A wedding took us to the Italian Riviera. Our hotel, the Santa Margherita Palace, describes itself as “a design hotel, combining the new luxury trend with Riviera traditional style, in the city center of Santa Margherita Ligure, just a few steps from the beach and harbor, 5 km from Portofino.” This is a tacit admission that Portofino is where everyone wants to be, but can’t because it is so small. And that…
What can I say about Bellagio? It rests on the promontory that juts out where the two legs of Lago Como meet. What was surprising is that it is in the foothills to the Alps. Mountains rise on all banks, severely limiting the amount of housing and shops. While not a large community, shops and hotels dot not only the shoreline, but climb up the hillside so you can look out over…
Friends visited Chile on a wine tour. They told us about the great time they had and the guide who made the trip special for them. We nodded and took the card of the guide, but gave it no more thought. We were thinking of a return to Italy, our favorite place to visit when my spouse ‘discovered’ inexpensive flights to Santiago, Chile, direct from DFW where we live. We took a…
On our second trip three years after our first we had a better idea what we wanted to do. We wanted to do more than walk vineyards, learn the process and taste some wines. We wanted to visit boutique wineries, spend some time on the ground, like overnight, and actually talk with one or more winemakers about what they were doing and learning about wine making. We intended to buy some of…
The main train station in Madrid, Estasio Puerto de la Atocha, is located near the historic center of the city. We checked into the Tryp Hotel Atocha, which is only a short distance from the train station on one of the streets that runs from the train station to the Plaza Mayor or Main Square. This location is within walking distance of the primary attractions we wanted to see in this city.…