Category: Europe

The name Bologna might conjure up childhood memories of not-so-great sandwiches, but Bologna and the surrounding area known as Emilia-Romagna is a food capitol that is not to miss. One of Bologna’s nicknames is “La Grassa,” the fat one (along with La Dotta, the educated one, as Bologna is...

Since Puglia is a bit off the beaten path, it is best to plan to spend a full week or more. For the second half of our week, we chose Lecce as our home base for exploring southern Puglia. With more days – and we found ourselves needing more...

Rome, Florence, and Venice get a lot of hype in the tourism world – and for good reason. However, Italy is a treasure trove of wonderful smaller cities, sites, and cultures. A region that has long been on my bucket list was Puglia, the “heel of the boot”. You...

Later this week, we will be in vacanza in Italy, and non vedo d’ora! (I can’t wait!) We will be traveling with my parents to visit our relatives in northern Italy (my grandmother’s cousins) as well as heading to some parts of Italy that none of us have been...

Spain has a lot to see. On a prior trip, we tackled Madrid and Basque country. It was time to dip our toes in the South! I absolutely love “second cities” – the not-so-big but culturally rich cities that are near the large capital cities that so often dominate...

I was cooking paella at home long before I had ever set foot in Spain…which perhaps might not bode well for authenticity. My parents took a trip to Spain during the 1990s, and returned home marveling about many things, but what I remember repeated most was the  late hour which...

The last international trip that we took prior to the pandemic was a surprise birthday trip for my dad’s 70th birthday in October, 2019. I had decided a few years ago that I would start saving points and miles to be able to take my parents on a trip...

I love to start the new year with a good hike. And after, a great dinner. This fancy-pants meal is one of the greatest things to come out of your crock pot, and makes a wonderful post-hike celebratory dish to come home to. Ossobucco (translated to hollow bone) is...