the new york times and washington post out-retard each other in simultaenous, lengthy articles about the new hotspot regions of italy (tuscany is soooo over). the new york times annoints le marche; the washington post annoints puglia. the post must be late to the game, because i was raving about puglia back in '03. i have never been to le marche, but jackie of the long trip home lives there and often blogs appealing entries about the town of macerata.

if there's one thing i can't stand, it's articles that a) try to discover the "new tuscany" and b) claim the best part about a region is that there are no tourists and it's undiscovered, then publish their articles in a newspaper that only gets about 2 billion readers a day. NOT TO MENTION the post also does a blurb on matera, which i also visited in 2003. you can read my account of the town here. you know what really gets my goat? back in my too-ambitious days of attempts at freelance writing, i queried the post with an article about matera. of course, nobody ever contacted me back. so they can go shove a a big ol' trulli up their butts.