Rome

As more and more travelers flock to Italy, more and more big tour groups traipsing behind screaming-flag-waving guides appear…This is NOT what you want for your Italian vacation. It’s well worth paying the extra euros for a small group tour or a private guide to have an enriching experience of Italy’s world-beloved masterpieces and places.  You have lots of choices when it comes to guides, especially in the big cities. All licensed guides have gone through years of study and rigorous exams to earn their badges, but there’s a huge range of differences out there between great guides and the ones who are…well let’s be nice andRead 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 from an oldRead More →

I’m often asked: “I have 10 days in Italy, can you please help me with my travel itinerary?” Oh how I’d LOVE to! Except when that question is followed by that very looonng, heavy bucket list of ALL the traveler expects to  pack in to 10 days. While I love enthusiasm for Bell’Italia, and totally understand  “not wanting to miss anything”, the Truth is This:  When you cram too much in to an Italian vacation, you miss out on the most essential Italian experience: La Dolce Vita=The Sweet Life. A trip to Italy is a chance to open yourself up to the old world wayRead More →

BUON NATALE! Celebrate Italian Style… with Sweets… and Angels and Music…On this Holy Night! (Click for Pavarotti & Domingo’s marvelous version) Auguri to You and Yours!Read More →

  50 Places inRome, Florence, and VeniceEvery Woman Should Go   Discover the Best Places in Italy’s Big Three for Women… Art that glorifies feminine curves in Florence… Cooking Class with a Roman Mamma… Artisan lacemaking in Venice… And so many more beautiful and delicious pleasures! Savvy traveler girlfriend Susan Van Allen gives you everything you need to make your Italian vacation dreams come true! A Perfect Holiday Gift! Click here to read more. Available at your local bookstore, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.Read More →

 Coming in October…A New Book!   Following the critically acclaimed 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go, Susan Van Allen adds new gems to her selection of the best spots for female travelers in Italy’s most popular cities, (Rome, Florence, and Venice), along with enticing Golden Day itineraries to make vacation dreams come true. Like a savvy traveler girlfriend whispering in your ear, she guides readers to masterpieces where women are glorified — from Rome’s Pieta to Florence’s Birth of Venus, best spots for wine tasting, chocolate, and gelato, artisan shopping experiences to meet leather craftsmen or glass blowers, and places for adventures — fromRead More →

If you need a break from the tourist crowds of Rome, escape into a museum…Not the Vatican museum or the Borghese, but smaller ones, like my favorite, the Palazzo Barberini, where Audrey Hepburn lived in Roman Holiday. Climb these stairs designed by Borromini… Imagine what life was like back in those seventeenth century days when the Barberini family lived and partied here.  Now the rooms are the Galleria Nazionale dell’Arte, hung with paintings by Raphael, Caravaggio, Lippi. A lovely morning stop, followed by lunch at Colline Emiliane (Via degli Avignonesi 22, 06/481 7538), for specialties of the Emilia Romagna region.Read More →

You leave the sounds of church bells and car honks behind and head to The Queen of the Roads, from 312 BC. Okay, it’s not always peaceful. You may have heard there’s no cars allowed here on Sunday, but listen up: not true. There are all kind of specially licensed vehicles that can get through here, so Sunday is not the Appian Way bike ride day. Come on a weekday, after 3, when the afternoon light is hazy and golden and it’s all quiet and dreamy… Just you and the few others who took a cab from the historic center (12 euro), straight to the Tomb of CeciliaRead More →

A beautiful thing to do to start the day, or at sunset.  Leave the historic center and cross the Ponte Sisto… Wander through the streets of Trastevere, up Via Garibaldi to the FONTANONE!! Such a fountain, with such a view of the domes of Rome. On Sundays there are usually brides there posing… You continue winding up until at the tippy top you come to the park, with a statue of Giuseppe Garibaldi and maybe a puppet show… And nearby, the Statue of Anita Garibaldi, The Mother of Modern Italy… With a pistol in one hand, an infant in the other. Reason one zillion and three ofRead More →

I love them all. I love how you’ll be walking along and hear water flowing, and then turn to discover something like this… Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers in the Piazza Navona. Come early in the morning or very late at night to get the best experience of it, without the crowds. If you stop by at sunset, take a look and then head over to the nearby roof of the Hotel Raphael for a cocktail, www.rapahelhotel.com And there’s this one in the Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere.  Stop by the Caffe di Marzio to admire the scene–always colorful, whether morning or night. Eat nearbyRead More →