Best Day Trips from Rome Rome is an amazing city and there are so many top sights to see in Rome that it can occupy your for weeks. But sometimes the hustle of the city can get to you. The honking, the crazy driving, the sheer masses of people. To break up your stay in …
Top 20+ Things To Do In Venice, Italy Venice is a stunning Italian city that is jam-packed with culture, history, and beauty. This quaint island holds a rich religious history, ancient architecture and 150 beautiful canals. The combination of all these aspects supplies Venice with a charm unmatched by other cities. It’s like stepping into …
Some of the world’s most impressive ancient burial chambers, or dolmens, stand in the green fields and copses of Wales. On a recent trip, my husband John and I tracked down several of these prehistoric sites, and each time I felt the eery sense of an ancient past brought into the present. The dolmens, which …
The Gap of Dunloe is a narrow, scenic mountain pass in County Kerry, a perfect seven-mile walk for those who want a close-up look at western Ireland’s green beauty. It’s nothing short of entrancing, and I’m grateful to our Irish friend Dan for arranging an outing through Gap of Dunloe Tours. Another great way to …
Scotland has scores of museums, all of them interesting, but the National Museum of Scotland, in Edinburgh, is truly exceptional. Its collections of thousands of objects cover natural history, world cultures, geology, archaeology, science and technology, and of course the entire story (pre-history included) of Scotland. The museum is set in the heart of the …
After you’ve decided where to go and how you’ll get there, the big question is where to stay. A hotel is still the most popular choice, but there are other options, and plenty of savvy travelers are choosing to rent an apartment or house. My recent trip to France is a good example of the …
Touring in the Loire Valley means you don’t have to travel far to see the grand chateaus and pretty villages that dot the landscape. The Castles in France are simply stunning. John and I stayed in one place, Chenonceaux, and found a multitude of treasures on short day trips along and over the rivers that …
Vincent Van Gogh visited Montmajour Abbey at least fifty times, he wrote, just to look at the view across the plain. Today’s visitors to Provence, France, are drawn to the abbey for the same reason and to see the impressive old ruin in stone, a French historical monument and the oldest abbey in Provence. It …
Dozens of inviting villages are scattered throughout sun-drenched Provence, in southern France. Two of my favorites, perhaps because they’re lesser known and have such unpretentious charm, are Eygalières and Mausanne-les-Alpilles, in the Bouches-de-Rhone region. Both lie near the Chaine des Alpilles, a low east-west range of limestone peaks that rise steeply from the Rhone River …
Paul Cézanne was devoted to his hometown of Aix-en-Provence, in southern France, and it’s easy to see why. More than a hundred years after the great artist’s time, it’s still a lovely, livable city. “When you’re born here,” Cézanne said, “nothing else is good enough.” He was fascinated by the light of Provence and painted the …