There must be hundreds, possibly thousands, of travel blogs so why another one? Maybe I’m egotistical enough to think I have something to share but mostly I would like to become a forum, possibly, to hear from others with similar experiences. Plus my own blog gives me more freedom to express my opinion. Over …
Catania and an Itinerary for Sicily
Impressions of Catania I chose to start my first visit to Sicily with a week’s stay in Catania and as discussed below I would definitely change my itinerary if I travel to Sicily again. I have to admit up front that I did not particularly care for Catania, finding it gray and gritty. Plus the …
Siracusa, Taormina and Agrigento
Siracusa and Parco Archeologico della Neapolis https://parchiarcheologici.regione.sicilia.it/siracusa-eloro-villa-tellaro-akrai/ Cost: 14 euros My second day in Catania, I took a chance and booked a bus ticket to Siracusa through the website Omio and it was one of the best decisions I made on my 2025 trip to Sicily. My original intent was to visit Ortigia, a small …
Two weeks in Palermo
Finding my Way Around and first Impressions I arrived in Palermo mid afternoon on Friday, March 29th after a nearly 3 hour bus trip where I was forced to listen to a man behind me talking on his phone the entire time. I was ready to put a bullet in my brain. I had no …
Firenze 2023, Christmas Lights
My sister (Susan), daughter (Laura), niece (Rachelle) and her friend, Callie, and I arrived in Firenze from Rome early afternoon, December 7, 2023; our goal being to see the lighting of the Christmas tree as well as other holiday lights. We succeeded at that but for the others, it became pretty much a shopping extravaganza. …
Firenze 2023 and Italianme
I visited Firenze twice in November and December 2023. My first week in Firenze, I was on my own, attending a new (for me) language school, Italianme. I’ve written a brief section about the school, followed by my activities when not attending classes. At the end of the post are short sections on restaurants, and …
Where not to Stay, Italy
I’m starting this post with hotels that didn’t turn out so well, then continuing to apartments. The scenes in the gallery above show both the reasons I chose these particular hotels; i.e. my weakness for terraces, and that even when the hotels turn out to be poor, there are always beautiful things to see …
Five days in Rome, off season
I considered putting a question mark after ‘off season’ because, unlike 2021 (see Firenze off season, parte uno and Firenze off season, parte due ) both Rome and Firenze were crazy crowded. It’s difficult to know if the crowds were due to pent up travel demand or simply more people wanting to see the holiday …
Where to eat, Roma e Firenze, 2023
New Places Firenze Trattoria la Casalinga Via dei Michelozzi 9 (https://trattorialacasalinga.it/en/home-eng/) I ate here my last night in Firenze, after a lonely and fairly miserable week attending language school where I was forced to take private lessons. To add to the misery, my Air BnB apartment was horrible, gloomy and dark and poorly …
Where to stay in Croatia and Slovenia
In 2019, my sister and I took a tour of Croatia and Slovenia through Gate One Travel, (see Thoughts on choosing a tour group, airline or place to staypost). While there were aspects of the tour I didn’t like, over all we saw some beautiful places and the Gate One Hotels were good. Grand Hotel Adriatic, …
Where to stay in France
Hotel Mistral, Paris https://www.hotel-mistral-paris.com/en/ Hotel Mistral is definitely off the beaten path in Montparnasse, just a few blocks from the cimetiere. The rooms are modern but quite small. The staff made up for these negatives, though, first by showing my niece an app for the metro which allowed us to put in our destination and …