Interesting news this morning from the Parla Food blog:

On September 5, Italy will join twenty-four nations in celebrating the eleventh annual European Day of Jewish Culture. In Rome, there will be lectures, concerts, and exhibits dedicated to this year's theme, Art and Judaism. Perhaps the most exciting events of the day will be the guided tours of the Jewish catacombs of Villa Torlonia. Visitors will be given a rare glimpse at in-situ ancient Jewish funerary art, primarily fresco, in a sanctuary that is normally off-limits to the public.

We had a chance to visit last year, and got to take some pictures of the interesting Jewish Catacombs, normally not open to the public: Pictures of the Jewish Catacombs under Villa Torlonia in Rome, Italy.

We're planning a trip to Istanbul this fall. Usually we'd consult a guidebook. But you know what I did first? I looked for travel blogs. After all, the most up to date information is more likely to come from a frequently updated online source--and since some things, like hot restaurants, come and go with frightening speed, online is often the way to go when planning a foodie foray--and I've heard Turkish cuisine is one of the tops in the world.

So I've made a list of my favorite Istanbul and Turkey travel blogs: Top Turkey Travel Blogs. I'm going in fall, so I need some historic weather data in order to pack appropriately, which you can peruse too: Istanbul Weather and Historic Climate - When to Go to Istanbul.

And here's a map of  Western Turkey for good measure. Happy travel planning.

It you're cubicle bound and can't help dreaming of being free of the tacky box in order to travel the world, Finnair might want you as a "Quality Hunter", a blog and fly job.

Check out: Dream Job Alert! Finnair Wants 'Quality Hunters' to Fly Around the World

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Perhaps you don't know this, but Greenland is an autonomous place, a part of Denmark. It is defrosting right now.

Andrew Evans, a travel writer, landed in Greenland recently. He has been twittering his impressions of the place which, considering area, is the world's largest island that is not a continent, according to Wikipedia.

I like Mr. Evans because his twitter pic shows him kissing a parakeet. It is not unlike my twitter pic. Birds of a feather and all that.

In any case, It's interesting following a writer as he describes one of Europe's most exotic destinations in literary slices of life consisting of fewer than 140 characters. Mr. Evans has one odd and creative web site too, so the ride should be fun.

Twitter Resources: Follow Andrew Evans | Follow me (starting from mid-September tweeting from Italy and Istanbul and European places to be named later)