World to the Wise

07/27/2026

07/27/2026

Doors are closing SOON on our October adventure to Venice, Tuscany and Lausanne! Check out all the info here! https://daviddurham.org/tours

07/22/2026

Back to school sale! 25% off ALL our language courses! Video-based courses designed for self-study, including home school students.
Check them out at https://worldtothewiseacademy.teachable.com
Remember to use the coupon code BACK2SCHOOL26 at checkout!

07/15/2026

Volterra is an ancient walled city perched high atop one of Tuscany's highest hills. On a clear day you can see all the way to the Ligurian sea to the west. This was a center of the Etruscan civilization, predating the Roman Empire by several centuries. The Etruscans were an advanced, innovative people from whom the Romans learned a great deal.

We hope you'll join us this October as we discover this intriguing city, along with magical San Gimignano.

07/07/2026

Meet the Ammirabile family from Montespertoli, Tuscany. They are a truly remarkable family and a big part of the reason we continue to take groups to Tuscany with World to the Wise cultural tours. We have the privilege of touring their vineyards and olive groves and partaking of the fruits thereof, in an idyllic setting half and hour outside Florence.We've just released information on a popul trip to Tuscany, Venice and Lausanne, Switzerland this coming October -- check it out here!
https://daviddurham.org/tours

06/23/2026

We just sent "We heard you: ITALY (soon!) + others!" to my 310+ subscribers. Be sure to get on our list to get the next one straight to your inbox.

06/14/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/18MnH4t3fC/?mibextid=wwXIfr

An Englishman paid for them. Paris named them after him. France never officially thanked him.

Sir Richard Wallace was born illegitimate and largely self-made. He had lived in Paris most of his life, inherited a fortune, and built one of the great private art collections in Europe. When the Franco-Prussian War put the city under siege in 1870, most of the wealthy left. Wallace stayed.

He spent an estimated 2.5 million francs of his own money on ambulances, soup kitchens, fuel, and housing for the city's poorest residents. Clean drinking water had become a luxury. The poor bought it from street vendors at prices they could barely afford, or drank from the Seine.

In 1872, Wallace commissioned sculptor Charles-Auguste Lebourg to design cast-iron drinking fountains: ornate, elegant, placed on the busiest pavements of every arrondissement (district). The first was installed on Boulevard de la Villette in July 1872. Fifty more followed within the year, each paid for entirely out of his own pocket.

The four female figures holding up the dome are caryatids representing Kindness, Simplicity, Charity, and Sobriety. Each fountain originally had tin cups chained to it so anyone could drink. The cups were removed in 1952 for hygiene reasons.

Around 120 of the original grand model fountains remain in Paris today, still delivering free drinking water.
Wallace died in 1890. He never received formal recognition from the French state.

Photo: Gallica / David Monniaux

06/05/2026

"As Americans, the best thing we can do right now is to get out there, understand our place in our ever-smaller world, and *listen* to what others have to say -- so we can be good ambassadors for our country and do our part to be great global citizens." - Rick Steves

05/30/2026

Couldn't have said it better. Seen in an eatery at the Amsterdam airport.