In the months leading up to Plastic Free July, I’ve been excitedly testing all kinds of plastic-free and eco-friendly products. This post is all about shampoo bars, and one refillable deodorant stick! (Next step: plastic-free laundry and cleaning.) I was looking for natural products, with no plastic packaging and no questionable ingredients that may be […]
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Stories of Italian Aperitivo (and Cocktail Recipes!)
This post is all about aperitivo culture in Italy, with three (and a half!) expert cocktail recipes for the classic aperitivo drinks: the Spritz, Negroni, and Sbagliato. (Which are also perfect, refreshing, summertime cocktails.) Enjoy! A couple weeks ago, while still more or less in lockdown in Chicago, I tuned in to a virtual aperitivo […]
Local’s Guide to Train Travel in Italy [Italo vs. TrenItalia vs. ItaliaRail]
This guide is all about how to navigate Italy by train. I’ve answered every FAQ I could think of about Italian train travel, and explained the differences between your options for buying train tickets: TrenItalia, ItaliaRail and Italo. Now that I’m living in the land of highways and huge distances (the US), I really miss […]
Racial Justice, a Militarized America, and Why This is on a Travel Blog
Today, I’m writing about the national protests after George Floyd’s murder, and the context of racism and violence in the US. I’m using the same perspective from which I’ve written about injustices and cultures around the world – that of an outsider and a traveler. I don’t speak for Chicago, and I clearly don’t speak […]
My Favorite Restaurants in Italy, So Far
Let me be clear: These are not “the best” restaurants in Italy. They’re not the food critics’ favorites, or on the Michelin guide (except for one). This is the list of restaurant that I’ve been sharing with friends for years, when they email me on their way to Italy. And they’re the places that I […]
A Favorite Easy Italian Recipe: Pasta with Lentils
Pasta with Lentils – one of my favorite Italian recipes! We learned it from a friend’s mom in Italy and now make it all the time. It’s ridiculously easy and can be vegan if you want it to be. Although I don’t normally publish recipes on this blog, I have been sending a few around […]
8 Little Things That Make Me Feel Like A Foreigner at Home
These are a few of the subtle cultural differences that make me feel like a foreigner in my own country. (I’ve written about culture shock before, when I moved to China, but this is about reverse culture shock – after moving back to the US from Italy.) No matter where I am in the world, […]
My Favorite Non-fiction Books for Traveling Vicariously While Stuck at Home
One of the best ways to fight anxiety is with facts. Wait, let me put that in a more fun way – my favorite thing to do when it’s totally reasonable to have anxiety, but there’s hardly anything I can do to actively fix the problem/pandemic, is distract myself. I spend a lot of time […]
The Future of Travel, Post-Pandemic (What’s It All For?)
What is a travel blog for? Or for that matter, what is travel for? We’ve been in a golden age of tourism in the past decade or so. For a lot of lucky people around the world, travel has been cheap, easy, carefree and accessible. There have been few roadblocks and lots of incentives. From […]
Travel, Climate, Coronavirus & Change
This is kind of a depressing time to be a traveler. I started this morning in a cold, dark hotel room in the Midwest, binge reading the New York Times’ coverage of the coronavirus. And wondering why this room was so cold and dark. Seriously, the window is tiny and paper thin and letting in […]
How Italians Stay Thin Eating Pizza & Pasta All the Time
After living in Italy for three years, this is the best thing I learned: How Italians actually eat, and how they enjoy food and stay thin at the same time. These 13 ideas go way beyond “the Mediterranean diet.” If you look at a menu in Italy, it seems like everything is carbs cooked in […]
Porto Layover: Food, Wine, Photos & Advice from Locals
To call this a Porto layover itinerary is probably too grand. An itinerary is generally something you plan ahead of time and do on purpose. This is really just a list of things that I ended up seeing, eating and drinking thanks to the local people who I pestered for information. As many great trips […]
