Travelers' Intercom

On a free afternoon in Rome, I visited the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme (Largo di Villa Peretti 67; phone 06 3996 7700 — open 9-7:45 Tuesday-Sunday; admission, €7), part of the Museo Nazionale Romano. I knew it contained a fourth-century stone artwork of a type called opus sectile. Opus sectile is a technique similar to mosaic except that the stones are large sheets of various kinds of marble, ground thin and precisely cut.

Unfortunately, after an interesting but long cross-town walk to the palazzo, I found that the work I wanted to see was “out for repairs”; however, there were many...

The weakened dollar certainly affects our US friends who visit us here in Outer London (Wimbledon), but a bit of research and knowledge can reveal good deals and plenty of freebies.

Two-for-one offers on many attractions are available to those who travel by train, including those purchasing “TravelCards.” Try putting “London 2 for 1” and “London travel cards” in your search engine (I used Google). Note that the one-day “off peak” TravelCard is generally the best bet unless you want to start before 9:30 a.m. on weekdays.

A Zone 6 card covers all public transport services (...

My husband, my sister and I decided to spend the 2007 Christmas holidays in Europe, and to that end we booked a 14-day “Christmas Markets” riverboat trip with Vantage Deluxe World Travel (Boston, MA; 800/322-6677). Following that, we would have a rental car and a Christmas week timeshare in southern France, then spend New Year’s in a small Bavarian country inn in which my husband and I had stayed for New Year’s a number of years before.

The riverboat trip was wonderful, as have been the other trips I’ve taken with Vantage, particularly the Southern Africa one, which was an inspiring...