Susan Van Allen’s Italian travel book 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go is part travel guide, part “inside peek”. Broken down into topic areas such as beaches, sights, beauty spas and cooking schools, 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go points out spectacular unknowns in addition to well-known “gotta see ‘ems”. A few on her list?

• The Palazzo Barbarini in Rome
• The Florentine home of Elizabeth Barrett Browning
• The Peggy Guggenheim collection in Venice
• The romantic and undisturbed temple of Segesta in Sicily
• Michelangelo’s Pieta in St. Peter’s basilica

I particularly enjoyed how destination write ups come with accessible hours and possible literary pairings, as well as a clear inside knowledge of each location. While anyone traveling to Italy would find this title helpful preliminary reading, I think this title would be of particular use to expats or travelers exploring Italy through an extended stay.

Photo Credit: Traveler’s Tales

We lived on Lago di Garda in northern Italy for over a year before discovering the quaint little town of Lazise.

Similar in feel to Sirmione, this town had a quaint water-side piazza and tremendous charm. We discovered it during a drive around the lake when my parents came to see us. Those who have time to spend on Lake Garda, and enjoy it at a leisurely pace would definitely enjoy a day in Lazise by the water, enjoying a book with a cup of espresso.

Any Lake Garda fans in the house? I’d love to see your images and hear your precious travel memories.

Photo Credit: Trek Hound

This photo post was submitted to the March 12, 2010 edition of the Friday photo carnival at Delicious Baby.

The Kancamagus Highway is a 26.5 mile scenic drive that runs through the White Mountain National Forest from Conway to Lincoln, New Hampshire.  This drive is beautiful year-round, and is a particular draw during foliage season.  In the summer, there are places to swim in the Swift River with natural water slides and pools.  There is a small fee for parking along the Kanc, but all the money goes back into the maintenance of it.  A particular favorite destination of mine is Sabbaday Falls.  It’s a bit past Bear Notch Road on the left coming from Conway.  A small hike in is rewarded with an incredible blue green pool and a beautiful small and accessible waterfall.  Pack a lunch and picnic at any of the stops along the way.  The whole drive, which climbs to just this side of a mile above sea level before descending back into Lincoln, takes a hour or so with no stops.

Be sure to bring a camera.  There’s no end of photo ops.

Photo credit: Joe Shlabotnik

As bustling as Bangkok is, there are still places you can go to get zen. Such is this little spot at a monastery we visited there. 

At the majority of the Buddhist monasteries I’ve been to in East Asia, the coordinators are almost always open to respectful visiting travelers.  In addition to a wonderful cultural experience, these make for a relaxing break in the middle of an otherwise hurried and possibly frustrating travel day.

I still love looking at this bell image for its serenity, drama and commanding presence. What’s your favorite way to get zen when traveling to a busy, intense country?

Photo Credit: Trek Hound

This photo was submitted to the March 5, 2010 edition of Photo Friday at DeliciousBaby.Com.

There is enough budget wise stuff to do in and around here to fill a day.  Boutique window shopping, street performers, amazing food (or pack a lunch), and room for kids to leap and hop are just some of the attractions.  Planning a trip to include Quincy Market (Faneuil Hall Marketplace)?  Make it on a Saturday, bring shopping bags and include a trip to the nearby Farmer’s Market.  There are good deals all day, but visiting at the end of the day is best for two reasons — you’re not toting fresh produce all day AND the vendors are more willing to deal, because they don’t want to tote that produce back home.

Also, the Freedom Trail passes by Quincy Market and the remarkably moving Holocaust Memorial is right there as well.

Photo credit: fuzzcat

This particular afternoon snapshot taken along Venice’s Grand Canal is particularly illustrative of how things really appear in this amazing city, which is one of my favorites world-wide.

The uniformly parked gondolas along the barber-style poles parked in front of one of many gracious historical buildings from days gone by is exactly how I remember the water bus rides from St. Mark’s Square back to the central train station.

Got a Venice photo or memory which is particularly special to you? Feel free to share it with us.

Photo Credit: Trek Hound

This photo post was submitted to the February 26, 2010 edition of DeliciousBaby.Com’s Friday Photo Carnival.

There is no one who comes to visit Maine for a week, a weekend or a summer that doesn’t aspire to see, at least, a moose.  The  intrepid wildlife seeker can find an alternative to driving the highways and byways in the Maine Wildlife Park in Gray, Maine. Open from April to Veteran’s Day, the park is a self-sufficient facility under the auspices of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife (IF&W).

Entrance fees are between $5-$7.00, but your money will be well spent as it goes back to the maintenance of the Park. Many of the animals at the Park were brought there because they were injured or orphaned or have become human dependent and cannot survive on their own in the wild.

A big ‘must see’ at the Park is the Dry Mills Fish Hatchery which raises thousands of Brook Trout annually.

Bring stuff to barbecue, pack a picnic lunch, or purchase lunch from the snack shack.  Stop in at the Visitor’s Center or visit the Nature Store.  Walk the tree trail or animal trail to learn more about the flora and fauna native to Maine.  To locals, especially those with children, visits to this park are part and parcel of summer in Maine.  Visitors to Maine should include it on their travel agenda, too.

On a recent trip to South America, we needed something that would allow my husband and I to implement cross-packing with ease.

With airline travel being as logistically challenging as it is today (and getting more so all the time), cross-packing is a strategy my husband and I like to use to reduce the risk of either of us being stranded without access to necessary items.  It’s not fool-proof, but it does help. The item we used on this trip was the double-sided packing cube by Eagle Creek.

By strategically using thin, quick dry items as our main wardrobe elements, we were able to get one-two days of outfits each in our smaller-sized cube. We got ours from L.L. Bean, but they are also available on Amazon.

My only concern with these is that if we had been doing the long term travel / living out of one bag gig again instead of a three-week trip based mainly in one location with a couple of two-day road trips worked in (how’s that for a mouthful?), we would have had to try something like stuffing the entire thing in a compression sack, which sort of seems like overkill.

I’m not saying the cube ended up being overly bulky, mind you. In fact, it was more than reasonable size-wise for your average small suitcase on a weekend getaway or business trip. It just seems like we’d be including an extra unnecessary item by using both the cube and a compression sack. Perhaps this means the cube is better suited to short-term adventure travel, weekend getaways and business travel.

What think you, Trek Hound readers? Have any of you used the double-sided packing cube before? Do you see it as suited to a particular type of travel more than others?

Photo Credit: Amazon.com

This is a gem of a museum.  It is the oldest art museum in Maine and is home to over 17,000 objects d’art.  Found on the corner of High and Free Streets, and visible from Congress St., the PMA is conveniently located for access on a walking tour of Portland.

In addition to rotating special exhibitions and originals by several Maine artists (Winslow Homer and Andrew and N.C. Wyeth, to name three), the museum offers art from the American Neo Classical, French Impressionism, American Impressionism, Post Impressionism, Surrealism, Modernism, and Cubism schools, and Glass and Ceramics as well.

The museum offers lectures, movies, a gift shop, Sunday morning Jazz breakfasts, classes and workshops.

My favorite thing about PMA, however, is that is accessible financially to everyone.  While admission during the week and on weekends is $10 for adults; $8 for seniors and id’d students, and $6 for those 6-17, Friday night… EVERY Friday night… from 5-9 p.m. is FREE! Absolutely.  And includes the current special exhibit.

Photo credit: Cliff1066

Petra falls into the category of amazing by anyone’s standards. The immensity of the site, the antiquity and the intricacy of the stone city itself all combine for a truly remarkable experience. 

That being said, anyone who’s been there will be able to tell you that the local Bedouins of Petra are the ones who truly make the experience. The decorated animals, the tea invites and the fact that they still lived in these caves until very recently makes them an authentic living element to this archaeological wonder.

Many of them still graze their animals there, as was the case the father of the boy in this picture. These particular goats were some of the most striking I’d ever seen, and this little boy clearly loved spending time with them.

Have you been to Petra? Do you have a particular memory or photo to share? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below.

Photo Credit: Trek Hound