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Personalized Travel Programs for families, schools and theme groups with educational workshops, food & wine itineraries and visits to museums, medieval villages, city and country itineraries, nature parks and archeological sites.

Rotterdam Netherlands

Maritime Museums Walking and Boat Tours Original and fascinating professional guided walking tours. The heart of the second-largest city in the Netherlands lies inside a triangle of main roads. This inner city can easily be explored on foot within this triangle. The relatively short distances make a walk along beautiful and interesting sights and exceptional museums, the perfect way to discover Rotterdam. More

Düsseldorf Germany

Walking Tours Castles Fashion Museums and Rhine River Cruises Düsseldorf is the cosmopolitan capital of North-Rhine-Westphalia, Germany`s state with the country`s largest population. The city has close to 600,000 inhabitants and is known for its old quarter – Altstadt – with nightlife and buildings which date back to the 16^th century. Here, you can taste the famous Altbier – a dark beer. More

Portugal

Lisbon Porto and the Douro Valley Lisbon a City of Lights and Contrasts is both Atlantic and Mediterranean, illuminated by an extraordinary light that contrasts with landscaped hills tumbling towards the Tagus river. More

Italy

Abruzzo is located on the Adriatic Coast, east of Rome. It is home to national parks, hilltop medieval and Renaissance towns and numerous nature reserves. The Apennine mountain chain forms much of its interior while the coastal plain has sandy beaches and dunes. more

Basilicata, also known as Lucania, is a southern Italian region bordering with Campania to the west, Apulia to the north and east, and Calabria to the south, with one coastline on the Tyrrhenian Sea between Campania and Calabria, and a longer one in the Gulf of Taranto on the Ionian Sea. more

Campania the ancient Romans called this region of Italy Campania Felix. Baia, Puteoli, Pompeii, Stabia and Capri were their favorite destinations. Then and now, Happy Campania is famed for its ancient ruins, coastal resorts and world renowned culinary traditions. A cultural and national capital for much of its nearly three thousand year history, Naples is home to art museums, the San Carlo opera house and a spectacular bay framed by Mt. Vesuvius, affectionately and fearfully referred to by the local inhabitants as The Monster. more  

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Lazio - Latium is mainly flat and hilly, with small mountainous areas in the eastern and southern districts. The coastline is mainly composed of sandy beaches. Behind the coastal strip, to the north, lies the coastal plain of Maremma Laziale. The center is occupied by the Roman countryside, a vast alluvial plain surrounding the city of Rome, and the south is characterized by flatlands. The Apennines of Latium are marked by the Tiber River valley and three mountains of volcanic origin whose craters are occupied by Lakes Bolsena, Vico and Bracciano. South of the Tiber, the Alban Hills, are of volcanic origin. more 

Marche is slowly being discovered as the new Italian frontier; an abridged expression of the varied charms of Italy with a variety of attractions offered seasonally and year- round, including: authentic foods, breathtaking landscapes, a lively cultural landscape, artistic and natural treasures. more

Apulia (Puglia) is located in southern Italy; it borders the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Otranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Its southernmost portion, the Salento peninsula, forms a high heel on the boot of Italy. more

Croatia

Things to See Hear and Taste during the Holiday Season in Zagreb. More

Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. The first recorded appearance of the name Zagreb dates back to 1094, at which time the city existed as two different city centers: the smaller, eastern Kaptol, inhabited mainly by clergy and housing the Zagreb Cathedral, and the larger, western Gradec, inhabited by farmers and merchants. They were united in 1851. More on Zagreb

Croatia Student Travel and Learning Experiences

Social Networking, Southern Italian Style!

family travel Italy small towns Naples

A travel client from my home town of Philadelphia visited for the first time the place in Southern Italy where his parents came from; he was accompanied on the trip by 14 family members spanning three generations.

One of the objectives of the trip was to find and meet his relatives and, over the course of several months, we inquired without success by phone and in person with the local officials of this small town to identify these relations. We were told to seek additional documentation such as marriage certificates to speed-up the search, which we did, but without results.

When our client finally arrived in the town, he went to the municipality where he was promptly invited to return in the afternoon. More of the same! While waiting to return, he and several family members decided to go to a nearby restaurant; here, over a leisurely Southern Italian lunch, he explained his predicament to the host who volunteered to accompany him to his afternoon appointment as well as ask around regarding his relatives.

At the town hall, prompted by the restaurant owner it was finally revealed that most paper records were lost in a flood some years back! Meanwhile, the informal Southern Italian style search quickly paid off as a few relatives where identified and contacted. It turns out the family house in the town was in the same neighborhood as the restaurant and the town hall - a small town and a small world!

When my patient and savvy client recounted this experience and how his family went on to have a pleasant stay getting together on numerous occasions with the local family members, I said to myself all is well that ends well; but there is more to this story.

I have heard this happen over and over in Italy and elsewhere; it once happened to me too in Naples when a shopkeeper left a store full of customers and personally escorted me to one of those impossible to find addresses in the old quarter of the city. When I reminded him of his store full of customers, he just shrugged and replied that they could wait!

What is it about these people! Why are they so gracious and attentive in these times of unreturned calls and emails, unresponsive bureaucrats and others who think they can “app” their way around town and life?

I can think of several reasons; they all revolve around words and themes such as respect, responsibility, values and culture. You are cordially invited to post your views and true stories on communities, travel and related topics.

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