Introduction and disclaimer

I’m moving to Naples with my family for the next few years. I decided to keep a record of our travels for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that I like to read travel writing, so writing it will probably be even more fun. I’ll be in the unique position of writing about travel with a toddler, so that should make for some interesting anecdotes. My wife and I plan to visit a lot of places while we’re over here, and I’ll do my best to observe, process, digest and record at least some of our experiences. No idea how often I’ll post, but I welcome any comments or suggestions on what you’d like to hear about next, or places you’ve been and you think we should visit.

Some reservations I have about starting this blog include the obvious admission of extreme hubris that anything I could say will, in fact, edify those who read it. But since that’s not usually enough to stop anyone from writing (though it probably should), I’ll also admit that I’m an official spokesman for the U.S. Navy (that’s my job here), and may therefore have to color my posts accordingly. The views expressed are solely my own, however, and not those of the U.S. government. I don’t expect this situation to impair my writings or observations much, but if you want to call me out in my more fraudulent moments, feel free. It may be even more arrogant to assume anything I could say here would actually do more harm than good for my employer. But that’s my disclaimer, and I won’t say much more about it.

My plan is to keep the focus of this blog on travel-related themes: food and wine, cultural observations, language, accommodations, entertainment, sights, anecdotes and cute things our daughter does. I’m writing this so you can keep up with us and live vicariously through us, yes, but mostly because writing forces me to observe and to think and to drink deeply from the draught of life. So I invite you to join us in our quest to find that low door that opens on a garden not overlooked by any window, wherein dwells magic.