Before setting out to sample how Austin Adventures runs cycling tours in Europe, I should have — as they suggest — practiced on my bike at home. I didn’t. So I have no one to blame for my skinned knees but myself.
There are dented helmets, letters home, photographs, flight jackets and K rations, complete with chocolate bars and gum.
Yes the Alps. We’re out for our Sunday ride in Italy with my friend Ron van Dijk who directs European Operations for Austin Adventures and has been leading bike trips in Europe for more than 30 years
How many salamanders can you find? There are dozens carved into fireplaces hidden in paintings in the Palazzo Te in Mantova in northern Italy, a gem of a Renaissance City as yet undiscovered by American tourists.
We stay in Mantova, between Milan and Venice and near Verona, an off-the-tourist-track town that has an amazing history in art, music and literature. Shakespeare wrote that Romeo bought his poison here.
“Dim Sum is one of my favorite foods. Everyone likes Dim Sum!” said Andy, 14, one of the many local kids who contributed their ideas on what kids like for my new “Kid’s Guide to San Francisco.”
Welcome to Luigi Guffanti 1876 in the northern Italian town of Arona that has been buying cheese from the same production sites since 1876, then refining them in special “caves,” sometimes for years before they are sold around the world. They are artisans and specialists who oversee more than more than 200 kinds of cheese here.
It’s nice when a hotel can make the experience special for the youngest guests as well as their parents and those who may be here to celebrate a birthday, anniversary or an engagement.
Could this place be any more beautiful? The three-story villa is directly on the lake shore located in Laglio between Cernobbio and Tremezzo on Lake Como, with private dock and lake access.
I think George Clooney is lucky to have a villa in the tiny village of Laglio—just 700 people on Lake Como in northern Italy. I can say that from personal experience because I am the Clooneys’ neighbor—well, their temporary neighbor at a lakefront villa