When in Rome, one must eat gelato, yes? With dozens of places to chose from, how do you know which place will deliver the freshest, most authentic gelato? I’m going to make it easy for you and tell you: try Fatamorgana.

Next time you’re searching for a unique white wine, uncork a bottle of Saladini Pilastri Pecorino white wine. Is the name of the Italian, family-owned winery a challenge?  No problem.  Just ask for wine with sheep on the label.

If you go to Tuscany, you think of hill towns, medieval villages, Florence, Siena, and maybe Lucca. They are all great places to visit. But what is not far away from this part of Italy is the town of Pisa. And you all know what is in Pisa, right? THE LEANING TOWER OF PISA, of course.

On a trip to Tuscany, this is the place to stay. It is halfway between Florence and Siena, and not far from San Gimignano and Volterra. This beauty of a town is small but still shows its medieval heritage. The main part of town is still surrounded by the walls built back in the 12th century for protection. So many touches of the original remain, such as arches and towers.

Would you like to know more about Florence than many Florentines?

Allow me to share with you my second installation of The Secrets of Florence.

Situated along Italy’s Adriatic Coast in the Emilia Romagna region, Ravenna is an often-overlooked location for travelers. But there is much to discover in this history-laden town, from Roman and Byzantine structures to art and culture to crypts, libraries with cats, and adventures galore. Find your home base via Azzurro Club (check for seaside locations, so you can have the best of history, culture, and beaches), and then get ready to explore!

The Via Francigena (fran-CHEE-jee-nah) is a pilgrimage route from the Middle Ages that starts in England and crosses France and Switzerland before entering Italy at the Gran San Bernardo Pass. Less known than the Spanish pilgrimage route, the Via Francigena was revived in the 1990s and is becoming more traversed each year. 

In 2009, after a divorce and a traumatic illness, I undertook a solo pilgrimage on the Via Francigena, inspired by a desire to purge emotional demons and achieve more of a heart-mind-body connection. 

Do you love your fiction to be intercultural, full of travel and learning about new things and cultures? Me, too. One such read is a new book by Katherine Reay, entitled A Portrait of Emily Price. It's a book about finding yourself, in more ways than one. It's about family, and doing what you love (and finding out what you love, which is a whole different ball game), and intercultural adjustment, and love, and moving to another country, and finding a new family. Here's the truth: I couldn't put it down.

The best way to see Italy - and Europe, for that matter - is with your own set of wheels. I was once told by our friend Vicenzo in his deepest Italian accent speaking perfectly broken English, "Italians like the curve on their roads and their women," and from the voluptuous Sophia Loren to the hair pin turns of the Alpe di Siusi in the Dolomites, there has never been a more true statement.

Maggie Burr is a DPhil candidate in Classical Archaeology at Oxford, where she spends her time trying to understand what ancient farmers did, and why. She grew up in Lexington, MA, Austin, TX, and Beverly, MA.