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"On the Road"
Spring tours, that’s a wrap. La Dolce Vita’s 2012 tour calendar, just posted. So now it’s time for a summertime hiatus.
I’m heading to Alaska for a rare personal vacation: 12 days of kayaking, hiking, and biking in the Kenai Peninsula and Juneau. I’ll eat fresh salmon on the [...]
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When studying for my Masters in art history, I used to turn my nose up at museum acoustiguides. “Art for Dummies,” I’d sniff, my head full of art historical minutiae and youthful arrogance.
Now I wouldn’t consider going without one. And so it was in Rome this past week, where I floated through the Palazzo [...]
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A few months ago, I received an intriguing email from a place called the Palazzo del Freddo. Subject line: “Oldest gelateria in Italy – guided tours.”
Yes!! I thought, flipping open my calendar. I’d planned to be in Rome on June 10, my birthday, for some much-needed R&R between tours. Ice cream is [...]
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New York, my long-term love, should be jealous. I’m smitten with Rome. A three-day summer fling with the city has me daydreaming about its awesome antiquities, its exhilarating energy…and its boundless food.
Like my adopted city, Rome is a haven for food and wine groupies. Seek and you shall find—and that includes great [...]
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“Venice, the only city in the world where pigeons walk and lions fly,” French poet Jean Cocteau once said. Were he to see Venice today, he’d have to add one more distinction: It’s the only city in Italy where you’re apt to eat badly.
It’s tough to get a good meal [...]
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“I’m not kidding. Our flight was just cancelled.” One look at Claudio’s scowling face told me he was dead serious. We’d thought we’d dodged the bullet, arriving at Malpensa just as Italian airspace reopened. We were on our way to Madrid to begin RIOJA ROUNDUP the next morning and [...]
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It’s spring in New York. That means it’s time for our annual migration. Along with snow geese, swallows, and Siberian cranes, my husband and I change continents with the warming of the air. It’s a long commute, but twice a year, we leave New York and its 8.3 million inhabitants for the [...]
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When you’re a tour guide scouting a new region, some days are better than others. This one was particularly memorable.
Take the 9:15 train up the Duoro River, from Porto to Regua – a famously beautiful passage. After an hour of farmland, the train travels in lockstep with the broad, winding Douro. [...]
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Budget travelers, take note: In Portugal, you can eat well and abundantly on the cheap.
During our scouting trip this week, we enjoyed many fine, fancy dinners, trying out spots where we’ll take our clients during our Passion for Port tour on September 6-11. But since this was a scouting [...]
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“Today you can see where the Douro gets its name,” says Jorge Alves, winemaker at Quinta do Tedo. “It means river of gold.” Today the water is cappuccino-colored and runs high and fast from weeks of rain.
Our vantage point overlooks the confluence of two rivers: the Douro [...]
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The newly constructed modernist cellar at Quinta de Napoles is one of the most visible signs of the revolution underway in the upper Douro. It’s an apt architectural metaphor: The winery at once blends in with its surroundings—its schist facades and long horizontal lines mimic the terraced vineyards [...]
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