On October 25, 2011, Vernazza experienced probably the worst flood in its 1,000-year history.WHEN I WAS 16, my family went on a 3-week summer vacation in Europe. It was my first major trip abroad. I was a brat.I distinctly remember opting to sleep in and hang out in the hotel room rather than spend a day walking around Venice.

Before you set off on a ghost hunting expedition, you first need to learn a few lessons.Photo courtesy of Loyd AuerbachEVER WONDER WHAT it takes to become a serious ghostbuster? What sorts of skills are necessary in order to track down our fleshless friends?Well, paranormal neophytes, Matador is here to help debunk erroneous myths and impart ghost-hunting advice.

Photo: gbakuTake a break from blogging, emails, and Twitter for a second and write a letter.TIME IS SHORT and so are our communications; emails are often non-grammatical bursts of information. Status updates are ephemeral and often trite. Blogs can help you express and communicate, but usually aren’t written for a specific person.

Watercolor by Josh JohnsonHere are 5 old school ways to be creative without benefit of WIFI, wires, keyboards, or kilobytes.WatercolorWatercolors are cheap, portable and easy to use. A few bucks will get you a watercolor set and a few more will get you a decent brush. In the hands of a master, watercolor is a magical medium indeed.

Matador community expert Phillip Lombardino gets ninja training in the KL street-food scene.I COULD NEVER be a food critic. I like food — a lot — but I’m not picky. Luckily, I wasn’t in charge in Kuala Lumpur.My first morning in KL, an overconfident Singaporean from my hostel commandeered me for a series of street-food missions in Chinatown.

Stealing tons of ice can’t be easy. And when you get caught, it doesn’t pay.WHAT WOULD YOU DO with a couple of tons of ice?No, really. Ice. As in frozen water. That you pried off a glacier in the south of Chile.You could put it into whiskey-filled glasses for tourists on Kodiak trips around a glacial melt-filled lagoon in the south.