Italy is a romance for the senses…. taste, smells, sounds, touch and visual…. all your senses need to be keen to truly enjoy all that Italy offers. This blog is longer than usual but so necessary. La Morra – Piedmont Region Italy’s hidden gem from our perspective We’re somewhere in that half sleep, half-awake state early in the morning when we hear the gong of church bells across the street. With eyes closed we are trying to focus on the number. Oh good…. its only 5am, we can continue to snuggle in our crisp fresh sheets at the UVE Wine Bar and Rooms. Just a bit later as we hear the church bells gong 7am we decided we should think about starting our day. As we’re having a nice breakfast in our B&B we were discussing ... read more

The road less traveled has allowed for some interesting tales as we continued our road trip out of Tajikistan into Kyrgyzstan. While our journey took us through much of Tajikistan and a small portion of Kyrgyzstan; from the border to Osh, we found these countries to be somewhat similar. Perhaps Kyrgyzstan is more developed and the roads we experienced were in much better shape. But as we said, the bulk of our travels were in Tajikistan. Flat Tire….. No Surprise Toward the end of day two of our trip we were beginning to feel a bit road weary. Even though our driver Zamanbek was firmly in control, riding in a 4X4 over what could be best described as the most basic roads proved a bit tiring when riding many hours each day. At one point, we ... read more

Chances are, if you are reading this blog, you either have an insatiable appetite for traveling in the more remote or lesser known places on this planet or you are a friend or family member. Either way, welcome to one of our more unique adventures. Introduction Until recently, any country containing the syllable “stan” would not have been high on our list of places to visit, but then we discovered that Shane Dallas, a.k.a. the Travel Camel was organizing a 14-day excursion to Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is most worthy of note that the Travel Camel goes on the road less traveled. He is the traveler’s traveler. You will not find him hobnobbing at the Cannes Film Festival or working on his tan in San Moritz. You’re more likely to find him in Iran, Afghanistan or ... read more

As we peered through the flowers and saw the floating marine layer wafting through the hillside at Godric Grove in Elings Park, we could see why she loved “her Santa Barbara” so much. Just this small slice of her home town revealed to us the beauty and grandeur of a place she held so dear. We had arrived with many others to celebrate the life of one of TravelBlog’s own, Tara Cloud. We always enjoyed her blogs, her comments to other bloggers and her stunning pictures. But most of all, we appreciated her candor on all subjects and love for her native California. It was more than obvious that she held the Golden State in the highest regard and had a running love affair with Santa Barbara, a smaller coastal city north of Los Angeles, which ... read more

Preserving majestic locations across our country is something the U.S. has done pretty well. At the end of the day, we can thank a president who was in office some one hundred plus years ago….. and we can concur that Joshua Tree National Park is one of those stunning and serene locations. Theodore Roosevelt is known as “the conservation president” because during his tenure from 1901 to 1908 he doubled the number of sites within our national parks system. Teddy began this work and other Presidents followed his example. Germaine to our blog is Joshua Tree National Park, which was created by Franklin Delano Roosevelt (yep, he is related to Theodore) in 1936 and frankly……are we glad he did. With Los Angeles in our rearview mirror we are feeling giddy because we have not had a ... read more