February 2010

Here are a few nice places in Venice.

Strolling through the flower-lined canal streets in Amsterdam is a great delight in summer, particularly if you’re staying in a hotel that makes casual sunrise and sunset walks convenient.

The matter of my traffic fines in Florence and Siena, Italy, has come to a conclusion (“Beware of Limited-traffic Zones,” Jan. ’10, pg. 12). I lost the Siena appeal, but winning two out of three is not all bad.

JOHN THORSON

Darien, IL

Thank you, thank you, John Putman, for your letter (Nov. ’09, pg. 52). I, too, cannot see the point of the endless e-mails, phone calls, etc., that leisure travelers feel it necessary to make. It’s annoying when time is wasted on a tour so that people can find an Internet cafe to “keep in touch.”

I leave an itinerary behind for emergencies and make the occasional cell phone call if I’m unavailable for any length of time, but that’s it other than a few postcards. I’m so glad someone else feels the way I do.

Hallelujah for John Putman’s letter “Cutting All Ties, Temporarily” (Nov. ’09, pg. 52)! Finally, someone agrees with me.

My wife, Kathy, and I took an “Ancient Kingdoms” tour to Southeast Asia with Overseas Adventure Travel (Cambridge, MA; 800/493-6824), Jan. 29-Feb. 21, 2009. This was an excellent trip on which to experience the four countries of Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, but I am writing about another matter that may be of interest to travelers.

During a stop in Vietnam, we purchased a decorative stone lantern and paid to have it shipped to our home in the States ($200 lantern plus $80 shipping). We put it all on a Visa card.

I lived in Mexico for six months in 1974-75, visited up to three times a year in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, taught English in a community college there earlier this decade and continue to give talks on cruise ships docking in Mexican ports, most recently in November ’09.

There are some things Norte­americanos don’t seem to “get” when traveling in Mexico and which, to put it bluntly, lead to some stress.

From a few days in Chile, including Easter Island, Oct. 29-Nov. 8, 2009, here are our recommendations.

by Brad Shea, Rochester, NY

My wife, Sandy, and I have visited various regions of Italy, and we always had a desire to take cooking lessons there. We know about preparing pasta dishes, but there’s much more to Italian cooking than pasta, so we started researching cooking classes in Bologna, considered by many the culinary capital of Italy.

by Herb Phillipson; Dowagiac, MI

Long ago I fell in love with Africa.