Where I am now (in Montana!), why I’ve left Chicago, and why you’re suddenly seeing posts about plastic-free products on this blog. Almost every year around the end of summer, I write an update post. Maybe it’s the back-to-school vibes that make me feel like this is the time for taking stock. And putting things […]
Blog
12 Life Lessons from 6 Years of Travel Blogging
If you’re looking for technical blogging advice, this is not it. This is not about websites; it’s about life, creativity and small businesses, and what I’ve learned from very slowly building a travel blog and a business. 1. If you’re trying to figure out what you want to do for a career, look at the […]
Plastic-Free Laundry & Cleaning Swaps That Are Easy to Stick With (UPDATED 2022)
I didn’t write this because I think cleaning products are fun, I wrote it because they’re easy to give up. Plastic pollution can feel impossible to solve, so start with something easy.
4 Great Shampoo Bar Reviews [A Low-Pressure Intro to Plastic-Free July]
2022 Note: This was my very first sustainable product review! I’ve updated it with product changes, and I’ve since written many more reviews, including some that are relevant to this topic: These my new favorite shampoo & conditioner bars, and here’s a concentrated, plastic-free shampoo option, for if you just don’t like bars. Let me […]
The Italian Aperitivo: Origin Stories & Expert Cocktail Recipes
All about aperitivo culture in Italy, plus three expert cocktail recipes for the classic Italian aperitivo cocktails: the (Aperol) Spritz, Negroni, and Sbagliato. Enjoy! A recent highlight of life in lockdown came when I tuned in to a virtual aperitivo cocktail party – the kind we’ve probably all had with someone in recent months, even […]
Italo vs TrenItalia vs ItaliaRail [An Expat’s Guide to Train Travel in Italy]
This guide is all about how to navigate Italy by train. After living in Italy for three years, I’ve answered every FAQ I could think of about Italian train travel, and explained the different options for buying train tickets: TrenItalia, ItaliaRail, Italo, and Omio. Now that I’m back in the land of highways and huge […]
Racial Justice, a Militarized America & 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 […]
After 3 Years in Italy, My Favorite Restaurants in Every Region
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 (& Vegan) 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 […]
