It’s 3:30 a.m. and pitch black. The balcony door is open in my room and I see stars. I lay alone in inky silence, starting to simmer from the deepest core of my being. A heat so deep my bones are sweating. I’m wrapped up tightly in layers of hot, wet sheets and heavy blankets [...]

Picture a lush, green valley near the source of Europe’s most legendary river, an epic mountain scene from Lord of the Rings on IMAX. On either side of this fertile plain, the Alps rise up like green soldiers at attention with stone helmets guarding the gates of heaven. Snow patches are still visible in the [...]

Mystery Solved. The next morning, The Pope’s wife hands me the newspaper as I’m walking toward the terrace with an espresso. There’s a front page cover story about an 18-wheeler loaded with wood, totally ablaze on the Swiss Autobahn, exactly where we had seen the dark smoke from the mountain top. The authorities closed the [...]