When you spend your birthday traveling after years of doing so at home, it is bound to feel somewhat strange, not really the big day with presents and cake unless you bring all of the bells and whistles with you. While I didn’t get any cake for my birthday, just gelato, I had the hard task of spending the big day in Maratea, Italy. Maratea rests along the Golfo di Policastro in the Basilicata region of Italy, blanketed with soft orange rooftops encased by green hills on one side and Tyrrhenian Sea on the other. The drive into medieval Maratea had me clutching my seat belt on a few occasions. A Continue Reading
Batty For Bolzano
I have found my perfect place, where the variety of food is actually existent, where Italian pizzazz meets Austrian order, where people don’t seem to speak English when I speak Italian or even Italian for that matter, where the setting doesn’t tell you exactly where you are. You may have to ask someone. Italy? Germany? Switzerland? Austria? Who knows, but no one seems to care. On a quest to get out of 100-degree temperatures in Florence, I did what I think every traveler does at one point or another, picks a spot on a map and just goes. Sure some research followed about this magical city Continue Reading
Travel Lessons From A 5,000 Year Old Iceman
One by one, they line up to pay their respects to an old man. Forming a snaking line, each person has their time to say hello and goodbye. What sounds like a normal funeral is somewhat different today. No one at this funeral knew the man behind the glass case. In fact, no one on the planet knew him. They don’t know his name. They don’t know the content of his character, the life he lived, or even why they are paying respects besides the fact that this man is 5,000 years old. The story of Ötzi, the Iceman, technically began between 3350 B.C. and 3100 B.C., before Stonehenge and the pyramids Continue Reading
Otranto, Italy Wishes You Were Here
The town of Otranto rests just before the tip of Italy’s boot heel in the Puglia region. Said to be Italy’s main port to the Orient for nearly 1,000 years, Otranto was fast asleep. Arriving later in the day on an empty stomach, I stumbled upon a restaurant still filled with diners. The owner I assumed, the Italian woman that wore the pants in her relationship with her husband, quickly told me they were closed but they would make me something quickly. As all of the other diners got up and left, I began wondering if I said something wrong or smelled of a long car ride. Regardless, her kindness Continue Reading
The Local Battle
This week, I am pleased to present a guest post from Annie Bettis of Wayward Traveller. I am proud to say I have actually had the opportunity to meet Annie while here in Florence. Aside from being an incredibly nice person, Annie is also extremely insightful about Italian life, living with Italians, and making the leap for travel experiences. She has spent the last 6 months living in Florence and recently launched her new travel blog, Wayward Traveller. I love Annie’s tagline, “Until I’ve seen it all”. Follow Annie on Twitter while giving this new travel writer a read and learn about life in Continue Reading
Conquering The Travel Aspect To Solo Travel
Solo travel is often looked at as though you are traveling to the moon. You are going there by yourself? Aren’t you going to be lonely? Will you be able to figure out the trains on your own? Should you really be traveling as a woman all alone? These are questions of those that I see whiz on past me in groups, with their families, or hand in hand with that significant other. They normally see travel as something you can only do with someone and never alone. A great deal of travel involves figuring out where you are going. You must rely on taxis, boats, trains, planes, buses, bikes and cars Continue Reading
Always More To See
Florence begins to grumble as my stomach does the same. Rain sprinkles down, but not in a pouring fashion. Perhaps this is not the best time for exploration, but my feet have a mind of their own. Usually, if you have lived in a place or have visited before, you can remember your way around. You delight in being able to show your travel companions that you have roamed these streets before and don’t need a map. Even at home, we often take the same streets because we know where they will lead. Erring on being overly cautious, I choose the known, beaten path. Not in the sense that I don’t take Continue Reading