Columns

When I’m in Italy, I generally eat only Italian food. I doubt there’s another country in Europe (except France) that could hold my palate’s interest so easily.

Italians are passionate about food. Cuisine is like a religion, and it’s the quality of the ingredients that’s most sacred. They tell me French cuisine is the art of making a fine sauce to cover the taste of mediocre ingredients. In Italy, they say, “La miglior cucina comincia dal mercato” (“The best cuisine starts from the market”). 

Dear Globetrotter:

Welcome to the 464th issue of your monthly foreign-travel magazine. If you’re reading ITN for the first time, here’s what it’s about. 

Many Americans board a plane for an overseas destination without fully realizing that they are flying into a completely different culture. Some experience culture shock: a psychological disorientation caused by immersion in a place where people do things — and see things — differently.

Fresh from researching London, Bath, York and Edinburgh, I’ve discovered some new restaurant deals and confirmed some previous favorites.

The other night I found my way home, a little tipsy after an evening in the Belgian town of Bruges. I’d been at my favorite bar in town, the ’t Brugs Beertje, where not only did I get schooled in the many varieties of local beer, I learned a few things about modern-day Belgian life.

With its membership in the European Union, many things are changing in Portugal.

Day after day, the roads there were messing up my itinerary. I’d arrive in town hours before I thought I would. I remember a time when there were absolutely no freeways in Portugal. Now the country has plenty. They build them so fast, even my Michelin map was missing new ones.

Each summer, Europe greets a stampede of sightseers and shoppers with eager cash registers. Before jumping into the peak-season pig pile, consider the advantages of an off-season trip.

You’ll never meet a traveler who, after five trips, brags, “Every year I pack heavier.” The measure of a good traveler is how light he or she travels. You can’t travel heavy, happy and cheap. Pick two.

Due to the recent horrendous Post Office price increase to magazines, we now must charge $2 per issue on a one-year subscription.

About the same as you pay for a glass of iced tea in a restaurant.

We think the abundance of Travel information you find in International Travel News is more valuable than half a latte at Starbucks.

A woman called up to complain, saying that she could get another Travel magazine for $12. I fought the urge to say that they know what their magazine is worth.