Rome

Once spring is near, I start dreaming about Rome…and artichoke season. Here’s an excerpt from “Hungry for Italy”: “Order carciofi,” (pronounced car-CHO-fee), is what I tell travelers who ask for advice about Rome. Sure, you can run around oohing and aahing over the Forum, Colosseum, and Sistine Chapel, but for the True Roman Experience, you have to stop and taste the artichokes. From late February to early May, overflowing crates of these green and purple-tinged beauties from surrounding farmlands begin to appear in the Eternal City. Signoras in smocks sit in the open air Campo dei Fiori market, peeling Carciofi Romaneschi with their tiny knives, as if they’re made of butter. InRead More →

We are all so very ready to begin a brighter New Year and let go of 2020. According to Italian tradition, La Befana flies through the night sky on January 5 to sweep away all the troubles of the old year, and clear the way for a fresh start. I’ll go along for that ride! Here’s an excerpt from my book of essays, Letters from Italy, about my experience of celebrating La Befana in Rome, years ago… 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 howRead 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 →

  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 →

If you can split it into two days (Saint Peter’s one day, the Vatican Museums another), even better. You could spend a year here, everyday discovering something amazing. One guide told me that as far as the Vatican Museums, if you spent one minute looking at every piece that was there, you’d be in there for TWELVE years! So you are there for a day–to see the masterpieces that have filled your art history books: Saint Peter’s Square, The Pieta, The Sistine Chapel. Take a deep breath, relax, enjoy. The key: AFTERNOON!!! The tour groups flood V.C. in the mornings. If you get to the Vatican MuseumsRead More →

Thanks to my Roman friend Gioia, I got to spend a Sunday in Calcata a few weeks ago.  She’s an adventurous gal, helped me out with advice for my book, and thought it would be a great idea to go there on a Sunday for lunch–it’s a 45-minute drive from Rome. I’d been hankering to go to Calcata since 2007–ever since I read travel writer David Farley’s story from the Sunday New York Times’ Travel Section about it. He began with: WHETHER you arrive in Calcata by car or by one of the buses from Rome, it is impossible to remain unfazed when the village first comesRead More →

It’s not only that I happen to like her taste in books. Heather Hanson is the most fun person to be with  if you want to know what’s happening on the Italian wine scene. I met her years ago when I went along on a Context Travel Wine Walk of Rome that she lead-which by the way is a great thing to do in the Eternal City–go wine bar hopping with Heather, I mean, because she gives you the backstage view. For such a young woman, she brings in loads of expertise–she’s a certified sommelier from one of Italy’s most prestigious institutions and she’s lived in RomeRead More →

Many years ago I was at a cocktail party on the terrace of the Belgain Embassy in Rome–an invitation you should never refuse, because the view from up there of the forum is amazing. That’s where I met food writer Carol Coviello-Malzone, who lives part time in the Eternal City, in an apartment that overlooks the Campo dei Fiori. Carol’s passion is Roman cooking–she knows the absolute best eating places in town, and has written a guide to Rome’s restaurants, “Flavors of Rome. ” When I’m lucky enough to be in Rome when she’s there, I just hand over the eating decisions to Carol, andRead 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 →