"Turkish hospitality is impossible to ignore", proclaims the in-flight magazine as I fly to Bodrum. You can't miss it when you set foot in the airport: the welcome visa costs $20. By the exit, the passengers are greeted by a forest of A4 sheets with the names of the people to take to the hotel. It is nice to go to an unknown place, and find somebody waiting for you and calling you by name: in this case, Turkish hospitality will set you back $40. … [Read more...]
About Lorena Di Nola
In the years that witnessed the internet revolution and the invention of the mochaccino, I was making my contribution to the advancement of knowledge by learning how to draw figures of eight with my hips and researching Russian terms for different models of carriage in use in Siberia in the 19th century. A translator, freelance journalist, project manager, belly dancer and excellent tiramisu maker, my career highlights include having written a travelogue for The Independent to tell the English about global beer habits - me, an Italian Chardonnay lover - and carried out a project for Yahoo on how to simplify our post-modern lives
The Island of the Eccentrics
You have to be a little eccentric to live here' - said Corinna as she welcomed us to her house. To many in the village she is more than eccentric: she is a witch. Dressed in a long black gown, her hair hidden in a headscarf, she is in no hurry to fight the rumour. When the superstitious villagers saw twenty foreign women getting off the water taxi, armed with an array of lotions and potions to fight mosquitoes and prevent sunburn, they had reason … [Read more...]