Le Gattare: Caretakers of Italy’s stray cats
May 10, 2010If you’ve been to Rome, you may have noticed the stray cats hanging out in the Colosseum or the Forum. Maybe you even visited the cat sanctuary located in Largo di Torre Argentina (photo above), where cats have called home since…
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Five favorite Italian words
May 03, 2010I was tagged by Melanie at the Italofile blog to write a post about five of my favorite Italian words, which I thought would be a lot of fun. So here they are, plus the reasons I picked them: Via!…
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The Sacra di San Michele: a magical Abbey Outside Turin
April 26, 2010The 11th century Sacra di San Michele (Abbey of St. Michael) sits atop a hill about 30 minutes outside Turin and is the official Symbolic Monument of the Piedmont Region. Adding to the magic of the place are a couple interesting…
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Picnics in Italy
April 23, 2010The photo above was a picnic for about 20 people that we organized at a farmhouse in Tuscany. We just knocked on the door and asked the owners if we could use their back yard and it worked well. Picnicking…
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One day in Livorno
April 12, 2010Most of the inquiries I get about Livorno are from travelers arriving by cruise ship who want help planning one day in the area. I wouldn’t consider Livorno to be one of Italy’s top destinations, but that can be…
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Meeting boys on Italian trains
April 09, 2010I thought it would be fun to enter this little story into the Grantourismo–HomeAway travel writing competition! An American friend and I were on a train full of Italian military boys. Noses in guidebooks, we’d been planning our day trip…
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What to see in Assisi
March 29, 2010The first time I went to Assisi was on a high school trip as an international exchange student. My principal knew I was having tough time acclimating to my new home, so invited me on all the class trips…
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Short Trips from Milan
March 16, 2010When I worked in Milan I took advantage of weekends to travel. Below I’ve made a list of my favorite places to visit from Milan in 1, 2, 3 or 4 days. I’ve put cities in a list based on the minimum…
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Booking hotels in Italy: 10 tips
March 04, 2010Booking a fantastic hotel in Italy can be a daunting task. It goes without saying that you need to check recent reviews and don’t just look at the review score: read the comments thoroughly. Cross-check reviews across different review sites,…
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Write a blog post for Italy Beyond the Obvious
Would you like to write a blog post to be published on Italy Beyond the Obvious? Read this first.
