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A true home-cooked meal in Italy: Home Food
If actions speak louder than words, then all I need to say is this: with just one evening in Turin recently, I chose a Home Food dinner over the city’s chocolate festival, CioccolaTO. The Turin...
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Ten useful and interesting signs in Rome
Street signs, placards, new signs, old signs – I photograph them all when I travel. Sometimes they represent interesting cultural differences, sometimes they’re just useful, and sometimes the photo is...
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Italy’s Dolomites: a totally different culture
An Italian friend and I were relaxing after lunch at an outdoor cafe in Bressanone’s sunny main square a few months ago (photo below) when she gasped: “Did you see that? The woman at the table next...
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A money strategy for your Italy trip
After the overall itinerary has been finalized and hotels, guides, transfers, and restaurants have been booked for trip planning clients, we usually have a conversation about a money strategy for...
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Dinner at Milan’s Cracco
When my husband proposed marriage on the terrace of our Milan apartment 12 years ago, we celebrated our engagement with dinner at Milan’s Cracco-Peck restaurant, which had just opened. Every bite...
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Why you need a strategy for maps in Italy
How do you find a new location in your home city? If you’re like most people you probably rely on your smartphone most of the time and you may use a GPS in the car (or your smartphone’s GPS). You may...
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Guest post at TBEX: How to be a travel consultant
Every couple months I get a request from someone asking about how to become a travel consultant. I’ve coached people on how to do it, and I finally put my advice into this post, which was published on...
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Planning Your Trip to Italy: What to book when
Part of my coaching service includes advising clients on what to book when, so that after our week of working together, they have a plan to create their trip. Usually they contact me ready to go:...
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Win 7 days of Italy travel coaching, help build a well in Haiti
Passports with Purpose is raising funds to build a well in Haiti this year with Water.org, and I wanted to help. Only a few years old, PwP has raised money to build a school in Cambodia, an entire...
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By the numbers: Italy Top 10 in 2012
I’ve already started working on spring Italy trips for 2013, but I sat down to look at where my clients went in 2012, and created this Top 10 list based on number of hotel nights per trip. There were a...
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10 Reasons To Vacation in Italy
Here are, in no particular order, ten reasons to choose Italy for your next vacation. Already agree? Let me help you plan that vacation! Italy has something for everyone’s interests. When I start...
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The secret to creating a fabulous Italy itinerary
Italy has kicked my butt more than once. More accurately, Italy has torn me down, stomped on me, left me stranded and frustrated, and then called “ha!” over her shoulder as she’s walked away,...
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Tips on wine tasting in Piedmont
“Piedmont has wine??” someone commented on Facebook when I posted a photo of my trip. Wine lovers tend to know about Barolo wine and maybe the bubbly Moscato D’Asti which are both from the region of...
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Funny things tourists say, in Venice
The exchanges below were overheard and recorded by the tourist organization Venessia.com on their Facebook page and made me laugh out loud, so I translated a few of my favorites and in some places...
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Tips on driving the Italian highways, the Autostrada
A repeat client recently told me as we were planning their Italy trip, “We want to rent a car, but I didn’t enjoy driving on the autostrada last time with the aggressive drivers that would come up...
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Five highlights of a Nutella lover’s itinerary
In honor of world Nutella day, here are some Nutella-related itinerary highlights from the place Nutella was invented, Piedmont. My itinerary also included hiking, castles, and all-around great food...
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Five tips on organizing a seaside summer day in Italy
New trip planning clients often tell me they want to include a few hours of doing nothing in their summer itinerary. For example they’ll say: “We want to sit in a cafe in the sun, by the water, with a...
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Visit Milan by bike, barge, or tram
Milan’s main sights are fantastic, and most of them can be visited on foot, but the city is big and if you want to get off your feet (or are traveling with kids), take advantage of some of these fun...
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How to find a perfect hotel in Italy using online reviews
When planning an Italy itinerary for a client traveling with three teenage boys recently, I sent hotel recommendations for Rome: the three hotels I recommended were all available for his dates, all...
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What to budget for an Italy trip
“What should we budget for 2 people for 12 days in Italy – is $10,000 enough?” asked new clients recently. After talking to them about their interests, we discussed a few possible Italy itineraries I...
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