Europe

We made the most of promenades and playtime with Kiddo, a fiesty shepherd mix, in The Eternal City. For three months, we had the good fortune to care for fun-loving Kiddo. We spent our days soaking…

A beautifully renovated flat in the heart of Chelsea offered lively cafes, posh boutiques and chic weekend markets. As one of the largest cities in the world, London can be overwhelming. Not only is it huge,…

Two backpacking Americans lost at sea as ferry sinks in the Strait of Gibraltar. That was the headline we envisioned in USA Today as another passenger fainted beside us. Though we spent nearly the whole day…

Known for its famous rock, Gibraltar is a fascinating place – a racial and cultural fusion of Britain, Spain, Italy and North Africa. Contrary to many assumptions, Gibraltar is not an island but a narrow peninsula.…

Welcome to Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. That’s immediately what came to mind as our train approached Monaco. We could practically hear Robin Leach describing the enormous yachts in the Port Hercule. Only a half…

Gritty streets. Noisy construction. Endless traffic. Palermo definitely did not fit our vision of Sicily. After a somewhat hallucinatory overnight train ride from mainland Italy (more on that here), we figured our sleep-deprived state was skewing…

In true budget travel fashion, we opted to take a train and ferry from Italy to Sicily instead of flying. Stretching our dollar even farther, we opted to take a regional train with “reclining seats” for…

In Italy, if Rome is history and Florence is art and Milan is fashion, then Naples is people. Initially settled by Greeks in 2000 BC, Naples is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the…

Since 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius has erupted over 30 times. In the context of 2,000 years, that number doesn’t seem like a lot. Perhaps that’s why 600,000 people continue to live in the shadow of Mount…