“It is not JUST coffee.” I can confirm that the travel guides are right about rules for drinking coffee here. We have had a number of cappuccinos, every one of them so far has been a masterpiece of preparation, including the ones we bought at…

We are on the bus and it is a long ride to from Venice to Lucca. While I am still feeling the effects of the morning cappuccino, I figured I would do some blogging. Unfortunately, I could not come up with an eye-grabbing headline. The…

We always try and keep Marcy’s commitment to healthy eating in mind, so before we came here we decided to check out Italian grocery stores. This led us to a YouTube video on fruit and vegetable purchasing protocol. The short summary is “Don’t a Touch!”…

When we booked this trip last summer, I purposed that I would learn enough to get by. I got a Duolingo account, bought Rick Steves’ phrase book and got a copy of Pimsular Italian. I confess that I was a bit lax, but come on,…

Italian customs is the easiest we have ever encountered. If I had not said “bonjourno” (to Marcy’s chagrin) we would have probably gotten through with just the sound of the agent’s imprint stamp striking our new passports and nary a word. Last year, we flew…

Today’s excursions took us across Lake Geneva to France.  Our first stop was the medieval city of Yvoire, and from there our tour bus drove us an hour south to Chamonix-Mont-Blanc in the heart of the French Alps.   Lunch in France sounded so exotic…