San Gimignano earned a spot on our Tuscany day trip itinerary with its nickname: The Medieval Manhattan. As a lifelong New Yorker, I’m always curious to see anything that’s compared to New York. San Gimignano is a small town, but it’s famous for its tall stone towers (pictured above) look like skyscrapers. Only 14 remain, […]

On our day trip through Tuscany, we wanted to visit two of the regions of greatest hits: Siena and San Gimignano. After a great lunch at La Bottega in Volpaia, we took the windy backroads to Siena, which is famous for its enormous fan-shaped Piazza del Campo (the mouth of which is pictured above). For […]

When I was planning my trip through Italy, I wanted to include Tuscany. But as there never seems to enough time to see everything I want, I figured that I would just do Tuscany as a day trip from Florence. I kept hearing “You can’t do Tuscany in a day,” but I didn’t understand why. […]

Deciding whether or not to do a day trip out of the city when you're only in Rome for a limited amount of time can be tough. But a good friend who also happens to be a superb traveler recommended that we see Ostia Antica, a well-preserved ancient Roman port town that's not too far […]

(all photos by Elizabeth Montalbano) Guest blogger Elizabeth Montalbano spent a month in the Algarve region of Portugal where she learned far more than just how to catch a wave. Here, the NYC—based technology journalist, who writes the thoughtful blog Isn't It Pretty to Think So?, describes the magic of the southwestern Portuguese coast. When […]

(photo by Elizabeth Montalbano) Guest blogger Elizabeth Montalbano shared with Travelogged how her experience of learning how to surf on the southwestern coast of Portugal taught her valuable life lessons as well. She has also been kind enough to compile a list of surf schools in the Algarve for those who want to pursue the […]

I have written about the great meals we had in Florence. But I have not yet written about the fabulous gelato we had there. In Florence (as well as in Venice and Rome), it seems as if they sell gelato about every five feet. If you get an urge for something cold and sweet, you're […]

If you want to see the Roman ruins and really get a feel of how the city must have looked when the buildings were fully intact during ancient times, then don’t go after dark. Because they definitely were not lit up at night like this. At least not according to the history books.

When I was in Italy, I saw lots of artists creating beautiful sidewalk art like this man drawing Girl With a Pearl Earring in Siena. They seemed to be enjoying their endeavors and appeared to be collecting a decent amount of money. This got me wondering, why don’t they do this in New York City?

If you’re planning a trip to Venice, you’re probably thinking that you want to take a ride in gondola. Then you get there and you find out that it’s going to cost you a minimum of €80. You start second-guessing your plan, thinking that perhaps it’s not absolutely essential that you participate in this time-honored […]