My favorite town in Algarve (southern Portugal) remains Salema. In June it's lively, warm and a great place to relax. While economic hard times seem to be hitting both Spain and Portugal very hard, Salema remains a delightful stop on any Iberian itinerary.
The most horrible thing happened to me while doing my work in Rome. An evil man pretending to be me did all sorts of wicked things. It's a long story....
Milano may be Italy's no-nonsense business and banking capital, but locals still have a sense of humor. Here's a new listing (from my upcoming Rick St...
I capped my Italy travels this year in the great city of Milano. And even though I've been coming here for a long time, I enjoyed some great new sight...
My Orvieto guide was excited to surprise me with a visit to a very special and obscure site: the underground, fresco-covered, Etruscan tomb of the Hes...
I was doing my best to stay in my hotel room and finish some writing. But there was a Pentecost festival going on outside, and the energy was building...
Orvieto is one of the most striking, memorable, and enjoyable hill towns in central Italy. And part of the charm is arriving by train or car (parking ...
A favorite research chore for me in Orvieto is checking my restaurants...and then trying to find even better ones. (Actually, I guess that's a favorit...
There's something about Italy's Amalfi Coast that makes people put up with horrible traffic, high prices, and having to climb up and down every time y...
I just spent two days in Naples, and loved it. It's one of the most fertile, churning, exuberant, and fun cities in all of Europe. And the entire time...
At Rome's E.U.R., the Museum of Roman Civilization has no actual artifacts, but it does have dozens of rooms full of plaster casts and models which i...
When they call Rome the "Eternal City," I always think "eternal" means I'll find visiting it fascinating and rewarding forever. At the risk of offendi...
After the rough and rustic small towns and countryside, we finished our Turkey shoot in the country's modern capital, Ankara. It feels like a boom tow...
I have long found Turkey one of the most exciting destinations in (and around) Europe. We have two shows on central and western Turkey that date back ...
The tenor of towns in Turkey changes depending upon how religious and conservative they are. Among western-oriented, secular, cosmopolitan Turks, Kony...
I enjoyed updating our Istanbul guidebook's Grand Bazaar chapter. While the main streets of the vast market are jam-packed with cruise groups and othe...
While I was in Cairo, I kept thinking the Egyptians should check out Istanbul. Both are megacities with over 10 million people. Both come from a poor ...
This is the season when we have all hands on deck. That means nearly all our guides are busy leading our tours -- and nearly all our researchers and c...
Finally, after over a month in the Middle East, I'm heading west. For the next few weeks I'll be in Europe again (Turkey, Italy, Spain, and Portugal)....
During my week in Palestine, I was in the care of three great guides: Husam Jubran (hjubranus@yahoo.com), Kamal Mukarker (kamal_mukarker@hotmail.com),...
When I travel I collect ideas like butterflies as they flutter by. I jot them down, never knowing if they will find a place in something yet to be com...
Ramallah is the boom town of the West Bank. As, bit by bit (under the settlement policy of Israel), the likelihood of East Jerusalem being the capital...
There are camps throughout the West Bank where refugees from the Israeli/Arab wars live. The biggest, with over 23,000 people, is in Nablus. It's acro...
Nablus is the second city of the West Bank in population and, like so many cities in the Middle East, it goes way back. The name is an Arabic version ...
Hebron is a fascinating place. With about 250,000 people, it's the largest Palestinian city and the commercial capital of the West Bank. Its people, w...
