Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, when one only remembers to turn on the light. — Professor Albus Dumbledore I am a muggle in love. Since the first Harry Potter book landed on our shores in 1999, I have been hopelessly in love with the world of Hogwarts and the boy [...]

It’s inevitable. You move to a new state and you’ve got a laundry list of things to do: change your address with the Post Office, contract for new utilities, make decisions about phone, TV and internet service, order or renew newspapers and magazines . . . and then the most dreaded task of all. The [...]

For us it was important to create the right atmosphere, so that people who have discovered us can really have the space and time to escape into a different world. — Co-owner Edward Tobin   Books stores are my favorite places. I love a great independent bookstore, whose selections, design and events reflect the personal [...]

National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst. — Wallace Stegner   The problem with keeping an appointment at Yosemite National Park is that there are too many outrageous things to see on the way up to it. Neat small [...]

Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing anything. — Charles Kuralt Sometimes, you’ve just got to get off the road. Last Sunday, Tim and I took a road trip with some friends. Actually, with Tim’s sister and his new friend Verlon, the very talented [...]

When we return home, we can put what we’ve learned — our newly acquired broader perspective — to work as citizens of a great nation confronted with unprecedented challenges. And when we do that, we make travel a political act. — Rick Steves, Travel as a Political Act    I want to tell all you [...]

Let’s face it, there’s something special about Italy . . . Suzy & Bill Menard   When I’m missing Italy (which is whenever I’m not there), it helps to surround myself with Italian things. Food, ceramics, music, wine, movies. . . you name it, it all helps. A fresh fig can keep me happy for [...]

… Me? I’m not off for anywhere at all. Sometimes I wander out of beaten ways Half looking for the orchid Calypso. — Robert Frost, “An Encounter”    The city of Richmond, Virginia includes an array of treasures and the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden is surely one of them. Located just a few minutes outside [...]

Nowadays nothing but money counts: a fortune brings honors, friendships; the poor man everywhere lies low. — Ovid   My friend Novelia tells me that the tourists are finally coming back to Abruzzo. It’s been a long, cold, ridiculously snowy winter and she is ready for guests. Ready to make pasta. Ready to tour them [...]

They say life’s what happens when you’re busy making other plans. But sometimes in New York, life is what happens when you’re waiting for a table. — Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw   For those who don’t know, I’m a native New Yorker. Father born and raised in Brooklyn. Maternal grandmother born and raised [...]