Travelers' Intercom

A highlight of my two-month trip to Spain in February and March ’11 was a day trip from Ronda to Benaojan to see La Cueva de la Pileta, which contains some of the oldest cave paintings found in Europe. Amazingly, the public may view the original prehistoric paintings (not reproductions). I visited the cave in the first week of March. I took the train from Ronda (round trip fare, €5). Guided tours of the cave are about an hour long, cost €8 (near $10.50) and are limited to 25 people. Tours leave hourly from 10 to 1 and 4 to 6. The tours are in Spanish, but the guides will translate the...

We were in Spain for three weeks in April and May ’04. We kept all of our receipts for credit card purchases and when our bill came we verified that the correct amounts had been posted.

In early June I went online to our MasterCard account to check whether a totally unrelated purchase had posted and was alarmed to discover that there were three fraudulent charges from Spain totaling $500. I immediately called the fraud department of the card issuer and was told that an actual card had been run through the card swiper in making the purchases.

Since we both have our credit...

Once a year, I travel to my favorite country: Italy. During my 2011 trip, I visited Bolzano, May 15-18.

Located very close to Austria, Bolzano is 70% German-speaking; the signs are in German, and the architecture is decidedly German. The town’s main attraction is the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, home to “Ötzi the Iceman,” but the area has so much else to offer, especially if you like being outdoors. The mountainous setting is beautiful.

For me, part of Bolzano’s appeal is the impressive, 100-year-old, five-story Parkhotel Laurin (Via Laurin Strasse 4, I-39100 Bolzano...