Tuscany & Umbria: food, wine, hiking, biking
November 26, 2022The regions of Tuscany and Umbria are in the center of Italy and are next to each other, making it convenient to visit both in one trip. Visiting Tuscany and Umbria in 10 days allows the traveler to experience Italy’s…
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Using Cell Phones in Italy: Dos and Don’ts
September 30, 2022Smartphones have become just as essential a travel accessory as a passport and credit card, since they now serve the purpose of everything from an HD camera to a dual-language dictionary and GPS. It’s almost unthinkable to take a trip…
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Five Ways to Visit Florence’s Uffizi Gallery (and One to Avoid)
August 29, 2022In the many years that I have been creating itineraries for independent travelers to Italy, I’ve never met a traveler who wanted to go to Florence and didn’t want to visit Florence’s Uffizi Gallery. But the Uffizi is a huge…
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Biking on Lucca’s Walls
July 15, 2022For anyone who loves being on a bike, wants to see the city from a different perspective, or just wants to break up the museums-churches-walking routine, I definitely recommend adding this short and easy bike ride to your Lucca visit….
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Cinque Terre vs. The Lakes: How to Decide
February 27, 2022About 20% of our clients kick off our first call by telling us that they’d like to see two of the “Big Three” (Rome, Florence, and Venice—and they usually know which two) but they’d like advice on the final piece…
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Chocolate in Italy: Factories, Tours, and Tastings
February 14, 2022Italy is already a fantastic destination but chocolate lovers can rejoice: it’s a heavy-hitter in the land of sweet cacao as well. There are three (arguably four, but we’ll start with three) major areas for chocolate in Italy, but since…
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Food Budgeting Strategies for Italy
January 30, 2022Unless you’ve booked a self-catering villa or apartment in Italy, you’ll be eating out a lot during your trip. The cost of restaurant meals can add up fast (and outside of large cities, there aren’t a lot of “fast food”…
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15 Local Italian Wines Worth Discovering
January 14, 2022Many—if not most—of our clients include some sort of wine tasting in their Italy itinerary, including experiences from a general “Intro to Italian Wine” survey with a sommelier in a Roman tasting room to a deep dive into a specific,…
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Dolomites Hiking: A Fantastic Family-Friendly Trail in the Val Badia
December 15, 2021Dolomites hiking is so family-friendly that it’s almost hard to fathom. There are trails suitable for every level, top-notch playgrounds everywhere (at the top of every lift, in every hotel, and in many restaurants), and fantastic restaurants on the mountain…
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