Wednesday before Thanksgiving is usually the biggest travel day of the year in the U.S. I hope everyone travels safe, and before Black Friday, make sure you read my Italy Gift Guide (and comment to win a limited edition Illy caffe’ tin) from yesterday to take advantage of the on and offline specials. And what [...]

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Last year I attended a 4th of July barbecue-aperitivo organized by various expat groups. I didn’t partake of the buffet but I was there more for the company than anything. This year the BBQ was on a Sunday and I was out of town, so I was lucky enough to be invited to a small [...]

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I’ve just stepped off a train, back from the ponte, the long weekend. We were coming from Rome and I knew the craziness that surrounds the huge May 1 concert would make it hard for us to do a normal night train, so we got a cuccette. Ah, che bliss! And the winner of the [...]

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Wow, Berlin! The afternoon we arrived in Berlin, we had a beautiful blue sky and I walked around in a light jacket, but it soon turned chilly and rainy. With all Berlin’s been through, I felt that a more somber tone was appropriate. Over Easter weekend we were huddled up in thick rain jackets and [...]

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We arrived back from Berlin and I remembered that I had stashed away quite a few chocolate Easter eggs – what to do, what to do? Of course, we will eat these, but first I wanted to play a little bit. By the way, the speckled ones are the best, a thick chocolate shell with [...]

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