Rome

By Tom Passavant We were standing on a street corner near the Colosseum around 11 a.m. on a sunny September morning, our attention divided between our Google map and a tiny shop called Gelateria da Costanza. As my friends and I discussed directions, two English women strode up and told

  By Gary Walther There was something slightly eerie about this Rome shop window encountered on an early morning walk. It was as if a Roman Walpürgisnacht had just wrapped up, that The Hotel Detective’s approach had made the mannequins hastily reabsorb their rampant spirits, like teenagers putting the living

Kelly Hayes, a spotter on NBC’s Sunday Night Football, is attempting to to complete “The Running Decathlon” which consists of the ten most widely-run track events. His goal is to run each race “half as fast,” or in twice the time, of the current world record in each event. And

  by Geri Bain Sipping the “welcome” Prosecco we were offered as we checked in, my husband, daughter and I had the sense that we were guests in someone’s elegant townhome, not a hotel in the heart of one of Rome’s most fashionable shopping areas. In fact, the hotel was

By Marc Kristal The tourist’s week I spent recently in Rome was – as it always seems to be in that unusual city – a dream of perfection. The sun came out every day and turned my scarf and gloves unnecessary. The low winter sun made silhouettes of the stone

By Marc Kristal “Location, location, location,” that governing incantation of all real estate deals, isn’t quite as ironclad when it comes to choosing a hotel. For one, part of the pleasure of travel involves discovering unknown, out-of-the-way gems; for another, hostelries in the heart of the action tend to be

  By Tom Passavant Let’s face it: Exploring Rome is at once exhilarating and exhausting. All those churches! All that pasta! And yes, all those guidebooks and maps and web sites and blogs that purport to explain it all for you. After four weeks of daily explorations, not to mention

  By Tom Passavant They say that armies travel on their stomachs. So for the legions of tourists who descend on Rome every day, I have one word of advice for withstanding the rigors of sightseeing: biscotti. The Eternal City abounds with options for quick and delicious snacks, from standup

by Tom Passavant It’s spring in Rome, with thunderstorms giving way now to sunny skies. Even the marble statues in the piazzas look refreshed and ready for the onslaught of summer tourists. One of the first things that struck my wife and me when we arrived last week after a

Fred Plotkin. Fred Plotkin is a self-styled “pleasure activist.” But that playful term doesn’t begin to encapsulate his extraordinarily accomplished and diverse background. Fred is one of the world’s leading authorities on Italian food and cooking, the author of Italy for the Gourmet Traveler, which has just been released in