[ROME, ITALY] — When you get sick of all the tour buses and streets clogged with tourist groups, head up to the top of the Via Venato to the Villa Borghese Gardens, one of the most tranquil parts of Rome. Vast, sprawling acres of grass, trees and cool little features, like a picture perfect rowing lake…. with its own temple of course. And because it’s high up, great views of the city and Piazza del Popolo. Few people visiting Rome really know about, or think of visiting, Villa Borghese Gardens. People totally overlook that big green blob in the upper left of their Roma map and head with the hoards to the old stuff. But when you’re hot and sweaty and tired of the bus tour
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[RAVELLO, ITALY] –– Years ago I finally realized what I really like: cliffs, overlooking a distant ocean, preferably with a pool clinging to a steep hillside. From then on, it’s been my focus on choosing where I go on vacation. (You’ll see this as a common theme throughout this site!) Palazzo Avino fits all of those criteria. Plus, small, quiet and really expensive. After a recent remodel, it is on almost every Top Ten list of all hotels in the world. They have some rock star-great rooms and terraces, with prices to match. Years ago I finally realized what I really like: cliffs, overlooking a distant ocean, preferably with a pool clinging to a steep hillside. This has all of those things. Sitting high on a hilltop in Ravello,
[RAVELLO, ITALY] — A few thousand feet up the mountains over Positano and the sea is the town of Ravello. Often voted one of the prettiest villages in Italy, it shows it. They’ve done a great job at preserving this little mountaintop town. No modern stores or chains. Just a quant little piazza, with hotels and restaurants spanning out to the edges of the cliffs. The views are stunning of the distant water thousands of feet below, the shimmer of the sun. Extremely relaxing place with just a few hotels and restaurants. A couple days is all you need unless you just want to unwind with a book by the pool and feel the breeze. Hidden on a hilltop 1000ft about the sea, Ravello
[POSITANO, ITALY] — If you’ve never been to Le Sirenuse in Positano, put it on your list. Le Sirenuse is the best hotel on the Amalfi Coast and one of the best hotels in Italy. It’s also one of World’s 50 Best Hotels. Nothing compares to sitting in the grandstands (the pool) overlooking one of the prettiest views in the world. A cascade of villas, hotels and restaurants tumbling down to the sea. One of the most pristine, elegantly designed and not-over-the-top luxury hotels. Spotless and shiny Vietri tile all over in a mint-condition building that was a private summer house until it was turned into a hotel in 1951. Now stuffed with all the Sersale family’s antiques and artwork. It’s an outside-indoors place, where the windows
[ POSITANO, ITALY] — This is my second favorite place in Positano. Hotel Miramare, one of the best boutique hotels in Positano. It’s a great hotel with super sweet family that runs it and that combination is why even all the barking dogs on TripAdvisor rank this puppy 5 out of 5 stars. You know you’re doing something right when you have a four star hotel pulling down five stars. The hotel started out as rented houses in the 1930s, before Positano was an international tourist destination. Then the family turned it into a hotel that became a favorite of military coming up from Naples for some R&R during World War II. That’s what started Positano off, as returning sailors talked all about this amazing setting,
[ROMA] — There are fancier places to stay in Rome, but one of my favorites is the Albergo del Senato, directly across from my favorite building in the world, The Pantheon. It is small, Old School, but delightful. You can’t beat the location, smack in the heart of everything good. And right around the corner from the best gelato in Rome, Giolitti. If you can’t get a guarantee from the hotel for a Pantheon view or don’t want to by extra, then there are other hotels I’d choose. (I once had a broom closet of a room once that wasn’t and it looked out onto a blind alley.) But if you can secure a room that overlooks the Pantheon, there is no place better to stay
NOTE: THESE ARE LOUSY SCANS OF LOUSY PICTURES FROM A LONG TIME AGO, CLICK HERE TO SEE PRETTY PICTURES FROM THEIR SITE IT’S NOW ON AIRBNB — ALL THE TREES HAVE GROWN AND EVERYTHING IS EVEN BETTER. I’VE INFILLED A FEW PHOTOS FROM THEIR AIRBNB SITE. [MONTAIONE, TUSCANY] — Let the hoards of English, Germans and Americans crowd the overly popular Under The Tuscan Sun areas south of Florence and the tourist-choked villages of Montepulciano. “Chiantishire”. To me, I loved staying on the western edges of Tuscany centered around the cool and undiscovered town of Montaione — which Architectural Digest called “one of the prettiest towns in Italy you’ve never heard of“. The geography of this area is more farmland than grapes and a prime hunting