Features

by Joyce Bruck, Ocean Ridge, FL

I was to embark on a 14-day Holland America Line cruise through the countries of the Black Sea from the port city of Civitavecchia on Sept. 17, 2008. As a precaution, I always try to leave a one-day “fudge factor” in case something goes wrong, such as a missed or delayed flight, so I had booked an overnight at Hotel Traiano (phone +39 0766 544282, www.hoteltraiano.com), which I found on the Internet. I had arranged with the hotel for a driver to pick me up at Rome’s Fiumicino-Leonardo da Vinci Airport for the transfer to the hotel in Civitavecchia (...

by Yvonne Horn, Contributing Editor

The winged lion of Venice, sculpted in stone, stood high above us just beneath the tip-top bronze bell of St. Mark’s Torre dell’Orologio, looking down on the populace as if it owned the world.

My grown daughter, Joanne, and I had come to Venice to board Windstar Cruises’ Wind Star — an appropriate starting place, as our week-long August ’08 voyage would trace a long stretch of Adriatic coastline systematically conquered by the Venetian Republic during its reign of supremacy. From the beginning of the 13th century until Napoleon Bonaparte...

by Beth Habian, ITN

I must admit that, despite my profession, I’m a chicken when it comes to traveling to an unfamiliar place on my own. While many thrive on the excitement and challenge of tackling a foreign country independently, I like the security of traveling with someone who knows the destination and the language.

I don’t, however, enjoy being a “tourist.” The thought of walking through narrow streets following a guide holding a brightly colored plastic flower on a stick makes me cringe. For me, small-group travel is the way to go.

This year I was invited to...