Whoever says that Americans don’t travel outside of their own country has clearly never been to Florence in June. I promise I’m not exaggerating when I say that literally every corner, every alleyway, every piazza, every museum, and every bridge was teeming with Americans. Generally packs of them, likely freshly sprung from recently docked cruise…
Forget art. Put your trust in ice cream.Charles Baxter, The Feast of Love A medieval city considered the jewel in Tuscany’s crown, Florence purports to offer something for everyone. It has cultivated sculptors and writers, politicians and poets, philosophers and painters, scientists and saints; during the Renaissance, the city became home to some of the…
Poor Pisa. One of Tuscany’s most popular daytrip destinations, this compact city is generally touted by travelers as being worth nothing more than a quickie. Each morning, visitors are shuttled in by bus and train, flooding the Piazza dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles) where the city’s most famous historic buildings (the most noteworthy of which…
When we set ourselves a daily budget of $100US for our RTW trip, we assumed that we’d come in well under this while traveling through Asia, but more than make up for that by steamrolling it while in Europe. I was certain that if London didn’t annihilate our budget, then Paris surely would. It’s not…
I used to say that I could never hack it as a vegetarian because I love hamburgers too much. I know this is true because a no-meat eating phase I dabbled with when I was a teen ended rather abruptly when my craving for a cheeseburger got the better of me; after 10 months of…
To say I am not a museum person is putting it lightly. Sure, there are certainly other activities I dislike more—hiking up mountains, is probably one of them—but as a traveler, world-class museums are rarely a draw for me. I’d much rather spend my time wandering around a city—strolling through the markets, rambling down the…
Throughout our travels, I’ve learned that there are very few places that can be adequately captured—whether it be in a blog post or novel, a photo, or even a film, there is just no substitute for being there. Indeed, perhaps my greatest frustration as a writer and Tony’s as a photographer is that the general…
A rut. A funk. A slump. Whatever you want to call it, I’ve been in one for the past few weeks. I’ve felt suffocated and heavy, like my body is being dragged down under a tide of sadness and I’m too lethargic to fight my way out. Most mornings I wake up feeling like a…
It there’s one thing we’ve learned over and over again on our travels, it’s that there’s nothing like food—whether you’re sitting down to a meal or simply just reminiscing about some of the great dishes in your past—to bring people together. I think Chewing the Fat does a great job of accomplishing the same thing…
As the weather takes a turn for the chilly, you have two options. You can climb into a onesie, stock up the cupboards, and resign yourself to hibernation throughout the winter, or, you can dig out your earmuffs, ski boots and passport, and get ready to jet off to a winter wonderland filled with adventure….
We knew that following our time in Asia that transitioning to Europe would be hard on our dwindling travel funds. Many people joked that we couldn’t have picked a worse destination than London as our entry point with respect to sticker shock. While it might be true that London is a very expensive city, we…
When it came time to return home from our RTW trip, my one consolation was that we would be doing so during the summer—clearly the best time to visit Canada! However, much to my dismay, the weather didn’t cooperate and I have spent most of the past three months shivering indoors as thunderstorms hammered down…
There were many places on this trip that I was excited to visit for essentially little more than the chance to eat my way through them. It will probably not surprise many of you that England was not originally on that list. It is now. England may traditionally be the laughing stock of the culinary…
In my last post, I wrote extensively about the many free things to see and do in London. With so many free attractions at your disposal, I outlined how it is entirely possible to fill over a week in London town without spending anything above and beyond your lodging, food and transport, and to do…
Given that today’s Chewing the Fat interviewees have been taking the travel blogging world by storm over the past year with their epic adventures through Asia, Europe and South & Central America, I assume everyone’s familiar with them. In case you’re not, however, a little introduction: Dan and Casey are two lovebirds, world travelers, and…