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Rome is a lovely town for visiting – but it’s always interesting to see how over-tourism has changed things over the years. I remember going to Rome and having pretty much free reign to walk around the whole Colosseum. It looks like now you need to reserve your slot far in advanced through a new CoopCulture website that lets you buy tickets in advance. In fact, it’s the ONLY way to get tickets for the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, Colosseum, and several other key cultural sites. There is no longer on-site ticket sales.

It also appears that the much vaunted Scavi tours under St Peter’s also have online information now as well, but it appears they still prefer a phone call or fax.

Want to own your own island? Here’s an opportunity: Ducks Island is a 1.5 acre plot a 10 minute boat ride off the Maine coast for a very reasonable $339,000. The house can sleep up to 4 and is far enough away from cities to give beautifully starry night views with the water’s edge only 20 feet from your front door.

The owner stipulates that interested parties must spend a night on the island before he’ll consider an offer. There’s also the fact it can get pretty dicey in New England winter storms from October to May when it’s ‘Not fit for man nor beast’ with storms, ice, and potential flooding. A friend only managed to stay there 3 days before coming back in the winter. There is also no running water, showers, nor heat. Bathroom facilities are an outhouse. Still, it’s a rare find because the structure could never be built with today’s new zoning laws.

I’ve been to Japan twice and loved each time I went. With the age of the internet, live streamers, and travel streamers – you can visit anywhere in the world at any time without leaving the comfort of your own home.

Over my 20 years of international travel, one thing I’ve learned is that you can never visit the same place twice. Time marches on in every country, every city, and even every life. Places you visited one year are gone and replaced the next. Cultural trends you loved in one place have been replaced with the latest new thing. Nothing stays the same.

That’s why I love checking up on the places I liked visiting using Twitch, Youtube, and other streams. Thankfully, we’re moving beyond the era of screaming, idiotic streamers into something more refined. I prefer streams from people that live in the countries and travel like locals and not tourists and Instagram influencers. The latter often rarely have any real curiosity or respect for a culture. They do culturally rude/insensitive things, forcing their way through a place with money and brashness. They pressure the goodness of kind locals just to get the shot they want and then go on to culturally pillage some other location for likes. They rarely leave a place or people the encounter better – or actually learn anything about the cultures that produced what they’re traveling through.

Here’s a few of those better channels. Do you have some?

• Chris Abroad: https://www.youtube.com/c/ChrisAbroad
• Tokyo Lens: https://www.youtube.com/c/TokyoLens
• Robcdee (a younger person’s take with some goofy drinking): https://www.twitch.tv/robcdee

An example of some good quality content. Bonus points for the fact I remember this guy when I was in Akihabara.

Fascinating project that scans Wikipedia and reports the most famous person from just about any city and town on a big global map. Even my own tiny home town of about 3000 people had an entry. While many places have people famous for politics, sports, music, Nobel prize winners, and so forth, you might also discover that the most notable person from your town might have been a pretty terrible person – name recognition is fickle.

I think I have a new bucket list location. The Exumas (travel info here) are a district of the Bahamas, consisting of over 365 islands, also called cays. Renown for sapphire-blue waters, deserted cays, swimming pigs on Big Major Cay, and ultra-excusive resorts (like David Copperfield’s Musha Cay that rents for $50,000/night). It’s a real paradise on earth that draws people the world over.

As of August 1, 2022, Scottish Pladda Island is for sale via Knight Frank. Besides the 27 acres of island, it also houses a working lighthouse, walled garden, lightkeepers house, various outbuildings, stone landing jetty, and even a helipad – for any offers in excess of £350,000 (approx. $426,000 USD).

There are some caveats. The lighthouse is still owned and operated by the Scottish Northern Lighthouse Board and they have right of servitude and access to the lighthouse and solar array for inspection, maintenance, repair, and renewal. They maintain right of access to tie up boats at the jetty and land helicopters. There is no power or water supply to the island. A well exists but the pump and storage tank must be replaced. None of the houses have been lived in for some time and renovations will be required.

However, for the cost of a house in a major city, you might just own your own Scottish island.

Checkout out the brochure and floorplans – or make your bid!

Latin based languages share a massive amount of common and overlapping words. RobWords offers these 3 tricks for English speakers to scuttle through the French language. I find these kinds of tips super helpful for a casual traveler. As always, these are not hard and fast and some require some lateral thinking to make the connections – but it’s good enough to really improve your muddling through the French language.

1. French words that start with an ‘É’ can often be replaced with an ‘S’. Examples:
   épice -> spice
   étranger -> stranger
   épouse -> spouse
   éponge -> sponge
   
2. Vowels with a caret ‘âêîôû’ – remove the hat and add a ‘s’
   Forêt -> Forest
   Tempête -> Tempest(e)
   Arrête -> arrest(e)
   Hôtesse -> Hostess(e)
   Hôtel -> Hostel
   Hâte -> Haste
   Pâte -> Paste
   Hôpital -> Hospital
   Maître -> Maistre
   Côte -> Co(a)st (the side/coast)
   
3. Replace the ‘GU’ that starts some words with ‘W’
   Guerre -> Wuerre -> War
   Guillaume -> Willaume (William)

Put them together and:

L’écureuil étudie guillaume le guerrier à l’école dans la forêt.

We translate as:

L’ scureuil studie willaume le werrier à l’scole dans la forest.

becomes:

The squirrel studies william the warrior at school in the forest.

Are you a fan of Bridgerton? Would you like a fancy dress-up night in 1800’s garb? Well! The Queen’s Ball Bridgerton Experience might be for you.

The Queen herself invites you to a once-in-a-lifetime evening of music and dance complete with acrobatic performances, interactive experiences, a stunning dance show, and plenty of surprises.

As guests at this delightful soirée, you will be transported to 1813 London to take part in the most coveted ball of the season. Prepare to mingle with other members of the Ton as you immerse yourself in an evening unlike any you have ever experienced before.

Enjoy a beautiful ballroom decorated in the Regency-era style, interact with actors dressed in exquisite period costumes, savor delicious cocktails, and listen to live music inspired by the iconic Bridgerton soundtrack.

Even more interesting, when you buy your ticket, you get a discount to local costume and clothing providers like Rent the Runway and Ponton costumes so you can fully dress the part.

When visiting Tokyo Tsukiji fish market, you should definitely try some of the freshest sushi in the world. But which spots should you check out?

• Maguroya Kurogin – amazing tuna bowls
• Yoshizawa – lots of great little tidbits to buy and eat – especially the Katsu and Wagyu Katsu.

This list from Savor Japan had 2 of my favorites, and the others seem like good recommendations too.

1. Sushi Dai
2. Tsukiji Itadori Uni Tora Naka-dori Branch
3. Tsukiji Itadori Bekkan
4. Tsukiji Tsunao
5. Edomae Sushi Takewaka Annex
6. Daiwa Sushi – The one is my hands-down favorite despite some saying Sushi Dai being slightly better since it was first of the two. It used to be right next door to Sushi Dai. Believe the two are father/son pairs with almost identical experience.
7. Tsukiji Kiyomura Sushi Zanmai Main Branch
8. Sushi Kuni
9. Sushi Zanmai Bekkan
10. Tsukiji Itadori Uogashi Senryo
11. Tsukiji Sushicho Main Branch
12. Tsukiji Itadori Ura Branch
13. Tsukiji Kagura Sushi
14. Tsukiji Sushi Sen 6-chome Jogai Shijo Branch
15. Sushi Zanmai Honjin