It’s that time again—time to reflect on what the last 365 days have brought and start planning for the next year of adventure. Unless it’s a leap year, then you’re thinking about 366 days. Does anyone else also think that leap year is so very strange? Here I am—getting off-track already. Let’s talk about some 2019 travel plans and goals, shall we? The project manager in me loves a good list so last year I compiled all our travel plans…
I hinted before that we’re still not done writing about our time in Europe. This post in particular, about Aosta, Bologna, and Umbria, has been brewing for some time. During our two months backpacking through Italy earlier this year we were able to see a lot of the country. We hit the main stops like Rome, Venice, Florence, and Cinque Terre but also many less visited places. Three especially—Aosta, Bologna, and Umbria—captivated us in a way that the busier more…
This week it’s my turn to share packing tips and tricks for a long term trip in Europe. If you missed it, be sure to check out Tom’s men’s version of our Packing List for Long Term Travel in Europe—after you finish reading my post of course. Earlier this year we traveled around Europe for 3 months with only what we could carry. We started in Paris in Spring and ended in Italy in Summer so needed clothing that could…
We’ve come to the conclusion of our European travels. We likely still have a few posts up our sleeve, but Rome is the final destination on our 3-month tour of France and Italy. Fortunately, it was nothing like the cheesy horror movie (although I’m not gonna lie, I was a devoted Devon Sawa fangirl in the 90’s—he was right up there with JTT). Shhhhh, don’t tell Tom. Okay, enough about my embarrassing pre-teen crushes. Let’s talk about some free things…
Sicily. A place I’ve always wanted to visit. This desire may have stemmed from my vision of sitting at a small table in a mountain village and gorging myself on local cuisine, fresh olives, and carafes of wine. Maybe I was intrigued by the 50 times I watched Michael Corleone spend two years there—his father’s homeland and birthplace of the mafia. Or maybe I just wanted to see how you ride a train to an island. Whatever it was that…
Where to stay, where to eat, what to do, and why you should add Naples to your Italy itinerary Naples Italy gets a bad rap. While planning our travels I came across a lot of articles saying that Naples is dangerous. Well, it’s a good thing we don’t believe everything we read. I mean, you should believe us, of course, haha! Seriously though, Naples (or Napoli in Italian) ended up being Tom’s favorite city in all of Italy. We put…
We almost made a huge mistake with Venice. We almost skipped it entirely. Venice is crowded, and smelly, and expensive they said. I’m not sure exactly who “they” are, but these were the complaints we’d heard. Thoughts of how to avoid the crowds in Venice swirled around our starting to become travel-weary heads. If you know us, you know that we’re not much for crowds. We’ve even written about how to get away from crowds in national parks. A quiet…
It’s hard to know where to begin talking about Florence. A city renown for it’s art and history. The birthplace of the Renaissance as well as numerous great artists, architectures, and writers. Many who spent their lives creating work that still resides in this opulent city today. Deciding where to start and how to spend your time in Florence is daunting. We knew that we wanted to visit museums, but didn’t know the best places to see art in Florence…
(AKA How to Not be an A$$ in Nature) It’s that wonderful time of year when the days are long and the sun is hot. Summer has always been my favorite season—promising road trips, camping adventures, and many hours in nature. It’s also the busiest time of year at national parks. We’ve already shared some tips for finding solitude in the parks this summer, but with rising national park visitation, comes an increased human impact on these beautiful places. Here’s…
Not long ago I wrote about how expectations are pointless. Now here I am writing about just that—what to expect in Cinque Terre. Perhaps a more accurate title would be: Things we didn’t realize about Cinque Terre before visiting. That doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, though. Hypocritical as it is, I’m sticking with what to expect…or more specifically what “unexpected” things to expect in Cinque Terre. First a little background in case you’re not familiar with the “five lands”…