I spent three weeks in Italy in October with my wife and here are some things that I noticed while I was there:

1) Italian women wear really high heels. It's amazing watching the women walk on cobblestone streets with their stilettos on.

2) Gelato is awesome! We quickly became gelato snobs and didn't buy any from shops that had it stacked up high in open containers. The best gelato was in shops that keep their gelato covered.

3) Even in the best

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I took a two month backpacking trip around Europe with a buddy when I was seventeen years old. We had spent a couple of weeks in France and had taken a train south to Spain when we got stuck for several hours at the border, waiting for a train into Spain. We were talking to some Canadian backpackers who suggested that we go to Pamplona, instead of Madrid, for the Festival of San Fermin. Since the wait for that train was several hours less than for the Madrid train, we decided to go to Pamplona.

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I just returned from nine days on Maui and I'm happy to report that I still have a bank account. As you probably know, Hawaii is extremely expensive, but there are ways to get around that if you're willing to plan ahead. My wife and I both have Alaska Air credit cards, which entitle each to an annual $99 companion ticket. (It was $50 until a year or two ago.) Since we were bringing our two teenagers, we had to pay full fare for only two of us, meaning that I saved around $400 on each of the

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I had been keeping my eye on the Mystery Auction for Albergo al Sole in Asolo, Italy, for several days. I'm planning a trip to Europe for some time in the next year, and I thought that Italy would be a great destination since I hadn't been to the country since I was a teenager. The package looked absolutely amazing and, having done my research, I noticed that the identical package was available as a regular auction item for $540, roughly a third of its retail value.

Bidding was

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I took a year between off high school and college and worked for an office supply wholesaler. One day, I got a letter from a friend whom I had known since birth (my mom and his mom were and still are best friends), asking me if I wanted to backpack through Europe with him before heading off to college. You know that this happened a long time ago because people used to send letters back in the early 1970's. Going outside the U.S. was the furthest thing from my mind, but my parents encouraged me

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