Dan and I flew our of the Porto Airport (a/k/a the Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport) to Newark, NJ earlier this year after some wedding planning in Lisbon! We had flew out of the Porto Airport once before, and the Porto Airport was exactly as I remembered it – very close to Porto and extremely clean and modern!
Porto Airport.
When planning my trip to Cuba, I really wanted to find an old school cigar lounge for Dan (who loves cigars!). Sad for me, they are not nearly as easy to come by as they used to be. Don’t get me wrong, cigars are everywhere in Havana but not upscale cigar lounges. In my research, I came across Casa Abel
The location was beautiful but the food
Dan and I traveled to Porto, Portugal earlier this year after some Lisbon-area wedding planning, and our visit reaffirmed my decision that I absolutely love Porto! It is really one of my favorite places in Europe. Maybe its the beautiful scenery, maybe its the old school buildings and Vespas, or maybe its the delicious food and wine. But in any case, I just love Porto!
Who doesn’t love this scene?
A big challenge in Venice is finding good (or even mediocre) food in Venice. You can pretty much forget about authentic (unless you take the Venice Bites Food Tour!). On my trip to Venice last November, I was determined to find a decent meal, and I think I did fine with Ai Garzoti!
Venice, Italy. A magical, fairytale, must-see destination that is completely overrun with tourists! I first visited Venice almost 10 years ago, in the Summer of 2008, while studying abroad in Rome. Of course I loved Venice from the moment I arrived, but the crowds were trying and the food was probably (no, definitely) the worst I had in Italy.
I flew all the way to Tuscany, Italy for San Miniato’s famous White Truffle Festival last November! Now, while the San Miniato White Truffle Festival is very well known and totally amazing, there is a surprising lack of information on the festival and San Miniato online! I tried to remedy that with my previous post on San Miniato! However, I did not review the most delicious restaurant – Osteria L’Upupa!
San Miniato from Frederick’s Tower.
We visited Venice last year over the US Thanksgiving holiday. I was a tiny bit nervous when planning, as November in Venice has been known to be terribly rainy and grey. However, our trip was absolutely lovely and Venice was magical, as always. Plus, we missed some of the crowds that can ruin Venice during high season!
Since Venice is SO stunningly photographic, I decided to share a post of my favorite photos – happy holiday planning!
Venice in black and white.
Venetian gothic.
Pretty street.
Wooden boats – my fave!
Gondola by twilight!
Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Miracoli
Blurry.
Rialto.
Gondola.
Crazy colors.
Evening strolling.
The Grand Canal.
Where the gondolas are built.
Piazza San Marco in the rain!
Boat parking.
Gondola parking.
More boat parking.
Views from the Grand Canal.
Every building is beautiful.
Thanksgiving night in Venice.
Touristas.
Take me back!
Hotel Antiche Figure: S. Croce, 687, 30135 Venezia, Italy. T: +39 041 275 9486. Our hotel – right on the Grand Canal across from the train station. Super helpful staff, lovely rooms, and delicious breakfast. Plus, free welcome drinks!
Venice Bites Food Tour: The best tour in Venice. Read my blog post about it here.
Milan is a really popular Italian airport for international flights, and unfortunately many people fly in or out of Milan without leaving any time to see the city itself. They travel in from Lake Como or Florence (on the fast train) the day of their flight. While this is convenient and allows time to see more bucket-list sites in Italy more touristy destinations, I think most tourists should spend at least 24 hours in Milan. That way, getting to/getting off your flight is not as stressful, and Milan is a pretty fabulous Italian city that is completely different from any other!
Not New York modern, but certainly more modern that most Italian cities!
As you may know from reading my previous posts, I visited Italy, specifically Tuscany, Venice, and Milan, over Thanksgiving last year. In planning my trip, I went back and forth in trying to decide whether to do a wine tour in Tuscany. On the one hand, we really love wine and we have never done a proper Italian wine tour. On the other hand, the vineyards would be bare and the wine production would really be at a standstill. I finally decided not to stay in wine country, but I did go on a “Winter Wine Tour” with Grape Tours out of Florence. Grape Tours was one of the only companies (if not the only company) offering wine tours in late November (and throughout the Winter) and I’m not sure why, as our tour certainly booked up!
Tuscany wine country in the Fall.
If you ask me what my favorite restaurant is in the entire world, 100 Maneiras in Lisbon, Portugal would certainly come up in the conversation. While I am not ready to declare it my absolute favorite restaurant, it is most certainly one of my favorites (and Dan may be ready to declare it his favorite)!
100 maneiras.
