The 50 Most Inspiring Travel Quotes Of All Time

We returned from our European vacation last weekend... back to reality! Our return flight was uneventful, we were sad to lose our sundried tomatoes and cured meats at customs, but otherwise the trip home was smooth.

I just came upon one of the most beautiful collections of quotes I have ever read... makes me want to start planning our next adventure:

The 50 Most Inspiring Travel Quotes Of All Time

Rome, the Eternal City

Rome has never ceased to amaze me. The crumbling, 2000-year-old ruins situated next to modern government buildings, the magnificent fountains, the vibrant nightlife, and the rich and sometimes sordid history of the city make it one of the most unique places I've ever visited.

As I mentioned, we had less than three days to make our way through Rome, so we walked everywhere. We stayed at the Hotel Artorius, which was very well situated close to the Colosseum. Roberto and I have both been inside the massive Colosseum and have strolled the adjacent Roman Forum, so we just appreciated them from the outside during this trip. There seemed to be a lot of reconstructive work being done on both.

Last time I was here I got to see the Trevi Fountain - which I love - and we had to spend some time here during this trip. Legend has it that if you throw one coin over your shoulder it ensures your trip back to Rome, and if you throw two coins you'll marry an Italian. I can't remember what I threw last time, but it must have been only one because Roberto isn't Italian. Maybe Roberto threw two in when he was here in 2005 :). I read in my Lonely Planet guide that approximately 3000 Euros are thrown into the fountain daily. That should pay for some of the city's reconstructive work on the ruins, I'm sure!

I also got to see the Spanish Steps for the first time. With 138 steps leading from the Piazza del Spagna at the base and the Church of Trinita dei Monti at the top, this is the longest and widest staircase in Europe.

Roberto also saw our first celebrity of the trip! As we were walking around the Trastavere neighborhood on Thursday night (5/20) he saw an actor he recognized walk past us. I wasn't paying attention, too bad. However, Roberto doesn't know who the guy is and says he'll point him out the next time he sees him on TV. "I think he's on one of those CSI-type shows," was all I got. "Either that, or one of those hospital shows." Maybe he'll figure it out within the next couple of months.

We also saw the Pantheon. Again, under construction, but we were still able to walk inside. It wasn't what we expected it to be like... it's actually a temple built to honor all of the gods of ancient Rome. I think I was expecting something governmental, but it was more of a religious structure.

We had to wrap the trip up with more shopping, of course! I got some new leather shoes and we bought candy, tea, cured meats, and some of what we hoped would be the same divine sun-dried tomatoes we ate at Villa San Michele.

The Vatican

The last couple of days of our trip were such a whirlwind... Rome is an enormous city with a population of almost 3 million people, and we had less than three full days to explore it!

Since I skipped the Vatican last time I was in Rome in 2001, we had to visit this time around. Its museums and gardens are very elaborate and full of priceless art, and the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica will take your breath away. We got lucky enough to encounter a Mass while we were in the basilica, and were able to take Communion there.

I guess my only wish would be to have a few peaceful hours to wander the holy grounds of Vatican City without all of the teenage tour groups (acting up, as teenagers do), aggravated staff members, and hordes of people. I know that is a lot to wish for, it's just a limited amount of space for the hundreds, maybe thousands, of people that visit each day. I am a practicing Catholic and I definitely appreciated the sacred nature of Vatican City, but I appreciate all of the beautiful, peaceful small churches we have encountered on this trip just as much.

However, out of the hundreds of people surrounding us at the Vatican, Roberto says he noticed one family that made him realize how small the world really is... Ava, the little Australian girl from our train ride from Barcelona to France, and her mother were looking at some of the tapestries on the wall in one of the galleries. I didn't see them, and Roberto says it was so crowded and we were so rushed to get to the Sistine Chapel that he didn't go over to say hello. I hope they've enjoyed their stay in Rome as much as we have.

After the Storm

We just had to stop for a photograph of this beautiful Tuscan walled hill town on our way to Rome. The storm was rolling in - or out, we couldn't tell - just as we came upon it. Beautiful. We don't even remember which village this is.

Quick Stop in Siena

I may have missed its famous Palio when I was in Italy in August 2001, but I wasn't going to miss seeing Siena on this trip. REALLY quick stop, too quick... we basically parked the car and ran through the streets to see Siena's fabled Piazza del Campo. The thunderstorm that started pouring on us as we left San Gimignano was right on our heels, and we needed to get to Rome in time to return the rental car!

We only got to spend about five minutes in the beautiful piazza... next time it will be more.

San Gimignano - a Little Gem!

We had always planned to make a few stops through Tuscany on our drive from Florence to Rome, but we'd never really discussed where we wanted to go besides Siena. It just so happened that the people who shared our train car from France to Italy were American, let me perouse their Frommer's book, and highly recommended we visit a little town called San Gimignano.

I have to admit I had never heard of this picturesque medieval hilltop town until then, but it is well worth a trip! Where other Italian cities - though beautiful - have succumbed to modern-day amenities and now feature major paved thoroughfares, Internet cafes, and guys hawking fake Prada bags alongside every tourist attraction, seeing San Gimignano is like taking a step back into the 10th century. Although lots of chi-chi boutiques have moved into the bottom story of most of the village's buildings (and tons of tourists have discovered the place), the village has really been untouched by time. Many of its medieval towers still stand, the walls around the city are well-preserved, and the sweeping views of the Tuscan countryside are simply breathtaking. Not so romantic are its two torture museums, but they were pretty impressive in their own right.

We wanted to take the time to climb one of the city's towers to get an even better vantage point, but a storm was moving in and we had to run if we were going to stop in Siena as well!

Villa San Michele

We spent last Sunday morning (5/16) like good Catholics, surrounded by churches in Florence, but we wrapped up the evening in the hills above the city, in the small, exclusive community of Fiesole. Our destination was Villa San Michele, a haven of tranquility in the middle of the bustle and crowds.
We spent a couple of hours wandering the hotel's gardens and enjoyed a wonderful spread of snacks (a varied cheese plate, enormous caper berries, assorted nuts, breads, and the most exquisite sun-dried tomatoes I have ever eaten in my life), along with a couple of glasses of the local chianti. Our bill? US $90... we sure enjoyed those $30 glasses of wine! Totally worth it!

May Brings Business and Blooms

From the glittering Cannes Film Festival to the prestigious Formula One race in Monaco, there has been no shortage of tourism across southern Europe during our trip this May. Business is great for them!
My favorite things May brings here aren't man-made, although they probably help to draw plenty of tourists. The orange-red Tuscan poppies bobbing along roadsides and filling the rolling fields have been painted by the likes of Cezanne and Matisse, and have taken center stage in many a photograph taken around this time of year here. My photos are no different... I love them and even pressed a couple of them to take home with me!

Firenze, the Renaissance City

It's been almost nine years since I last visited Florence, or Firenze as the Italians say. Almost a decade, and the city is no less beautiful, classy, or jaw-dropping... if anything, its appeal has increased and I've gained so many more happy memories here.
The last time I visited with my friend Heather, we were on a backpacking adventure, touring the entire country (and managing to squeeze in one Greek island at the end - Corfu). Needless to say, we walked the entire city dragging huge bags, so we were in no condition to climb the Duomo or the adjacent 414-step campanile next to it. Roberto and I did both this time... no need for me to do my squats for DAYS!!! And the views of Florence from atop the tower and the Duomo can't be beat.
This time we took in both the Uffizi and l'Accademia galleries... I think we only did l'Accademia last time to visit that famous Goliath-slayer, Michelangelo's David. I behaved myself this time, not taking the the camera out at either gallery... when I was 21 I snapped surreptitious pictures, getting scolded in front of the David but not caring. Now I realize how bothersome it was and I have committed the art to memory.
We found a great little Italian restaurant, La Beppa Fioraia, that we had dinner at twice. The first night I had a wonderful fresh fettuccine with sun-dried tomatoes and bacon, and Roberto had a thick steak with truffle sauce. The second night we both had pasta dishes... mine was ravioli with lard and artichokes. Lunch was typically at Roberto's favorite sandwich shop that he discovered in 2005... I Due Fratellini. This is the best deal in town and is always packed. I loved the cured meat, goat cheese, and arugula sandwich. Another American group in front of us on line the first day told us they'd seen it on the Travel Channel, so I guess the word is out!
Other than that - excellent shopping... bought a new ring on the Pont de Vecchio and a new leather purse at the Mercato di San Lorenzo, although I don't recommend the market. The buckle on my bag has already broken. Oh well, I'll buy new buckles and it will be fine.
Next we're on to Rome, the last stop on our tour, driving through beautiful Tuscany and Umbria on the way!!!

Day Trip to Monaco

Although last night's forecast predicted rain all day, we woke up to a beautiful (although slightly overcast) morning. The Mediterranean region is experiencing unseasonably cool weather this May - unseasonable meaning low 60's in the morning and highs around 70, but it's perfect weather for walking long distances and hiking around to explore new cities!

After a delicious breakfast of a caramel and salted butter crepe and cafe au lait (me) and a ham-and-cheese crepe and cafe au lait (Roberto), we took the little rented Reynault Megane out for another adventure... to Monaco! We have driven this car all the way across southern France on only a half-tank! Granted, it's a diesel, but it is still impressively economical.

Monaco is only 17 kilometers from Nice, and we drove through some achingly beautiful cliffside villages along the way. Think terra cotta-roofed villas hugging the mountainsides, plunging down to peaceful, bobbing yacht-filled aquamarine bays below. It was gorgeous and we stopped for plenty of photo ops along the way.

As we cruised into Monaco (following dozens of Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Maseratis, etc... or rather getting blown away by them... the Megane may be economical but it sure isn't fast) we began to notice lots of signs for their annual Formula One Grand Prix. I had not thought the glitzy race happened until late May, but no, it's going on right now! Luckily we got there around 10 AM and beat the crowd, so there was actually parking in some of the garages.

The Formula One race is almost as star-studded as the Cannes Film Festival, and since the two events coincided this year I'm sure there was cross-attendance. Anyway, it was pretty exciting to follow the whine of the cars down to the center of Monaco (the whine became a ROAR when we got up next to the casino, where they were racing around a specially-constructed track). We couldn't get into the race itself without paying beaucoup bucks, which we chose not to do. We got quick glimpses of the cars whizzing past any section of the chain-link fence that wasn't covered with metal (to keep the peasants from viewing the race without paying dearly for it), and that was enough for us. It was really exhilarating!

I wish we could have seen the Monte Carlo Casino, but it was blocked off for the race. That was all right, because we could still walk up to the beautiful Palais du Prince, where the royal Grimaldi family reigns. There was another viewing area where we could have seen the Grand Prix from up on the cliff adjacent to the palace, but that too was blocked off. The gorgeous view on the other side of the cliff was open, though, and here we had learned to show people how to use our camera before we asked them to take our picture!

Walking around atop the cliff was pretty fantastic... we saw the Cathedrale-du-Monaco, the 1875 Romanesque-Byzantine church where Grace Kelly and Prince Ranier III were married, and the pastel-colored governmental buildings and embassies. There were probably some other private residences mixed in too. The whole clifftop is surrounded by manicured gardens, filled with exotic blooms, fragrant hedges, and pristine sculptures.

All in all, we dedicated about a half-day to Monaco between driving and strolling. Totally worth it... it was beautiful and a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Then it was back to Nice, which I have really decided has been my favorite place we've stayed. I like that there is so much to do here and that this is such a great jumping-off point to other surrounding cities on the Cote d'Azur. We dropped off the Megane since we won't be able to take it across the border to Italy tomorrow, enjoyed a late lunch at Pasta Basta and then walked around Vieux Nice some more. We stumbled upon the Saturday evening service at the baroque Cathedrale Ste-Reparate, which we sat in on for a little bit, picked up some delicious little biscuits and a cinnamon caramel square at a little candy shop called La Cure Gormande, and had a drink at Bar Mori on rue Massena. My drink was called the "Monaco"... beer mixed with lemonade and grenadine... pretty fitting!

For dinner, we enjoyed escargots, chopped veal kidneys in mustard sauce (me) and sea bass (Roberto) at Franchin restaurant. The restaurant was perfectly situated right across the street from our hotel, and everything was absolutely delicious.

Tomorrow we're off to Italy! Our train leaves around 8:30 AM and we'll pick up another rental car in Genova. Then we'll drive through Tuscany to stay in Florence for three nights... week 2 of our honeymoon is officially here!

This is What We Get...

... for handing our camera over to someone else to take a picture of us without explaining to her how to use it! Oh well, at least you can see some of beautiful Villefranche-sur-Mer.

Aix-en-Provence and the Cote d'Azur Drive

We spent our last night in Aix yesterday, Thursday, May 13th. We intended to get up and drive to Avignon to see the Palais des Papes, but decided to simply relax and spend the day in Aix instead. We got some laundry done, shopped (Roberto got some great new Diesel sneakers), and ate dinner at Chez Charlotte, which was fantastic. I had an incredibly fresh gazpacho and vegetable plate with quiche and salad, and Roberto had a steak. The one hiccup was when I told him he was ordering a beef appetizer and it ended up being a poached egg in a sour cream soup (our waiter didn't speak English), and with the handwritten menu I thought l'oeuf (egg) said boeuf (beef). It was delicious anyway!
We woke up early this morning to drive along the Cote d'Azur to our last stop in France, Nice. What a gorgeous trip! We traveled through St. Tropez, St. Raphael, St. Maxime, and Cannes, which is in the midst of its world-famous film festival right now. The traffic was so congested that it took over an hour to get 1 km through town, but I thought it was worth it! We saw the red carpet where the stars walk, lots of self-important people with badges strutting around, and the paparazzi camped outside the glitziest hotels. At one point we heard screaming and everyone outside the Martinez Hotel started snapping pictures furiously, but we couldn't see who they were taking pictures of. We couldn't park the car, so Roberto just drove inch by inch while I jumped out here and there to take photos. Some I took from the car's window. It was neat!
After fighting lots of traffic along the way, we arrived here in Nice, which I was expecting to be a little dirty from reading its Lonely Planet description. I am SO pleasantly surprised, though! It's clean, walkable, and fun. We had an amazing Italian dinner at Pasta Basta in the Old City, then walked along Promenade des Anglais for a little sightseeing. Tomorrow morning we're headed to Monaco, then back to nice for a little more sightseeing and shopping!

Aix-en-Provence --- Day One

After a very scenic train ride across the Spanish-French border yesterday, we have made our way to Aix-en-Provence!
The train was... how should I put it... very retro. Lots of browns and tans, 1960's decor, heavy striped curtains on the windows, but the seats reclined much further than plane seats so we were comfortable. We almost didn't want to sleep though, we were afraid of missing some of the beautiful landscape we rode through - castles, French marshlands, ancient villages, cliffs leading to the dark aqua sea, and acres upon acres of vineyards with rolling hilly backdrops. We befriended a little 18-month-old Australian girl, Ava, and her parents (I have no idea how they were travelling with such a young child, but she was surprisingly well-behaved!)
Picking up the rental car in Montpellier was a little bit of an adventure. GPS wasn't available, so we mapped out our route to Aix-en-Provence and we actually got here with very little problems! The countryside along the way is gorgeous... lots of the classic ochre-colored homes with bright blue shutters, surrounded by farmland.













Aix is different than I pictured it to be, it's much busier with lots of foot traffic and tons of chic little boutiques. The university here dates from 1409, so it has a huge student population and they don't seem to be very respectful of the history of the place (think beer cans strewn all over the street, cigarette butts, etc.), but I love the little winding alleyways and the beautiful old fountains. You can just walk for hours around here and find all kinds of cool stuff... last night Roberto and I found a little shop that sold only "macarons", little cakes with cream in the middle in all kinds of funky flavors. He got a chocolate caramel and a pistachio, and I got a peach-champagne and a blueberry-violet. Delicious! Only in a place like Aix, very funky and walkable, could a shop like this survive. I love it.
We ate dinner at a highly recommended (by Lonely Planet) little restaurant with only about 8 tables called Le Petit Verdot. Everyone in there was French, and thank goodness we stopped by early to make a reservation for when the place opened for dinner at 7. While we were eating, at least 4 tables got turned away because they didn't have reservations! We had the most fantastic fois gras with orange gelatin and baby arugula, and Roberto got sliced "canard" (duck). I got braised lamb. We had a fantastic bottle of Bordeaux that went perfectly with the meal.
I think most restaurants here are like Le Petit Verdot in that you have to make a reservation before they open for dinner or you don't get in... at least the ones that are worth it. Tonight we're hoping to go to a little bistro called Charlotte, another that's highly recommended by our book.

Last Full Day in Barcelona

We have officially just eaten the best paella I have ever had, at Restaurante Santiaguino near our hotel (Hotel U232 in the LEixample district). Delicious! This was a small little mom-and-pop type place that didn´t even open for dinner until 8 o´clock at night and we were the only diners there until about nine. We got there right at eight, being the American tourists we are, and as we were eating our dessert (a lovely little dream of tiny wild strawberries - fresitas, our waitress called them - and whipped fresh cream with sugar) the locals started pouring in for their usual late dinner. A couple of the diners knew each other, it was that kind of a place. Anyway, the food was incredible... pan-fried squid and a paella chock-full of fresh seafood, wonderful!
Earlier today we just did some more walking around Barceloneta´s beaches and we explored the Barri Gotic district. There was a nice breeze at the beach and the water is a gorgeous shade of aqua... it´s the Mediterranean, what can I expect? There are lots of boardwalk-type areas around Barceloneta for people to ride bikes, take a stroll, and walk their dogs (mostly without leashes... I don´t think there is a leash law in this country), and I can picture it being a pretty wild place in the summertime.
I loved the Barri Gotic area... the part of the city that dates back to medieval times. We took lots of pictures of Barcelona´s Cathedral, and it was amazing to walk around some of the ancient buildings in the area and see what used to be a moat around them. It always blows my mind to see how a more modern city has sprung up around structures from the 1500´s. Nowadays Barri Gotic is home to lots of trendy little boutiques and shops, all along its warren of narrow, historic alleyways. I loved it.
Tomorrow we´re off to Provence! Can´t wait...

From Sagrada Familia to Palacio del Flamenco

We began our second day in Barcelona with more Gaudi, visiting La Pedrera - a very interesting building built between 1905 and 1910 as a combined apartment and office block - and one of the most recognizable landmarks of Barcelona, La Sagrada Familia church.
We had to wait for a little while to get into La Pedrera, but it was most definitely worth the queue. It has a very distinctive gray stone facade with intricate wrought-iron balconies around the outside that give it a wavy effect. Roberto and I enjoyed exploring La Pedrera´s rooftop, which features weird-looking sculptures that, in Roberto´s words, look "like something out of Star Wars". Perhaps my favorite part of La Pedrera was the apartment on the top floor of the building - called El Pis de la Pedrera - which is open for the public to wander. It is fully furnished in the style of the early 20th century, complete with an enormous Victrola.
Only a few blocks´walk from La Pedrera, Gaudi´s masterpiece Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia was begun in the late 19th century and still isn´t completed, believe it or not. According to my Lonely Planet guide, it´s expected to be done anywhere between 2020 and 2040. (The Australian mother behind us in line remarked the project could be a construction worker´s lifelong career "from the time he gets out of school until he retires", which I thought was cute.)
Roberto was a little disappointed that all of our photos of the unique church will be marred with scaffolding, but it´s OK, we were still able to take a lift to the top of one of the church´s exotic-looking spires for a fantastic bird´s-eye view of all of Barcelona! It was well worth the 45-minute long wait to get on the lift, a tiny elevator that fit no more than 4 or 5 people at once. Then we took the winding tiny staircase back down through the spire to exit through the back of the church´s sanctuary, where workmen were zooming around on bobcats. Half of the floor was torn up and they were putting pipes in. I still managed to get a shot of the beautiful stained glass windows. We were told they are having services in the church at 9 AM and 7 PM each day, although I´m not sure how!
Then it was off for a late lunch to a tapas place that came highly recommended from both Roberto´s cousin Maria Mercedes and Lonely Planet: Cerveseria Catalunya. I´m a huge tapas fan - I like lots of variety in my food - so this place was just perfect. For lunch we snacked on the famous tomato bread of Barcelona, yummy shrimp-and-mayonnaise snacks, veal tidbits with poblano peppers on toast, bacalao (a cut of fish in sauce on toast). We even went back for dinner and a pitcher of sangria, followed by a lively flamenco show at Palacio del Flamenco.

Barcelona - Day 1

Back in 2004 on a whirlwind 11-day tour of five European countries, I flew into Girona airport, spent about 2 hours in Barcelona, then promptly jumped on a bus to Madrid. I didn´t know what I was missing!
This is a very walkable city with a lot of character. As soon as we got in this morning, we jumped on the Metro (very easy to figure out and can take you anywhere in the city) to get to Parc Guell, a whimsical park the architect Antoni Gaudi was hired to create in 1900. Initially, the park was designed to be a residential area for Barcelona´s wealthy residents, but after the project was abandoned in 1914, it became a public park for everyone to enjoy. And enjoy it we did! It´s a steep climb to reach the top of the park, but the sweeping views of the entire city of Barcelona can´t be beat, and we loved Gaudi´s signature glittering mosaic buildings, statues, and details throughout the park. We spent almost two hours searching for the famous lizard dragon fountain before we realized it was just inside another entrance to the park! Took lots of pictures!
Afterward, we hopped back on the Metro and got off around La Rambla. This is one of the more touristy areas of the city, but we are told no visit to Barcelona is complete without stopping here. We had a late lunch at a restaurant called the Attic, which was really delicious... octopus and beef carpaccio, a fried egg dish with jamon serraño, and two towers of fresh mozzarella and tomato... mmm....
Now we´re trying to stay awake so we can get over our jet lag and have a fresh, full day tomorrow. Lots to do and see here yet! We´re not off to France until Tuesday!

Ain´t no volcanic ash thick enough...

Well, we finally reached Barcelona around ten AM local time... a second bout of volcanic ash from Iceland started drifting south over continental Europe on Thursday, closing the Barcelona airport for most of Saturday! We were really concerned when we got to Philadelphia and we were told the airport here was closed, but it reopened just in time for us to get out (only an hour-and-a-half delay, not too bad!) The flight took nine hours as opposed to the usual seven so the pilots could navigate around the ash cloud, but we don´t mind... let the two-week celebration begin!