The top spots to visit in Italy are Rome, Florence and Venice.  But after visiting these places I looked for something a little more laid-back, a little less touristy and crowded, a little bit more authentic.   So, I traveled to Padua in the Veneto region last March and fell in love with it.   I liked it so much that we will be offering regular small group tours to Padau and the Veneto region of Italy in 2014.   Read my blog post to see why you want to put Padua on the list on the next tour to Italy.

When I ran my first Traveling Professor tour in 2009 to Paris, I was the tour leader and guide.   Things have changed since then.  A  law was passed requiring all tour guides to be licensed and authorized to conduct tours inside museums, monuments, and chateaux in and around Paris.   Only those possessing an official license are authorized to accompany tourists.  It can take months or years of study and the successful completion of challenging examinations to obtain a touring license.  Most municipalities in Italy and in Peru have followed suit.  Take a look at my blog post and see my comments regarding tour guides in Paris, Italy, Spain and Peru.

One of our most popular and fascinating tours is to Machu Picchu.   There are right ways to visit Machu Picchu and there are wrong ways to visit Machu Picchu.  It took us about a year to plan our small group tour and in this blog post I will pass on my expert advice on visiting Machu Picchu.   See what The Traveling Professor says about  transportation, hotels, and itinerary planning for a trip to Peru and Machu Picchu.

On our small group tours to Italy, Florence is one of our favorite stops.  I like it because the city is very compact.  There is very little need for public transportation in Florence.  Of course there are great attractions like David, the Uffizi, Santa Croce, Piazza Signoria, the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens.   We always have some special places to visit when we travel with our small groups to Florence too.   But what about where to eat?  In this blog post I will give you some of my favorite Florence restaurant recommendations.

One of the most popular side trips from Paris is a trip to London.   By train, it is only about 2.5 hours on the Eurostar fast train. Since The Traveling Professor is considering expanding our small group tours for adults to Paris to include a side trip to London, I have done the research to see the best options for taking the chunnel train between Paris and London.  Read the blog post for more details and tips on taking the Eurostar from Paris to London.

On almost every small group tour I run, someone has a delayed or cancelled flight, loses their luggage, or is denied boarding.  In fact, just this year alone I have had two flights to Europe and one in Peru cancelled or significantly delayed.  Most people don't know what their rights are when this happens.  For this guest blog post, I have enlisted the help of a legal expert, Attorney Christopher D. Aulepp, to outline what you can do not if, but when your flight is delayed or cancelled, the airline loses your luggage, or when you are denied boarding on your next trip to Europe.

I first visited Segovia in 1992.  I remember my first sight of Segovia being the impressive Roman aqueduct spanning the small city.   Underneath was the quaint Spanish town, filled with wonderful restaurants and narrow cobblestone streets.   The castle, straight out of a Disney movie, was a delight.  I returned earlier this year on one of my small group “preview tours” of Segovia.  In this blog post, I will tell you how I experience the Spanish city of Segovia.

I have toured the major cities of Italy like Florence, Rome, Venice and Milan several times.  People who have traveled with me before ask me to take them somewhere new in Italy.   I have been exploring taking small group tours to the Venetto.  Those towns include Vicenza, Padua, and medieval Verona.   In today’s Italy blog I will talk about visiting Verona, the romantic home of Shakespeare’s Juliet.  BTW, look for The Traveling Professor to offer a small group tour to Verona in Fall of 2014.

Honfleur is one of those picturesque towns located in Normandy where the Seine meets the Atlantic.  Walking the streets narrow streets of the wooden framed buildings with the smell of fresh seafood and baking bread is still with me since my last visit.  I have traveled to Honfleur from Paris several times.  My friends and guest bloggers Brigitte and Philippe Mercier of Beehome Guest House in Honfleur bring us the story of this Norman village and how to visit Honfleur.

One reason I keep coming back to Paris, even after 35 visits or so, is that I always discover something new to me.  On my past tours of Paris, I took several visits until I found things like the Musée l’Orangerie, my favorite restaurant, Le Pre Verre, the Musée Arts et Metiers, and the passageways and walks that make a visit to Paris almost like a new experience every time I go.   Read about my last 3 days in Paris and find out about the sites I have visited again and what’s new in Paris for me.