From Massachusetts to Virginia, Florida, and Tennessee: And That Was Only the Beginning!

by mattathomeintheworld, posted in Blogs, U.S.A., USA Roadtrips

It had been almost a year since I’d taken any significant trips, so the combination of my itchy feet and the prospect of taking my new car on its first road trip, caused me to decide that it was time to hit the road again. Unlike the days when I was living in California and made a couple of cross- country trips each year to visit friends and family back east, these days my time is pretty much my own, so I can just meander and go where I want without being on any type of schedule. When I learned that my friend Joanne had planned to take her 93-year old mother, Norma on a road trip to Florida to visit relatives, I suggested we coordinate our plans to rendezvous first in Virginia Beach, then in Florida where we’d celebrate Norma’s 94th birthday together.

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Happy New Year!

by mattathomeintheworld, posted in Blogs

As I welcomed in 2024 watching a truly impressive fireworks display over downtown Providence, Rhode Island, I decided that one of my New Year’s resolutions needed to be paying more attention to this website and creating some new blog posts for the new year. As I’ve shared in earlier posts, during the last few months of 2023 I was preoccupied with finally getting my book published and trying to promote it.

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At Home in the World is Now Out in the World!

by mattathomeintheworld, posted in Uncategorized

As of today, my book At Home in the World: Reflections of a Travel Addict is available on Amazon as either a paperback or a Kindle/e-book. This is a project I’ve thought about for years, and that it finally came to fruition is really pretty surreal. If you’ve enjoyed reading my blogs here, I think you’ll find the book to your liking. I put a lot of myself into it and I am really pleased with the results and hope you will be too!

I’ve prepared a little trailer to hopefully pique your interest in the book.

Let’s Go!

The Reviews Are In!

by mattathomeintheworld, posted in Uncategorized

Hello everyone! My book is finally completed and should be available on Amazon within the next week or so. But the “reviews” are already coming in from around the world:

“Maybe if his book does well, he will return and finally buy a carpet!” – a Turkish rug salesman.

“He may be a good writer, but he made the most pathetic mochi balls that we have ever seen at our festival!” – a resident of Shimabara, Japan.

“I remember him as the dinner that got away…”  – an Australian salt-water crocodile.

“This book could be bigger than Ben Hur!”  – an anonymous New Zealand grad student.

“He tried to add cheese to his spaghetti with clams! We were horrified!” – an Italian restauranteur.

“He still owes me $25 for the beautiful photos I took of him when he rode my camel!” – an Egyptian vendor.

See what all the buzz is about… the paperback and an ebook version will be available soon. Stay tuned for further updates! – Matt

Aloha, Lahaina

by mattathomeintheworld, posted in Uncategorized

As the story of the horrific wildfire that swept through the Hawaiian town of Lahaina, Maui earlier this month continues to unfold, it’s impossible not to feel a sense of disbelief. While fires in California, throughout the western United States and most recently in Canada have been in the headlines for the past several summers now, the speed with which the Maui fire struck and the total devastation it has wrought brings to mind a comparison to the famous destruction of Pompeii in the 79AD eruption of Italy’s Mt. Vesuvius. One day Pompeii was a thriving city; the next day it was gone, snuffed out by the volcano in approximately 24 hours. Lahaina, the historic, cultural, and tourist heart of Maui has met a similar fate, though ironically not from an eruption in these volcanically active Hawaiian Islands, but by a combination of other natural forces: drought, fire, and hurricane-force winds.

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Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah to All!

by mattathomeintheworld, posted in Uncategorized

I just wanted to take a quick moment to say Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to all my loyal readers and followers. I’ve been saying that I feel as if someone removed about 10 days of December from the calendar, as I blinked and here we are at the end of the month already. I felt like I barely had time to get into the spirit of the season, despite the fact that this has always been my favorite time of year.

On the Road… Upstate New York
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Farewell to Another Musical Legend: Christine McVie

by mattathomeintheworld, posted in Music

Just a few months ago the world lost singer and actress Olivia Newton-John, and I took the loss very personally. Her music was an integral part of my teenage years and got me through some difficult times, and I was saddened by the fact that she had lost her decades-long battle with breast cancer. Her loss also made me more aware of my own mortality, since she was only 10 years older than me. Little did I know that I’d soon be saying farewell to another beloved entertainer whose music is so much a part of my identity that when news of her death made headlines this week, I received several messages from friends who were wondering how I was coping with the loss. Yes, this week we lost Christine McVie, keyboardist, vocalist and songwriter for Fleetwood Mac. She was 79 years old, and her death seemed to be sudden and unexpected, reports saying she had passed away after a brief illness.

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A Long-Awaited Return to Iceland

by mattathomeintheworld, posted in Blogs, Europe, Iceland

My first trip to Iceland was in June of 2008, and it was among my most favorite travel destinations. The scenery was other-worldly, the peace and quiet appealed to me, and the food, though expensive, was top-notch. Unfortunately, my travels over the years never seemed to bring me back to Iceland, but as I began to plan a European getaway for this fall, the new Icelandic airline called Play offered fares so low that it made my trip entire trip feasible. Since all of Play’s flights pass through Reykjavik, I decided it was the perfect opportunity to revisit Iceland for a few days after visiting Italy and London.

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Taking the Voyage with ABBA

by mattathomeintheworld, posted in Blogs, Music

I just returned from my first trip to Europe in several years. My primary destination was Italy, but given how easy it is to “hop” around Europe fairly cheaply once you’re across the Atlantic, I decided that while I was in “the neighborhood”, I simply had to go to London to see ABBA’s innovative concert/show/spectacle, and so I planned a two night stop-over in London for that purpose.

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A Beautiful Reunion with an Old Friend: Italy

by mattathomeintheworld, posted in Blogs, Europe, Italy

Thanks to the gigantic monkey wrench that COVID threw into all of our lives, I haven’t traveled abroad since the summer of 2019. To some, this may not seem like such a big deal, but for me, who was once described by Diletta, my former Italian teacher, as someone who “goes to Europe the way some people go to the grocery store,” this hiatus from international travel was a huge change in my life. Ambiguous and ever-changing COVID restrictions that varied from country to country, uncertainty about the economy and my own finances, and the threat of a larger war developing in Europe all made me wonder whether I would ever get back to Europe, and especially to my beloved Italy again.

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