Italy Women’s Travel (Page 2)

100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go, Susan Van Allen, Women Only Tours to Italy, Small Group Tours Italy, Women's Travel, My Brilliant Friend

So happy to see HBO’s My Brilliant Friend Episode 6 , where Lenu gets to leave the Neighborhood and go to Ischia…She was so pensive on her way there, and there’s me, returning ecstatic to one of my most beloved places in Italy… The island has been adored for its restorative springs since the days of the ancient Greeks, and today is the largest thermal-water destination in Europe, with over 300 spa-hotels and thermal parks. I fell in love with Ischia 10 years ago, while doing spa research for 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go., and keep returning to discover more of this treasure…The AragoneseRead More →

It wasn’t my idea to design and host For Women Only Tours to Italy. Yes, I loved traveling there for decades, writing about Italy, going to Italy with family and girlfriends, arranging everything so we’d certainly have the most marvelous time. And I always loved meeting female travelers along the way, who, like me, were swept up in that fabulous magic Italy gives us women.All those women travelers and my own experiences inspired my first book, 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go. Then came The Surprise. During my book tour, after my presentations,  hands would fly up, and woman would ask: “Can weRead More →

On a hilltop in the southeast corner of Basilicata, sits the medieval village of Bernalda… I became intrigued by this spot in 2012. That’s when Francis Ford Coppola opened his newly-renovated 5-star Palazzo Margherita here. Coppola’s grandfather Agostino was born in Bernalda, and left in 1904, never to return. I’m grateful to have a friend who visited– Kathy McCabe, Editor of Dream of Italy newsletter, and Producer/Host of the fabulous PBS Dream of Italy TV series. She’s here to share her experience of this extraordinary place… “The town itself is like being in Italy in the 1950s,” she says. Coppola calls it “the real Italy.” The unassuming Palazzo Margherita entranceRead More →

Ciao Amici! I’m so grateful that 2016 included the release of the Third Edition of “100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go.” Wonderful surprises have come into my life since this book first hit the stands in 2009. It’s been thrilling to hear from travelers who enjoyed discovering new places and experiences through its pages, and that the book added so much fun to their Italian travels. Here’s a Sneak Preview/Excerpt… It’s the Perfect Gift for the Italophile in your life… AVAILABLE at your Local Bookstore, AMAZON, and BARNES & NOBLE PREFACE I fell in love with Italy at a dining room table in Newark,Read More →

Outside Acerenza’s historic center, grazie to Salverio Cancerllera and Antonella D’Andria, I met some of the village’s finest artisans…In a cave at Le Cantine del Grillo.. There was rich, soulful Aglianico…straight out of the barrel… Next was Il Re dei Panettoni=King of Panettone, Vincenzo Tiri, at his humble, family run bakery… Vincenzo rocked the Panettone World, twice winning the Grand Prize in Milan for this Christmas time sweetbread…a triumph for this young, 35-year old baker in a remote southern region, AND quite a surprise, as Panettone is a specialty of the north… Making Vincenzo’s parents in this family run bakery, (since 1957), very proud… Tiri’s panettone is a taste bud revelation. He’s a genius/master,Read More →

Last May, I had the great pleasure of discovering Acerenza, Basilicata…AND to meet the mayor=Sindaco Fernando Scattone! The hilltop treasure is one of a group of villages designated by I Borghi Piu Belli d’Italia=The Most Beautiful Villages in Italy, which includes small hidden places up and down the boot that have maintained their architectural, cultural, and culinary traditions over the centuries. The Roman lyric poet Horace, born near Acerenza, described this spot as “an eagle’s nest”, perched above fertile plains, olive groves, surrounded by rivers. I can walk from one end of the walled medieval village to another in about ten minutes… But it’s so pleasant toRead More →

  Valerie Fortney-Schneider is a freelance writer with years of experience in the travel industry, and a history degree, who returned to her roots and created the company, My Bella Basilicata.  She guides travelers through the region and is also the woman to go to for genealogy research. Guests rave about the memorable vacations she creates for them, where they can go beyond finding birth or death records, to the villages where their ancestors were from, walk the streets and talk to the natives, sometimes find the houses where their grandparents lived and even distant relatives. Her writing showcases her passion for Basilicata, in various publicationsRead More →

Buona Befana! Tonight’s the night this dear signora rides through the night sky, sweeping away last year’s troubles with her broom, bringing in a Bright Happy New Year to All! Here’s an excerpt from my book, Letters from Italy, that tells my story of celebrating the holiday in Rome… Postcard from Rome: The Legend of La Befana* “There is no Santa Claus in Italy,” my Nana told me when I was a kid. I had nightmares of how awful Christmas must be over there. Nana said she had to wait until January 6, The Feast of the Epiphany, to get gifts. The presents came fromRead More →

A few year’s back, I had the pleasure of meeting Pietro Navarra in Los Angeles. He’d been in a bookstore, found 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go, and liked it so much (I love that Men enjoy it too!), that he wrote to me and said we should meet so I could sign his copy. A delicious dinner at Terroni followed, where I found out about Pietro’s Italy — his wonderful Italian travel company that combines his passions for Italy and the USA. Having grown up in Bologna and traveled in Italy extensively, Pietro creates customized itineraries for travelers, bringing to each one his uniqueRead More →

Susan Van Allen, Auto Europe

View from our window in San Quirico d’Orcia… OUR meaning me and my two sisters. We’d not traveled together since our days as Jersey Girls when Daddy would be at the wheel of the Country Squire Station Wagon and we’d go from West Long Branch, New Jersey to the beach at Cape May where the sand was LIKE AN ASHTRAY! MANY years later, we rendezvoused at the Rome airport and picked up the keys to a gem-of-a- White Volkswagen from Auto Europe. What I love about this company is that they are partnered with the best car rental places all over Italy, so you get aRead More →