At the top of a hill overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, Taormina is a small but picturesque town on Sicily’s eastern coast. Home to a spectacular ancient Greek theater, gorgeous coastal views, lovely beaches, and the imposing sight of Mount Etna in the background, Taormina is certainly a town worth exploring. I visited Taormina twice on…
Sedona holds a special place in my heart. The first time I ever stepped foot in Sedona, Arizona two years ago I knew it held some type of magic. I love the red rock formations that tower over the city. Artsy, handmade shops line every street and some of the best cuisines can be found…
Off the coast of Morocco, strewn in the Atlantic Ocean amidst its wild winds, you’ll find the Portuguese island of Madeira. Here, you’ll find a diverse landscape — laurel forests, sheer cliff faces, towering waterfalls, and stunning beaches — that makes the volcanic island of Madeira the perfect destination to visit any time of the…
With its brightly-painted narrow streets set on a pristine crystalline lake with a backdrop of majestic mountains, Annecy is the ultimate scenic vacation destination, in the heart of the beautiful Haute-Savoie region of France. Annecy truly has it all: a picture-perfect old town with historic neighborhoods crisscrossed by charming canals, all set in a beautiful…
I had first heard of Taichung from a girl I met while I was traveling in Greece, who had taught English there for two years. The way she described the city made me fall in love with it before I had even visited. Close to hikes and lakes, full of cafés and streets jammed with…
Catania is a captivating Sicilian city right at the foot of Mount Etna, deserving of more attention than it gets. While it’s best known for its gorgeous Baroque architecture and charming historical town, Catania also has stunningly gorgeous views of the spectacular (and spectacularly active) volcano. When living in Italy, I made several trips to Sicily, and…
Verona is ironically known for all the wrong things — and forgotten for many of its best merits. Like that whole Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet thing? Well, the setting is technically right, but that’s about where the similarities end… any of the supposed “houses” that are related to it, are actually not connected at all!…
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is absolutely a must-see destination for any lover of the great outdoors, and the numbers are there to prove it. This is the most visited national park in the country, winning by a landslide, pun only slightly intended. Knowing all this, when I was planning my road trip through the…
From the loud warbling of the call to prayer and the persistent calls of the men who run stalls in the souks constantly striking your ears, Marrakech is a cacophony and a shock to the senses. The sights, smells, and sounds of Marrakech are deeply layered, and not always pleasant: the pungent smell of incenses…
