Our family (husband, wife, 16-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter) visited France and Belgium for three weeks in June ’03. While in Paris, we arrived at the Sainte-Chapelle minutes before a free English-language tour was to begin. It was the luckiest day of our trip!

The guide, Vicki-Marie Petrick, was a native of Jacksonville, Florida, who has been living in Paris for 10 years. She has a Master’s in Medieval and Renaissance Art History from the Sorbonne and is currently pursuing a...

I paid a return visit to London’s Bloomsbury in November ’03.

Bloomsbury is that district in London that surrounds the British Museum and edges another district, Soho. Compared to Soho, Bloomsbury is sedate; however, in the years before and after the First World War, from 1900 to the eve of the Second World War, Bloomsbury’s artists, writers, critics and Bohemian ways rivaled those of Paris in the 1920s.

The area continues to delight me. I haven’t grown weary of the West End or...

In ITN’s book on Italy I came across InfoRoma, experts on Rome. It was such a wonderful find that I’m writing to recommend this resource to readers, myself.

Margaret Coffin of InfoRoma (Via Peltechian 42, 00173 Rome, Italy; phone/fax +39 06 72900141, e-mail questions@inforoma.it or visit www.inforoma@inforoma.it) provides itineraries, maps, recommendations and in-depth site information to visitors to Rome. Thank goodness, because as a first-time traveler to this phenomenal city I was...