About Me

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When I started my retirement travels in 2009, I wanted a way to share it with family and friends as it was happening. Hence, "My Travel Journal". However I realized I wouldn't always be on a trip and wondered what to do with the blog in between times. My daughter pointed out, wisely, that travels can also include trips to the kitchen to try a new recipe, trips to visit family, trips to my neighborhood Starbucks, or a fun day trip with a friend. You're welcome to join me on any of these journeys! I've set up individual pages for each of my major trips (see tabs above).

Also, I have an Etsy shop where my current needlework resides. The last pieces I posted here were in 2013! So if you'd like to see what I have accomplished recently, go to (and I apologize for having to copy and paste):

www.etsy.com/shop/thedollhouseneedle

I recently added an "Italian Word a Day" thingie which shows up at the bottom of every page. You see the word and can click to hear it pronounced. I've been enjoying it and I think my accent is improving as time goes by.

TRAVEL INFO


BOOKS


When the wanderlust hits me, I seem to have to go buy more travel books.  I enjoy them all, but I find some more truly useful than others and thought I'd share those with you.  I'll also include some that I ended up not having any real use for but that other travelers might find helpful.   My most recent book purchase will always be the first in the list so once you've seen the list you don't have to scroll through to see if there are any new ones you might have missed.

"Pocket Paris"  -When I get to Paris, this is going to be a great book to have with me.  For one thing, it's small and can easily fit in my purse.   There are two walks - one "Historic Paris" and the other "Rue Cler".  The tours are single places, i.e., the Louvre, Versailles, and such.  Each one has a map and there is also a pull out map of Paris on one side and France and the metro system on the other side.  There are also small sections on eating, sleeping, and other practical matters.  I'm not as interested in that as I am being able to have a "guide" for walks and museums.  And I learned from the book that there are now free audio tours on Steves' site that you can download into your I-phone which saves you having to pay for an audio tour!  When I did my first trip, I sort of turned up my nose at Rick Steves - not sure why...maybe cause he had so many TV episodes or something.  Anyway, my first time in Florence, the man where I stayed loaned me his Rick Steves guidebook to Florence and I was so glad I had it.  I saw so many paintings, frescoes, statues, etc., and a lot of them were in the guidebook with really helpful guidance on what you were looking at.  Made it much more interesting and meaningful.  So, now I'm a believer. :)  Anyway, this book alone makes me want to get to Paris and start walking!


My next newest book is one I had asked for at Christmas since I had decided that my next trip had to at least include another country, even if I ended up or started in Italy.  It's pretty much an encyclopedia and much too large to take on the trip with you but it covers France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal and 6 other countries (including Croatia which a lot of people recommend as a "less expensive Italy") with a coastline on the Mediterranean.  I find these big books helpful in figuring out what's in a country and what I might enjoy seeing.  I peruse their places to sleep and eat, but I usually end up finding a place to stay on line because my lodging is where I really try to go budget and even the guidebooks that are considered budget aren't as inexpensive as places I find on line.  I am inclined to try an eating place or two that is featured in the book, although once you're settled into your lodgings, you can usually get recommendations from your host about where to eat. 

This is a Lonely Planet book and one thing I like about them is their very clear and helpful information on transport to and from the country to other countries by train, bus, etc.

One of my first guidebook purchases was Pauline Frommer's "London - Spend Less, See More".  I bought that after Chris was nice enough to agree to go to London with me before I tried solo travel.  I loved this book because it was filled with tips on how to save money, what to pass up cause it wasn't worth the money, several walks around London (which, of course, cost no money at all!) and so on.  Our trip was a flight and hotel package so I didn't pay attention to lodging info in her book, but I just thought it was a great guidebook.  So, of course, for my first trip to Italy, I purchased her "Italy-SL/SM" book and again, it was very much geared toward budget travel but I have to be honest and say it wasn't as helpful as the London one.  I think that's because it covered all of the country instead of one city.  I would have loved it if she'd published one just for Florence. :)  But I still spent a lot of time before my trip going through the section on Florence, deciding what I definitely had to see and what I shouldn't waste my time on.  You can see all the little pink flags sticking out the side, so it did get a lot of use.

Rick Steves' "Europe Through the Back Door" is a fun book.  After looking through it, I was ready to make a trip to a small island off Norway (I think that's where it was) that I've certainly never heard of but sounded really neat.  And that's basically what the book is - things to do that aren't in the standard "see every major city in Europe in 15 days" type tours.  For some reason, even though I've mostly only seen major cities so far, that's the kind of travel that appeals to me.  Well, and actually, I guess Perugia and Bologna probably aren't really major.  Florence is, but it doesn't feel like it somehow.  Anyway...a fun book to stir up the wanderlust.  And maybe after another trip or two to the more familiar places, I'll decide to venture out and take on a few of the suggestions in this book.

And speaking of Italy, :)...The book on the right is probably about 95% responsible for why I fell so totally in love with Florence's Duomo.  It's magnificent and beautiful, of course, but after reading "Brunelleschi's Dome"
by Ross King, I had to see it, walk up in it to the top, and marvel at the genius of a man  who, as the subtitle states "reinvented architecture".  If you're lucky enough to visit Florence, read this book before you go and the first place you will want to see is Santa Maria del Fiore - simply known as the Duomo.


These next two books are guided "walks".  I must have thought I was going to be doing a lot of walking, which I did, but mostly guiding myself.

"Walking in Italy" by Gillian and John Souter really appealed to me.  It is a combination of both city and country walks and, for most of us tourists, is probably the best bet.    Gives you some nice walks through all the major cities - Rome, Florence, Venice, etc., but also guides you to less congested areas.

Looking at it today, I'm thinking I should have had it with me when I visited Bologna.  I enjoyed my time there, but never really felt like I knew where I was going!

"Walking and Eating in Tuscany and Umbria" by James Lasdun and Pia Davis is exactly what the title says.  

This book concentrates totally on "country" walks with nice places to eat as a reward for your efforts.  For instance, they have a chapter "Around Florence", with three nice walks where you leave Florence itself by bus or car, and than start the routed walk.  But there are no walks that take you to sites within Florence.

The authors of this book  maintain a website where they post updates to the walks in the book as they learn of any changes in the routes, restaurant or lodging closings, etc.

LINKS

I'll be posting links here to places I've stayed, activities I've enjoyed, travel sites I find especially informative, etc., so when you get ready to plan your trip, you can visit them and see what you think.

The Accidental Tourist - This is the group I used for my winery tour/pasta making adventure in Tuscany.  They're based in Florence and have several other activities available, all very reasonably priced.

Italian Days - I had one of my best days ever in Italy with Alessandro, the owner of this company.  We toured a parmesan-reggiano, a prosciutto, and an aceto balsamico facilities and had a fantastic lunch on the grounds of a small winery.  I see that they've added some type of wine tasting experience in Florence now too.  Hmmm...

Bologna nel Cuore -  Believe me, if you're planning a trip to Bologna, check lodging availability here first before you try any place else.  This is where I stayed in October of 2010 and my room was wonderful, Maria Ketty, the owner, was wonderful, the breakfasts were wonderful...if Bologna is ever part of my travels again, this is where I will stay.   And she's added suggested itineraries for walking tours in the city and reading them makes me think I just may be back in Bologna some day.

Althea Rooms - This is where I stayed on my first trip to Florence.  Although the room certainly didn't rank real high on my favorite rooms list, the rates were fantastic for Florence and the owner, Antonio, was very helpful.  Plus which, it was in the Oltrarno which has a very "neighborhood" feel to it.  The main reason I'm including it here, though, is because his website is an absolute encyclopedia of information for potential visitors.  And if you're a "bare bones" type traveler on a budget, you can't beat the price.  I would stay there again, but not for as long as I did the first time.

A Casa 5 Terre - This is where I found my little apartment I rented in Riomaggiore.  I tell you, digging back through all my trip notes and revisiting these sites, it's very hard not to just decide to do the exact same trip all over again!  I forget the name of the apartment I rented (they have several available in each of the 5 villages, if I remember correctly).  But I know it was reasonably priced because so far, I've not stayed anywhere that cost more than 65E per night and that was in Bologna.  The people who handle these rentals also offer various and sundry activities (listed on the website) and this is where I took part in their cooking class with a trip to the market in the morning, cooking and eating in the evening.  It's also when I broke my camera (in the kitchen) and was all set to go back to my apartment and cry.  They convinced me to stay and I am so glad I did - it was a beautiful evening!

Tartufi Bianconi - This is the site for my truffle hunting and eating adventure.  This was a day-long event and was delightful from beginning to end.  It's out in the countryside of the Umbria region (I was staying in Perugia at the time).  I had corresponded with two women from Florida and New Jersey(?) and we all did it together, along with a woman from California.  We even got a little tour of an ancient village (Citerna, I think) before the hunt began.  After the tour and the hunt, we went back to Tartufi Bianconi, visited their little truffle museum and the small and immaculate factory where they make a large number of different truffle products and then went into the kitchen where the owner whipped up a delicious dinner.  There wasn't too much "hands on" cooking for us - although we did help with two of the things she made.  But it was a delightful way to spend a day.

La Loggetta - La Loggetta is the name of the wonderful little apartment I rented in Montefioralle on my 2009 trip to Italy.  I'm not real happy with this link because I know nothing about "9flats" but aside from a bunch of wonderful reviews of LaLoggetta on TripAdvisor.com, this is the only link I could find that actually had a way to book the apartment.  When I rented it, I found it on a site called Greve-in-Chianti.com, but it isn't there anymore.  However, I know they were renting it out as recently as last month because one of the reviews on TripAdvisor was dated June, 2011.

Trip Advisor - And speaking of Trip Advisor - this is a link to their home page.  This is an incredible travel site for anywhere in the world you might be thinking of traveling.  There are reviews of places to go, places to stay, places to eat, there are forums where, if you register, you can ask questions and receive very helpful answers, there are links to hotels, B&B's, etc. - just everything you might need when planning a trip.  And that goes for travel in the States also - not just overseas.

XE.com - And while we're more into the "serious" part of travel planning, this is a great site for checking currency values, very easy to use and there's a converter for converting a price you see in pounds or euros or whatever into dollars.  Also, if you're a budget traveler like I am, I've found that a lot of the places I book want a deposit and are usually set up to accept money transfers into their bank account.  You can use XE for this and the first time I did it, I was nervous about it and ended up calling them with questions, and they were extremely helpful and courteous.  Didn't make me feel inept. :)


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