Jessica Andrews

Like any good college graduate, I’m intimately – and painfully – familiar with Jägermeister, that destructive German digestif that left so many of us hating the world the next morning, and with its bottle that strangely features a stag with …

Last year I saw a picture on Tumblr of beautiful ruins of a church, now open to the sky.  The columns of the nave were huge stone pillars, majestic and mystical. I was instantly enchanted (and immediately began planning my …

I left my hotel at 7am and walked to the SITA bus stop ready for a day on the road.  I’d heard about the narrow, windy mountain roads on the Amalfi Coast but thought everyone was probably just exaggerating when …

When I was in Florence last year I joined hundreds of tourists in the square who were admiring the beauty of the Duomo, Santa Maria del Fiore. It was only when I returned to the States, though, that I read …

I always see three little letters on Italian foods – both here and in Italy – and the ones that have them are always significantly more expensive than the ones that don’t.  I figured these initials were similar to the …

What are you going to do today?” asked Sabrina, the owner of Ripa Medici, the adorable two-room B&B I was staying at for a week in Orvieto.     Technically in Umbria but off to the side a bit, wedged …

I hear a lot of people say they’re scared of driving in Italy and I, myself, had a terrifying driving experience there a couple weeks ago (involving me trying to drive a manual car through a round-about having only ever …

The first time I was in Sorrento I completely missed il Vallone dei Mulini, the “Valley of the Mills”, tucked into a gorge below street level just inland from Piazza Tasso.  I got back to the States and suddenly everyone …

In April I decided to book tickets for my parents and I to be in Italy at Christmas.  We were so excited, obviously, and are looking forward to it immensely, but after we bought the flights there was a moment …

Basilica di San Clemente wasn’t anywhere on my itinerary for Rome.  It wasn’t in my notes, it wasn’t in my list of “if I have time’s”.  I wound up stumbling upon it, curious about the relatively plain exterior only because …