Some of the air crafts produced included the P-51C Mustang and also the K Mustang. The P-51C Mustang was fighter plane that was designed and build in only 117 days. It was used as a fighter bomber that was sent over Germany. It also was used in the start of the Korean War as the U.S. main fighter until the super jet fighters came on the scene. The Mustang car built by Ford was named after the fighter because of its amazing reputation for being fast, durable and well made.

The North American Aviation plant was taken over by Vought Aircraft after the war. The name changed to Ling Temco Vought and then back to Vought. They also created the F-8 Crusader which was the last American fighter with guns being the main weapon that was used int he Vietnam War. It also was used in the Cuban Missile Crisis were it played an important role by gaining lower level photographs that wouldn’t have been gotten otherwise. The A-7 Corsair II was also built in Grand Prairie.

If you work with or for Lockheed Martin than you may need to find a room at one of the hotels in Grand Prairie found here because they have still operates out of the area. Lockheed Martin is the largest defense contractor in the world. The Aerospatiale, a French aerospace manufacturer of civilian and military air crafts, moved into the area and then became a part of EADS. EADS stands for European Aeronoautic Defense and Space Company. If your in for some business than maybe they will let you out to the Quicktrip Park were you can see the minor league baseball team, The AirHogs, play. Wonder were they got that name.

Grand Prairie Flight is a post from: Sexy Savanah

For the last three days, it’s been pouring rain so hard that three holes in my roof now leak water into my bedroom like a sieve.   Buckets and waste baskets have been set to catch it all, but at this moment, I wouldn’t mind being anywhere but here — especially, if it that anywhere were Miami, Florida.  I saw bits of Miami on the Superbowl the other week and it was sunny and dry, but this terrific city has a lot more to offer than just great weather.  It’s packed with museums and beaches and wildlife attractions, and host to a number of engaging sights.

For museums, there’s the Miami Museum of Science and Space Transit Planetarium.  Since Florida is where the Space Age flourished in the 1960s (at Cape Canaveral, and later, Cape Kennedy), you might expect the state to boast a very fine science and space museum, and you wouldn’t be disappointed.  The planetarium has daily shows that will help kids and adults alike to comprehend the vastness of the universe outside the planet.  With beaches, of course, you’ll find in Miami a number of fine hotels lined up along the shore, with the Atlantic Ocean their swimming pool.  Of course, many of these hotels also feature actual swimming pools, if you find the ocean a bit too salty and filled with wildlife for your taste.  Speaking of wildlife, there’s the famous Miami Seaquarium and ,Parrot Jungle Island, places to find animals that entertain and animals that talk!

In addition, there’s fine cuisine, Venetian swimming pools carved from limestone quarries from 1923, mysterious coral stone castles constructed in the mid-20th Century by a single man (called the Coral Castle, take a look!), and many others.  Much better than my leaky, damp apartment.  And now that the Superbowl has been over for at least a week, traffic is probably decent, too!

Museums, Beaches and Wildlife in Miami is a post from: Sexy Savanah

One of my favorite ways to get to know a new city, is by walking through it.  I spent hours one night walking around the city of Chicago with a friend who had grown up there.  He told of the history of certain sites, such as the “alley”–which is now a building, of the famous Al Capone Valentine’s Day Massacre, the Biograph Movie House where John Dillinger was turned in by the woman in the red dress, and the histories of the Drake Hotel and the Chicago Tribune building.

My first trip to New York, I was alone, and wanted to take a walk, but I wanted to be informed about the sights that I was seeing, and while I do not usually like big guided group tours, I signed up for a the Food and Culture Walking Tour of Greenwich Village.  The guide for the tour was extremely knowledgeable and as it turned out, very well known around the Village, so not only did we get his stories, but many of the stories of local restaurant and shop owners as well.  I love cities and I love their stories and so this was perfect.  The tour cost forty two dollars, but this included tastings at many of the restaurants in the Village, timed just right throughout the three hour walk.

This is an area where not only do the people have a history, but the buildings do as well, from the pubs and the taverns of the beat poets, to the unique hotels of NYC, to the restaurants that have been family owned and operated for many years.  The tour is offered year round, so should you find yourself taking this same tour, be sure to dress appropriately for the weather of the moment.  And while the tour is taken at a comfortable pace, it is a two mile walk, so very comfortable shoes are a must.  I love the tour of Greenwich Village, the food and the coffee along the way was incredible, and when we had finished I found that I had gained a lot of knowledge about this small corner of New York City.

A Walking Tour of Greenwich Village is a post from: Sexy Savanah

What is a “parade ground”?  I had heard the word, and had no idea what it meant, as parades take place on city streets, not confined to a “ground”.  A parade ground is an area of a city park, that is set aside from the park proper, an area where sports are played without worry to the damage that could be caused to the stretches of green lawn and the landscaping.  They could be called simply baseball diamonds, or soccer fields.

The Parade Ground in Prospect Park has not only provided the residents with memories and incredible stories, but is the historical site where some of the best and most famous ball players in early history first stepped up to bat, or first took to the pitching mound.  Every time I have visited and stayed in one of the best hotels, New York City has offered me these kinds of historical tidbits, these stories of the past that make it all seem so much more real, as if I was there the first time Johnny Franco or Joe Torre stepped up to bat.  And I’m not even into the sport of baseball, but it is a nostalgic quest for me I guess.

Many aspects of public parks were changing in during the 19th Century, due to the innovative designers, and the Parks Commissioner of New York,  and the Parade Ground was one of the many examples of a growing interest in urban design.  It was based on the grounds used for military training exercises, grounds that were stomped on, walked on, and marched on extensively.  In Prospect Park, the grounds were a place to play, to play ball!

As with many of the buildings and facilities of the park, during the early half of the 20th Century, the Parade Ground was in need of restoration.  Now it is the site for baseball games, complete with lighting for night time games, a lawn bowling green and a Youth Center.  Upon restoration, many long time residents wrote in with stories of themselves, either playing or experiencing the first years of some of the major ball players careers.  It was not just a section of a park that was renovated, but the spirit of the city as well.

New York City Stories: The Life of the Parade Ground in Brooklyn is a post from: Sexy Savanah