I'm working on it.....gray cells are in overdrive....can't you smell something burning? LOL

Me too. A sleepless night wondering if I am looking for a person's name or a place or a unique achievement stroke attribute or what.

I now have a seven-letter word ending in ..na for every letter in the alphabet and KNOW they are all wrong.

Adriana, Bologna, Cortina, - - - -

Betty I went to Conques and photographed a flowery staircase after luch.

So we're looking for the honor, itself? Not the person or place?

I'll guess Bologna

it was a place: Bologna.. had the honor to have the first university in Europe in 1088...
Now, which one should have the honor to ask the new Q ?harzer or cigalechanta?
Go ahead Harzer.. enlight us...

go ahead hazer, we're waiting.

My honor?

This British golf course was the first in London.

10 letters, the third being A.

Blackheath (not that I ever heard of it until two minutes ago)?

P.S. Little interruption: If you know some Italian, and want to do this gave in a mixture of English and Italian (at leaswt the clues have to be in Italian), see this thread: http://forums.about.com/ab-italian/messages?msg=2793.1
(I started it on the AboutCom Italian Language forum, but it is patterned right after the gave BrighamRocks invented here.)

Giorgio Vasari?

"Olizarevitch says. London's first golf course was Thames Valley, which opened in 1924"

&quot;Lying less than ten miles from central London, Royal Blackheath Golf Club is the oldest golf club in <b>England</b>, and possibly the world, having reputedly been instituted in 1608 by Scottish golfers who came south following the accession of King James I.&quot;

Well done, cmt!

Your turn to puzzle us.

The &quot;c&quot; of Blackheath becomes the 5th of 8 letters in the name of a type of pine tree that is a sightseeing attraction for nature-loving hikers and tourists in the high areas of a certain national park that spans two regions in an area that used to be part of Magna Gr&aelig;cia. (Don't worry; this is MUCH easier than it looks at first glance.)

Pinaceae???

Loricata or Loricato? (I've found it spelled both ways)

BR: You must've broken all speed records!!! Yes, it's the loricato pine found in Pollino National Park, which spans parts of the Basilicata and Calabria regions of southern Italy.

I think I just got lucky!

OK, building on the T. Two words, 11 letters in all. The T is the fourth letter.

A young lad with keen eyes was rewarded with rum by this famous British explorer.

Any guesses?