"Where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars"

One of our all-time favorite crooners, Tony Bennett, musically recommended San Francisco as the ultimate destination in his soaring song. Although you don't have to lose your heart in the lovely city by the bay, you can lose your way while strolling along fogged-in Union Square after dark. Just kidding.

Golden Gate Park is where summer ends and fall begins in this fabulous city, and if you're in town at the right time of year, you don't want to miss it when its tree leaves turn from green to all shades of gold. If you were a wandering member of the Hippie generation, you may want to go back to the Mecca of that era, Haight-Ashbury, and then enjoy the wonderful cafes on Fisherman's Wharf or bark with the hordes of seal lions that rest below the Pier 39 tourist trap.

New York, New York: Sinatra ended his famous seasonal song with the phrase, “Autumn in New York, it's good to live it again”. Most of us now in our later years have a great memory or two of New York, and an autumn trip can really help us live them again.

Remember? The day World War II ended, and your GI uniform got you many hugs, kisses and several great nights that followed. The New Year's Eve when you joined the crowd to watch the ball drop. Walks in the park with that someone special.

Remember when James Cagney made a dramatic end to the movie, “White Heat”. Chased by the cops, the suicidal, mother-obsessed gangster climbed up a huge oil storage tank and set it afire. Just before it blew up, he yelled, “Top of the world, Ma!”

While on a cruise, we recently visited the lonely little coastal town of Ushuaia, in the Terra del Fuego area of Argentina. It is literally the last civilization at the very lowest tip of South America. And if we had wanted to imitate Cagney, we could have stood there and shouted, “Bottom of the world, Ma!”

Ushuaia is just across the Beagle Channel from the tip of the frozen Antartic region, and has 18 hours of summer daylight. It was a bit strange dining in a local cafe at midnight under the bright sun. In the winter, there are less than eight hours of daylight.

Provence is one of Southern France's most beautiful place for autumn touring. I spent a day there several years ago watching an artist splash and daub a Van Gogh style painting of one of the village squares. When he stopped to eat a sandwich, I told him in my high school French how much I admired his impressionist style and the beauty of the region.

He responded in American English that he had studied at the Philly Museum College of Art, my alma mater. He was much younger, of course, but we had some mutual memories of faculty and courses. He even offered me half of his ham sandwich and we shared a bottle of one of the excellent local wines.

Provence, its villages and country roads are worth exploring, especially in the fall. You may even stumble on a brightly ripening cornfield and flock of crows, just as Vincent saw them. But, please, keep your ears intact.

Submitted by John Philippa, Boston MA