International in scope and youthful at heart, Budapest’s style, fascinating history, exploding nightlife, and affordable quality of life make a visit to this city a no-brainer addition your European itinerary. Seriously, don’t miss it. I wish I could say that I did everything on my Budapest “must see” list. But to be completely honest, I didn’t even come close. A place of both obvious and hidden treasures, it is a…
In all honesty, when my best friend suggested we spend Christmas in Ljubljana, my first response was, “Wait, what did you say?” I’d never actually heard this city’s name spoken before and I was baffled when my friend first uttered it. After this awkward beginning to our vacation planning, you can imagine how pleasantly surprised I was to eventually find ourselves in the capital of Slovenia, in the midst of…
One of my favorite stories about Italians adventuring in America has come from one of my best English students, a very established Bolognese marketing professional, who knows more about American politics than I do. He wrote this story about his first trip to the United States, when he went alone several decades ago before he was even twenty years old. The first time he read it to me, I died…
I’ve finally realized that I am addicted to traveling. Perhaps because I embrace the opportunity to be a fleeting resident in a new place where I am willingly sucked into someone else’s world. A world where – for the time being – there is no laundry waiting, no dishes to be done, and no bills to be paid. I want to pretend that this new and exotic world is mine,…
Today I experienced that moment – that unmistakable moment – when my sunny carefree Sunday suddenly got kicked up a notch. The sky overloaded with giant, moving grey clouds, the wind began to kick my hair around, and that hot, sticky world that normally consumes me the second I leave home or work suddenly went away and what came instead was a chill and an unmistakable sense of foreboding. But…
You know those instants when the beauty of a moment transcends your eyeballs and you are actually viscerally affected by the amazingess? On this marvelous summer day, driving the Lincoln Highway in Pennsylvania about an hour and a half outside of Pittsburgh, I experienced one of those moments. And I was so overtaken by the perfection of the world at this moment in time, that I pulled off the road…
The love my friend Andrew has for Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is so evident in his photography and in his stories of his adventures there. He has spent much time throughout his life in Jackson Hole, as his family has a tradition of meeting there during the summer. I asked him to share some of his photos and some history about Jackson Hole. I hope you enjoy them as much as…
There is nothing like a cross-country road-trip to capture the spirit of being an American. While cliché, there is truth to what they say – the freedom of nothing but you, your car, an open road, and infinite possibilities ahead of you somehow defines us as Americans in a way. Our life, our freedom, and a million ways to go. What do we choose? In this case, I chose to…
There is really nothing I feel I can say to do justice to a place like Maui. Being here is like visiting another world that you have always hoped existed. Somehow, the moment I stepped off the airplane in Maui, an overwhelming feeling of relaxation overcame me. I don’t know if it is the climate or the beauty or the energy of the area, but this feeling is unmistakable. That…
Day 20 in a row of temperatures over 80 degrees and no air-conditioner finally got the best of me, so I did what any good Italian would do – I went to the sea. We truly intended to take it easy and spend a quiet afternoon on the beach and return to Bologna by 7pm. By now I should have learned that fun, no matter what, takes over as the…