Italy ranks as one of my favorite developed-world countries and it really comes down to the eating experiences. In fact, if you ask me, each person reading this should do their stomach a favor and put Italy on the bucket list because the country was made for foodies of all sorts (not just ice-cream-loving-fiends).

See, the meal is just the beginning though, it gets you to the dessert! Because once you’ve eaten your fill of bread and wine you have full permission to indulge in gelato, which is Italian-style ice cream.

I studied abroad in the north of Italy, Bergamo, during the summer of 2005 doing some Italian language intensives at the Universita’ di Bergamo. There was a slew of us from my Florida university and after the program ended I went south for a week exploring Rome. I wasn’t completely alone in Rome, but there were several days of exploring solo as the other students from my Uni went separate ways. It was my first time ever going it alone abroad – Bergamo is a much smaller city and we all traveled …

Travel Memories Monday:
A Faceless Anonymity

The stunning anonymity of this giant face in Florence, Italy’s Boboli Gardens strikes me even today – a year later and only in a photo this time around. This is one of the few pieces of art that I’m inexplicably drawn to – I’m not an art buff in the least but I turned a corner after well over an hour of just puttering through massive hedged gardens and there it was.
Bizarre.
Huge.
Beautiful.
A strong stone face with pearlized green streaks running through the cracks. If I could …

Travel Memories:
Biking Through The Tuscan Countryside on a Wine Tour

I like to think of this as my Secret Garden shot – I pulled off the side of the road while on a day-long Tuscany bike and wine tour (an absolute favorite part of my time in Florence, Italy) for a break. Through a peep hole in the gate was this lushly green and completely serene road. I have no idea where this path leads, but they obviously aren’t keen on visitors and I felt like I was privy to a …

Continued from Round the World Travel Torture
The cab to the ferry to the ferry
The cab makes the 2 kilometer drive to the docks in record time and we tumble out of the vehicle in true clown car style, sling our packs onto our backs and dart into the customs line for a perfunctory passport check where the customs official stamps our passports and rapidly shoos us away to catch the ferry.
It’s still there!
As we jog toward our ferry we pass by a large group of older Eastern European women …

One of the less charming features of the Assisi hostel was the lock-out from 9:30am through 4:00pm – that meant that although we didn’t need to leave for the train station until nearly 11:00am we were forced to sit outside of the Ostello de Pace for a couple of hours warming up in the morning sunlight until it was time to catch the public bus to the train station. This bus was the first of the eight legs of our never ending travel day.
One of the reasons I am …

I’m actually a bit sad to leave Florence so soon…even though we’ve been here for six days, the city is really beautiful with undeniable charm. I can actually imagine my self living here, which is not something I can say about most big cities. But the RTW trip has to continue! Jenn’s uncle highly suggested a stop in Assisi –in fact he absolutely raved about the gorgeous countryside and that was enough of an incentive for us to add this small city onto the itinerary.
Trains really are one of …

Florence is an amazing city with a lot of art and history that I spent several days exploring with Helen and Jenn –and although we like to think of ourselves as high brow ladies, we couldn’t pass up the chance for a girls night on the town. Of the several nights we stayed in Florence we sampled the local markets and cooked up a storm in our own hostel kitchen, making some really delicious meals with the local ingredients from Florence’s Central Market (they also had an amazing! dried …