The Boot Camp Part I: Before You Go

When it comes to Italy, I belong in a 12 step program. I am powerless over Italy. I start getting a jones to go every January and it’s all I can think about until I’m actually there, at which point I’m already thinking about the next time I’m...

The Boot Camp Part 2: Roman Holiday

    When people tell me they didn’t like Rome, it’s like they told me they don’t like sunsets or puppies or Elvis Costello. Sure on the cuddly scale, Rome is less puppy and more Costello, but like the musician, Rome has a large body of work that encompasses...

The Boot Camp Part 3: Ischia

  When we were planning our Amalfi coast trip, we were looking for a place to spend our last couple of nights and thinking of the island of Capri, in keeping with our Crowded/Less Crowded/Remote plan.  A friend of ours said, “Go to Ischia.”   Ischia is an...

The Boot Camp: Part 4 – The Amalfi Coast

  About five years ago we planned a trip to the Amalfi coast. Technically we planned it six years ago. When figuring out where to go on our 2009 trip, we thought we would be really clever if we split up the research. What that meant was that I would go ahead and look...

The Boot Camp Part 5: Tuscany

    There’s a reason Tuscany is one of the most talked about destinations in Italy. Tuscany is a unicorn; a mythological creature that doesn’t exist except in fairy tales, but part of us still holds out the hope of finding one some day anyway. Tuscany is...

The Boot Camp Part 6: Cinque Terre

  Cinque Terre roughly means the 5 towns, which is exactly what it is: 5 towns on the Ligurian coast between Genoa and La Spezia. The towns are famous for being connected by a series of hikes ranging from the very intense to a mere stroll. It’s rocky, dramatic...