by Lindsay Shapka in History, Travel
On the day that Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79AD, the sun disappeared behind a thick column of black smoke and the pristine blue of the Amalfi sky was clouded with ash.
A series of pyroclastic surges — low, fast-moving waves of hot, lethal gases and ash — covered Pompeii, instantly killing its remaining citizens that had not escaped the city in time.
Read Moreby Lindsay Shapka in Travel, History
I stepped through the door and took a deep breath.
The air was crisp and the cobblestone streets of Cortona were empty. Reaching behind me, I pulled the heavy wooden door shut with a bit too much force, sending an echo through the stairwell behind it. I cringed, hoping that I didn’t just wake half the building, while I bent down to thread the door key through my shoelace and tie it tight so it didn’t fall off mid-run.
Read Moreby Lindsay Shapka in Travel, History, Discovey, culture
If I were to ask you to close your eyes and picture the Greek Islands, what would you see?
White sand? Feta cheese? Brad Pitt dressed as Achilles?
Read Moreby Lindsay Shapka in History, Travel, Discovey
The Pantheon in Rome, one of the city’s most well preserved ancient buildings, has always been one of my favorite sites to visit. This is not just because of its breathtaking architecture and famous tombs (the artist Raphael is buried there) but because of what it once represented.
Read Moreby Lindsay Shapka in History, culture, Discovey, Travel
In 1975, the Khmer Rouge — one of the most lethal regimes of the 20th century — took over Cambodia.
Led by Pol Pot, the regime forced the Cambodian people to work on collective farms and labor projects, as a form of agrarian communism. Sympathetic to the peasants, they killed all who they deemed to be “New People,” or those who lived in the city at the time of their take over.
Read Moreby Lindsay Shapka in Book List, culture, History, Travel, Discovey
In most of the bookstores I walk into, the art history section is pretty lean. There are a lot of large-scale glossy photo books with the standard famous works of art in them, but not much that is critical, new, or honest.
Read Moreby Lindsay Shapka in History, Travel
Hot Air Ballooning had its inception in September of 1973 when De Rozier, a French scientist, launched the first balloon with a sheep, duck, and rooster as passengers. The balloon stayed airborne for fifteen minutes before it crashed to the ground.
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