patrickjegan

Respect your ancestors, for you are the result of a thousand loves….

May 31, 2023

Montparnasse Cemetery: A Stroll For Taphophiles

[Overview of Montparnasse Cemetery. Photo is mine] I unfolded my laminated map of Paris and scanned the green spaces. In three minutes I found what I wanted. Paris has three large and notable cemeteries within the city boundaries. They are: ~~Pere Lachaise. Perhaps the most famous. This the final resting place of many notable French…
May 28, 2023

Weather Most Foul: What We Saw/What We Didn’t

[The six to ten foot waves of the Adriatic Sea taken through the sea-splashed window of our stateroom aboard the Windstar’s “WindSurf”. Photo is mine] Here I am sitting in a room of the Welcome Hotel on the Boulevard Saint-Germain in the 6th Arrondissement of Paris about to write a blog post on Milan, Italy.…
May 25, 2023

Como: Love, Clooney, Tragedy And Death

[Piazza Mazzini, Como. From our hotel window. Photo is mine] Beautiful, even on rainy days. ~ ~ Anon. Part One: Como & Beyond If you found this post by finding “Como” and are expecting to hear a YouTube video of Perry Como singing “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas”, I’m very sorry. You’re…
May 23, 2023

Greetings Bob

It’s your birthday. Eighty-two years ago Hibbing’s population grew by one. The one birth when a boy who grew up with a soul and a talent of a Byron, Rimbaud, Shakespeare, hobo, drifter, prankster, patriot, rebel and more, all with the soul of a true poet. Your songs are sung not for the masses, not…
May 22, 2023

Rome: Antiquity, Beauty & Faith

Men did not love Rome because she was great. She was great because they had loved her. ~ ~ G. K. Chesterton [One of the iconoclastic images in the world. The Colosseum of Rome. What is not so famous is the construction equipment in the foreground. Photo is mine.] Part One: The City As A…
May 19, 2023

A Rainy Day in Pompeii

[A note to my readers: This blog post contains several images of a sexual nature. Not much more than you would see in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.] To my more delicate and pious readers, this leaves you with three choices: 1~Scroll past this post (and miss some interesting content). 2~Shelve your morals, grit your…
May 14, 2023

Messina, (Sicily) Italy: Of WWII & The Godfather

[I haven’t spoken Latin since I was an altar boy…About fifty years ago. This statue greets our boat as we entered the Harbor of Messina. Photo is mine.] After an entire day at sea, we tied up at the dock in the city of Messina. It is our only port-of-call in Sicily. We paid 15…
May 12, 2023

Rovinj & Split: Olive Oil, Cobblestones, Thrones and Holy Bones

[The closest to Dubrovnik, Croatia that I will get on this journey.] I’m sitting at a desk in Suite 137 on board the Wind Surf (Wind Star Cruise Lines). The level of the mineral water in a glass next to my mouse pad gently tilts, back and forth, like I am playing with a level…
May 7, 2023

Midnight Thoughts of Venice

[San Giorgio Maggiore in the distance. Photo is mine.] Venice has been said to be the most romantic city in the world. I can think of one famous resident who certainly thought so, Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (b. 1725). He should know a thing or two about romance. He claimed to have slept with at least…
May 5, 2023

Dear Greg

[Greg (R) and myself on some forgotten peak in the Keene Valley Region of the Adirondacks. NY. Date: 1970’s. Photo is mine.] It’s coming up on a year now since you left me on the trail. You needed to climb one more mountain…at the time, I didn’t want another summit, but you had other thoughts.…