If being pregnant in Italy raised me from a frivolous ragazza to a praised signora, having a baby added a crown to my regal head. I felt admired and coddled as a pregnant woman. I was still seen as my own entity, just a more important one. Being pregnant in Italy was a breeze. Then… Read more »

Long obsessed with traveling, travel blogs and media are not new to me. Travel blogger moms, however are a category unto themselves. Before Adeline, I scrolled past their posts thinking “how?!” And “wow!” Then breathed a sigh of relief that they had to hoist around all that shit (not including the baby) and not me…. Read more »

Ideally, you’d have at least a week to visit Palermo and the west coast of Sicily. Or if you’ve already seen Palermo you could fly directly in to Trapani to tour around the area – maybe with a few extra days tacked on to visit the Egadi Islands! But I also know that that’s not always… Read more »

Sicily is a big island with a big history and a big personality. It deserves some planning and it deserves some time, but it won’t be offended if you don’t have either. Here time runs slower and the days longer. And though the stereotypes of carefree islanders doesn’t always work here – unemployment and corruption… Read more »

Palermo has long had a bad reputation. Ground zero for the mafia, they say. Dirty. A port city only good to take you elsewhere. Gone are those days. Now Palermo is a favorite for hipsters throughout Italy. Curious Italians are giving it a second chance and international travelers choose it as an introduction to Southern Italy – the… Read more »

Sure, I’ve made some travel mistakes. Besides wishing I had done more research or missing out on a major site, I’ve missed trains, lost tickets and gone the wrong way for hours. It seems that a large part of travel is dealing with the unexpected, even if sometimes it’s your own fault. It can be… Read more »

Nearly every holiday in Italy has its traditional dessert, but none is better than Carnival’s. Called Carnevale in Italian, Carnival or Mardi Gras is a big deal in Italy. It’s celebrated for several weeks before Lent begins with the biggest and final bash on Fat Tuesday, the final day before Lent. Though everyone knows about… Read more »

I’ve traveled quite a bit in Italy, but I haven’t always done it well. Maybe there was no time to do proper research. Maybe we got there at the wrong time or the wrong day. Maybe we missed the best thing there was to see. Because even though I harp on and on about being… Read more »

Perugia is small, so you can easily tour it like any small town: Start in the main piazza, see the duomo, take a walk and eat some food. But this time, you’d be missing out.  It seems like all roads lead to Piazza IV Novembre and from there you can see most of Perugia by walking down its… Read more »

If Umbria is the green-heart of Italy, Perugia is the bullseye at the heart of Umbria. An ancient Etruscan settlement, the fortified city center sits atop a hill with a spiderweb of streets, an inviting central piazza and sweeping views across the valley. The city’s university – one of the oldest in the region –… Read more »