I attended a wine tasting a few weeks back and, as is often the case, I came away equally lit up and irritated. This is not the emotion one should feel after consuming delicious alcohol. This calls for my unique, and correct, take on wine tasting etiquette. Unfortunately, simple common…

This is it folks. For the final post of Tuscany Month, celebrating the release of the totally redesigned 2010 Lonely Planet Tuscany & Umbria, I am listing, by my modest estimation, the best Tuscan restaurants. I’ve selected restaurants from the full budget range for various reasons that will be made…

The Tuscany Month countdown to the release of the totally redesigned 2010 Lonely Planet Tuscany & Umbria is nearing its end. I’ve been saving the best for last, including my carefully considered list of the best hotels in Tuscany (and pensions and agriturismi). As always, the caveats are: this list…

Listing the best cheap eats in Tuscany might be my favorite Tuscany Month post. Having now completed two Tuscany guidebook projects for Lonely Planet, I’m feeling emboldened to share some authoritative opinions about the area. My biggest fixation is how one might enjoy a first-rate Tuscan experience without having to…

Tuscany Month continues with my on-the-ground, personally researched list of the best cheap hotels in Tuscany. The Sleeping listings were one of the hardest hit sections in the beautifully crafted 2010 edition of Lonely Planet Tuscany & Umbria and with online accommodation booking making this section almost obsolete, it’s easy…

I had to decline an offer this week to predict 2010 travel trends. Besides being prohibitively busy writing the seminal works detailing how smart I am and how dumb everyone else is, but with grace and charm, I didn’t feel that I was qualified to publicly muse about future travel…

This list was created in honor of my LP colleague Mark Baker, who has gotten the silly notion into his head that the trend of making lists for every conceivable mundane subject is somehow reducing writing/publishing/blogging to single-celled entertainment on par with monster truck rallies or anything currently appearing on…

It’s been a while since I compiled a lengthy list of my opinions and pet peeves and given them an authoritative title so as to pass them off as travel gospel that panicky newspaper researchers can quote in last second filler stories. (Goddamn I love the internet!) Plus, I just…

I’ve been inspired by last week’s list to make another list. Normally, I’m not a list guy. I just don’t do it. I can barely get it together to make a grocery list (e.g. yesterday I forgot mayo and contact lens solution), much less an authoritative, trustworthy list for public…