Italy's Siren Call Lures Us

Whatever A Guidebook Says, Wether Or Not You Leave Somewhere With A Sense Of The Place Is Entirely A Matter Of Smell And Instinct.

It's Kind Of Amazing That People Will Travel Because Of A Book. I Admire That.

I Got The Idea That To Write Books Would Be The Best Way To Spend A Life. I Never Thought Of Anything Else That Seemed Like Half As Much Fun, Although In My Next Life I Would Like To Be An Architect, Too, So I Can Have An Easier Time Restoring Houses.

Travel Releases Spontaneity. You Become A Godlike Creature Full Or Choice, Free To Visit The Stately Pleasure Domes, Make Love In The Morning, Sketch A Bell Tower, Read A History Of Byzantium, Stare For One Hour At The Face Of Leonardo Da Vinci's 'madonna Dei Fusi.' You Open, As In Childhood, And--for A Time--receive This World. There's Visceral Aspect, Too--the Huntress Who Is Free. Free To Go, Free To Return Home Bringing Memories To Lay On The Hearth.

I Was Born And Grew Up In Fitzgerald, Way Down In South Georgia. It Was A Mill Town And My Family Ran The Cotton Mill. My Grandfather Was Mayor Many Times And My Family Felt Deeply Rooted To That Spot.