Quick Tip: Where to Stay and Eat in Siena, Italy

I totally forget who was asking for this information, but here is the skinny on Siena, Italy from my stay there:
This restaurant is one of my favorites in all of Italy, which is saying something:
Taverna San Giuseppe
I seem to remember an antipasto that we seriously considered ordering again and just canceling our main dishes. [...]

Greenways Italia: Nothing But Flowers

Don’t you just LOVE IT when a public works project actually benefits the people, and they also do it right when it comes to informing the people about it? I do. That’s why I want to discuss Greenways Italia.
That website has an adorable English language icon at the top corner, but apparently it’s [...]

Group Therapy: Renting a Villa in Italy

When I’m feeling lonely for my friends back home, I get the urge to (first, become rich) and (then) rent a villa in Italy for an entire summer, and invite them all to stay with me. I imagine long days in golden sunlight, cooking experiments with fresh food, lazy afternoons chatting and cocktailing by [...]

Airline Travel - Open Letter to Bill Gates (Yes, Really.)

There was an interesting article in the New York Times about the apparent decline in services, amenities and even common courtesy in the cheap seats on airplanes. OK, well, the article’s alright but they received over 400 comments on it, and the comments are where all the action is. The comments range from [...]

Italian Pronunciation - Cities

Hello dear hearts. I’ve been getting a lot of queries lately about how to pronounce the names of Italian cities - so, without further ado, let’s pronounce them correctly!
As explained in previous pronunciation guides, my pronunciation spelling overcompensates for the American pronunciation of the letter “e.”
Rome = Roma = ROAM-ah
Milan = Milano = meal-AH-no
Venice [...]

Italian Pronunciation - How to Pronounce the Harder Words

Blessed cherubs! No doubt you’ve passed with flying colors my other lessons - now, let’s get cracking on some of the harder words you’ll come across in the course of your delightful stay in Italy.
(A note about the vowel, “e” - in my pronunciation guides, I write it more like “ay” then the “eh” [...]

Italian Pronunciation - It’s All In The Vowels

It seems that my cheeky language guides are by far my most-viewed posts! You might remember such great hits as:
How To Sound Like An Italian: Pronunciation Guide For Tourists
How To Sound Like An Italian, Miss Expatria Style
and the ever-popular Italian For Tourists: Advanced Guide.
Well, this next section we might call the super-advanced guide [...]

The Cost of Things in (My) Europe

This article proposes the unthinkable - skipping a trip to Venice because of the decline of the U.S. dollar.
My advice, in a word? DON’T. Venice is just too amazing to pass up.
But, this article got me thinking about the cost of being in Europe, whether on vacation or living here. As I [...]

Italian For Tourists: Advanced Guide

We’ve already had the pronunciation guide and the basic phrases you’ll need to get by. The following will show you how to be taken more seriously.
Never say “ciao” to anyone unless they say it to you first. Ever.
If you’re looking to get off a train or bus, and someone is standing in the [...]

How to Sound Like an Italian, Miss Expatria Style

As promised, I’m including some phrases one should know when one visits God’s living room, also known as Italy.
This has been a favorite obsession of mine ever since I was in Rome in 2001 with Pavlov Memento, the ex. We had just finished dinner and were walking down via Cavour, when we passed a [...]