Speechless at the Pantheon, Parthenon and Pompeii by Bonna L. Nelson

Ibn Battuta, a 14th-century Moroccan traveler and scholar, said, “Traveling leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” My first travel experience was on the wings of my grandfather’s collection of dog-eared National Geographic magazines when only a child of eight. While the adults

enjoyed cocktails, I curled up on the sofa to travel around the world. I was preoccupied with travel in high school and college, too. Studies about world history, world religions and sailing around the Mediterranean Sea competed with thoughts of boys, parties and sailing around the Severn River. Family trips to

Interior view of the Colosseum. 33