First, let’s get it straight. It’s spelled BOTH ways. Piedmont is how most English speakers say it; Piemonte is how the Italians pronounce it. And me. I like to say Piemonte! with an upward lilt (and an exclamation point) at the end because it makes me feel authentic and perhaps like I might live there one day....

With upwards of 60,000 visitors a day, tourists typically outnumber locals in this stunning, sunken Italian city. The beauty of it can be mesmerizing, with canals winding through it's heart and bridges arching over each one as if created by a Hollywood set designer. If I could offer one piece of advice for visiting...

Seamus met two charming, well-dressed guys on the steps of the Duomo with credentials around their necks. Before the afternoon was over we were out €40, two hours of our lives, and being threatened with the mafia. Climbing the Duomo was really the only thing on my list of things to do in Florence, because of course,...

We almost didn’t take the gondola ride. We both hemmed and hawed about it. After watching tourists with selfie sticks being boated around Venice for days, it stoked my rebel instinct to do the opposite of what everyone else was doing. As we’re getting ready to leave for Florence...

Tales of an ancient forest deep on the border of Poland and Belarus ping across my consciousness like a tiny flight recorder begging to be found. Maybe just a faint sound here, then years later another pulse, reminding me of its existence. And now I can no longer ignore it. I don’t know why the thought of...

In today's installment of "Should I Visit This Tourist Attraction?" I go to the Salt Mines of Wieliczka so you don't have to (unless you want to). About twenty-five minutes outside of Kraków, Poland is a series of salt mines that are some of the oldest in the world. And until recently were still in use. It is said...

Most of Warsaw was destroyed in World War II. The Polish do not put up with destruction like that, so the citizens undertook a five-year restoration project immediately after the war to meticulously rebuild their beloved historic town. Though it looks like and feels as if...

Straddling Poland and Belarus, the Białowieża Forest is the last bastion of a once vast primeval forest that stretched out across the lowlands of northeastern Europe. Home to kings and tsars, peasants and soldiers, the forest has...

Wintertime in Iceland was by far one of my favorite trips. And I hate being cold, so it MUST have been amazing.

Art Nouveau, Victorian and Gothic walkabouts in Karlovy Vary, Český Krumlov, Moravia, Prague.