paula reynolds

Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly…and any Texan worth his or her braggin’ rights has gotta own a pair of mighty fine cowboy boots. Ask any Lone Star State resident to name the Cadillac of boot brands and you’d most …

Where the sunrise lifts swirling rounds of swallows skyward over ancient terra-cotta to announce the day,  and cobbled streets host the daily walk of shop-keepers, artisans, and townsfolk as they have for over 1,500 years. Where ancient church towers sing …

Pompeo Luigi Coppini. The name itself conjures up images of greatness, eminence, and well, someone who must be pretty important, yes? Fortunate enough for the bearer, his was an illustrious life, this Lombard-turned-Texan sculptor. But like those flitting grains of …

The last gasps of summer play out over the Italian landscape – a land grateful for the sun’s energizing warmth, but oh-so-ready for fall’s cooler temps and bountiful harvests. Undulating hillsides lay decorated with purple-red grape clusters dripping jewel-like from …

All roads lead to Rome as the old saying goes – all 1,243 miles of road when we’re talking about the Via Francigena, the ancient byway connecting Canterbury to Rome. While the serious-minded, contemporary pellegrini (pilgrims) consider walking the full …

Ferrara: oh, the tragedy of having overlooked this beauty of an Italian city for so many years! But we’re in the good company of a whole lot of other folks, it seems, with their heads in the Italian sand. Thankfully, …

Ah, the good ol’ summer time! Breezy lazy days of child-like freedom fill the weeks as attire lightens along with our moods; backyard bar-b-ques, sand sifting between toes, and blue skies rule the days, while star-filled heavens and fireflies guide …

True confession: up until about 6 years ago I gleefully lived my life believing a truffle was a delectable orb of chocolaty goodness surrounding a mystery filling of something gooey and delicious. This type of truffle does exist, but to …

Almost lost to the annals of time, there’s a particular story of Italian immigration that most of us haven’t heard about in a history class, nor read in book, nor listened to as we squirmed at nonna’s knee. It’s a …

But what he had not anticipated nor planned for was the addition of an assistant. And a girl at that. Miss Waldine Tauch of Brady, from Texas, was a remarkably talented young girl of 18 years, beautiful and ambitious, yet …