The Italian Diaries

When I was in Umbria I stopped off at a small family-run winery just outside of Spello.  Enrico, the nephew of the owner (the only one who spoke English well enough to give the tour to an American) was on …

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 …

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 …

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 …

You may know this about me already, but I have a thing for towers.  Bell towers, clock towers, castle towers – you name it.  So when I was planning my trip to Venice and discovered there’s a tour inside the …

It was my second day in Siena and the fog had finally lifted (at least for a few hours), so I decided to head toward the main square, Piazza del Campo, and climb Torre del Mangia. Note: When the lady …

Traveling to Italy in the summer scares the hell out of me.  Images of a massive hoard of sweaty, smelly adults and screaming kids packed shoulder to shoulder in a museum, of pushing through crowds on the street as my …

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 …

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 …