When a book’s title is “Bitch,” one doesn’t think of spiders and frogs as the subject matter. It sounds more like a tale of Hollywood harlots or Big Apple broads, overlaid with Frette sheets and social calendars clocked by Audemars Piguet. But author Lucy Cooke is a British zoologist, not…

Technology is supposed to simplify things. Simplify and speed up. I was all for that when I moved back to the U.S., because making a medical appointment in Italy often felt like an exercise in molasses-grade futility. For some requests you had to call between 11:00 am and 12:45 pm…

One of the most memorable scenes in American Psycho (maybe THE most memorable scene if you are not into blood and dismemberment) has nothing to do with murder. It’s all about the swapping of business cards, and the one-upmanship between Patrick Bateman and his colleagues in a conference room. I…

When my human was planning a vacation in Tuscany, she casually asked if her hotel, the five-star Il Falconiere in Cortona, accepted four-legged guests. “Of course we do,” came the swift response. “We love dogs!” She needed no further incentive, and decided immediately that I would accompany her. I was…

What is more fun than a barrel of monkeys? A parade of elephants. And that is what you find at Green Hill Valley elephant camp, located near the Wet Pyu Ye forest reserve about 15 miles (24 kilometres) from Kalaw in Myanmar’s southern Shan state. You will be given loose-fitting…

Although you could complete the 31-mile Strada del Prosecco in Italy’s Veneto region in less than a day, it’s more pleasant to take your time and draw out the experience. You can’t eat your way through Veneto’s pleasures — gustatory and otherwise — in 24 hours, and who would want…

You don’t have to be an oenophile to appreciate the Strada del Prosecco in Italy’s Veneto region. Italophiles of every potable persuasion will delight in the 31-mile road as it winds its narrow way amid soft hills sprouting from rich dark soil, medieval towns and churches, local artists, ancient architects…

In Italy, all roads may lead to Rome, but all wine roads began in the small town of Conegliano, about 40 miles north of Venice. This is the starting point of the country’s first wine road, originally called the Strada del Prosecco when it was created in 1966. At first…

The Land Rover has driven off without you, or you have become separated from the rest of your walking safari, or you just fell off your horse in the bush. All of a sudden you are alone, unarmed, and facing a snarling lion, trumpeting elephant, or snorting rhinoceros. What you…