Rick Steves

The people who run the big sights in Venice have generally welcomed us to film, but only when they're closed to the public. Consequently, we populate big, vacant halls with me, our producer Simon, and -- if we can talk him or her into it -- a reluctant guard.

This year in Italy, when I comment to locals that I've noticed no decrease in crowds even with the slow economy, they say: "Yes, but spending habits are much different." Many more tourists are blitzing in from cruise ships and cheap mainland hotels, meaning there are fewer overnights in hotels...

I'm in Venice preparing for our TV shoot. I'll be meeting my crew soon to make two new shows so I've shaved the beard and had a haircut. I'm excited to switch from guidebook-research mode into TV-production mode.

Venice feels wonderful. The city is packed, there's very little scaffolding to...

Locals in Verona seem astounded by the number of people who come to their town to visit Juliet. Each year, about 1,600 Japanese tour groups break their Venice-Milan ride for an hour-long stop in Verona just to visit this courtyard, with its famous balcony. All day long, a steady stream...

A fundamental skill travelers have to develop is the ability to get around efficiently and economically using public transit. Here are a few train and city bus tips grabbed in a stream-of-consciousness way while zipping from the train station in Verona out to the street to catch my bus to...

In Italy, "the land of a thousand bell towers," rustic towns love the sound of their own church bells. They each have their own dialect, favorite saints, and folklore. The folklore of Vernazza and Monterosso will be enlivened with tales of the flood of 2011.

In Monterosso, beloved statues...

I woke to the sound of miniature cement trucks and jackhammers. These were happy sounds to me: Monterosso and Vernazza are being put back together after the recent devastating flood.

Socially, too, it's been a time of reconstruction for both communities. Being small towns, they were rife with cliques...

On October 25, 2011, after a very dry summer, a freak rainstorm hit the Cinque Terre, an idyllic string of five Italian Riviera towns. Within four hours, the region got 22 inches of rain -- a third of an average year's total. Because of the topography and the ability of...

As I update my "Europe Through the Back Door" guidebook for next year, I'm trying to distill Europe's economic problems into layman's terms. I want to help travelers get their minds around the struggles there-giving their visit a little more context. It's dangerous to simplify these things, but for a...

On my last visit to Lisbon, people were scampering to finish projects funded by the European Union. There was scaffolding everywhere and the buzz was: "This is the end of the easy money. Use it or lose it!"

I should have known then, but there's no free lunch -- even...

My publisher tells us that our new Pocket Guides to London, Paris, and Rome are doing great -- not cannibalizing sales of our full-size guidebooks to those cities but getting in on the thriving market for smaller, more colorful, and more portable "best of" and "top ten" guidebooks....

Crossing the Florida state border, we made it to our last gig (for public television in Tallahassee) with about 15 minutes to spare. From our experience, American roads are really good and so are American cars. I'm sure I'll be doing another road trip next year. This was just too...

One of the joys of my work is to go to travel shows and meet other travel writers and travel TV hosts. I go to travel shows in New York, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and other cities where the sponsors try to book whatever well-known travel celebrities they can....

I think I had more fun in New Orleans than any city I've visited in the USA. While full of tourists, it's also bursting with culture and a contagious love of life that seems to thrive oblivious to its many visitors. At the airport, volunteers slip the famous bead necklaces...

During our road trip, I generally did the limo thing, sitting in the back with my writing gear during the 72 hours our panel said we actually drove. The time passed so fast. My hours were spent editing the new 31st edition of "Europe Through the Back Door," writing this...

I've been duped.

Do you know the frustration you feel when you believed in something strongly and then you realize that the information that made you believe was from a source with an agenda to deceive?

I just watched a powerful and courageous documentary called Peace, Propaganda,...

Atlanta is clearly the Manhattan of the South. It's CNN slick, Coca-Cola fueled and funded and thriving. Still, I'm not awarding creativity points: 52 streets have "Peach Tree" in their names. Locals claim that the towering Westin Peachtree Plaza is the tallest all-hotel skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere.

I...

There are three stars on the Tennessee flag, each representing a very different region -- mountains in the east, highlands in the middle and lowlands in the west. There are cultural differences to go with the topography.

Driving down Tennessee's I-40, we stayed in Memphis, visited Graceland, checked out...

Two weeks ago I set off in a comfortable GMC Yukon SUV for an epic Seattle-to-Florida road trip. Far north of the Yukon, on that same day, my little sister, Jan, set off on a journey that makes my adventure look like a trip to the mailbox. Behind 14 happy...

The last couple of days have offered me scant opportunity to get out and enjoy the towns and their people. In Des Moines, Matt dropped me at the airport and I flew to Dayton and then Little Rock, where I met back up with Matt and the car.

My impression...