Slow Europe

The September issue of the Dream of Italy newsletter is all about Villa Rentals and is the first media mention for Slow Europe :) The June 2003 issue of Dream of Italy was their first Special Report on Villa Rentals and it mentioned the site I was running then - Slow Travel. It was the second media mention we had and many more followed. So, this is a good beginning for my new Slow Europe site.

I worked with Kathy McCabe (editor and publisher of Dream of Italy) and Valerie Schneider (Panorama Italy - tours in Le Marche) on the issue. The main article is about my experience with Slow Travel - both this way of travel (staying in villa rentals) and running the Slow Travel website: how I became a Slow Traveler, creating the Slow Travel website and community, renting from agencies vs. owners, changes in vacation rental agencies in the past decade.

Another article is “How to Find a Good Villa Rental Agency” - what we look for in a good agency. We wrote about terms used to talk about vacation rentals - villa rentals, holiday cottages, agriturism, etc. - “you say tomato, I say tomahto”.

Kathy added some great tips for first-time renters. We put our heads together and came up with a three page list of recommended villa rentals for Italy, by region (agencies and estates with cottages).

Subscribe to Dream of Italy or purchase this issue for $10.

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Today we went to the Obama rally in Española, 20 miles north of Santa Fe. I am on the Obama mailing list, so received an email about the event on Monday. I got my ticket online, signed up Steve and got a ticket for him. On Tuesday they announced the event in the local paper, the Santa Fe New Mexican.

Our ticket said the gates opened at 10:30, but the newspaper said the event began at 12:30, so we left home just after 11:00am. Española is the town we drive through on the way to Taos or up to Durango and we don’t know it well. The event was in the plaza and I didn’t know Española had a main plaza (duh!). 

We spent about 15 minutes driving around Española looking for the plaza and finally came upon the crowds of cars. The newspaper said 7,500 people were expected. At first I thought “yikes - too many people” then I remembered a friend telling me that 50,000 people go to the weekend football games in Boulder (and we should think about that when considering moving there) - so 7,500 is nothing.

We parked along the highway about two blocks from the plaza (and a very nice plaza it is with a historic church and a big grassy area) and walked with a lot of other people arriving the same time as us. There was a long line, so we walked some more - about two blocks up a hill to what we thought was the end, but then it turned and there was another block and then it turned (heading back to the highway) but it ended there. We joined the line.

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My good friend Ann Reavis has started a blog about Italy: Tuscan Traveler - Burnt to a Crisp Under the Tuscan Sun.

Ann has been back and forth between the US and Florence for the last decade, so has a lot of great information about Florence, Tuscany and the rest of Italy. She has several interesting articles posted on the blog now.

I helped her set up her blog (which is why it looks a lot like mine except for different colors :) ). I met Ann through Slow Travel but she is originally from the Santa Fe area! Ann wrote several great articles about Florence and Tuscany for Slow Travel - Tuscan Traveler’s Tales.

Another great Italy blog to follow! You can sign up for a Feedburner email notification on her blog (see the subscribe box in the blog’s sidebar). This is a great way to be informed about new posts on your favorite blogs. (I have one too.)

Some of my favorite blogs are the ones that I have been reading for years. Two of them have updated their looks in the fast few weeks.

Art and Barb Live in Italy

Barb from the Slow Travel and Expats in Italy communities moved her blog to her own domain name: Art and Barb Live in Italy.

Barb has been running this blog since she and Art moved from Kentucky to Umbria in 2003. For the first few years she ran it on SlowTrav.com, then moved it to ExpatsInItaly.com, and now it is on her own domain. I helped her with the move and had fun customizing the Blogger template and adding her signature sunflowers to the header.

I see that Barb has linked to a recent Saturday Night Live video. We laughed until we cried when we watched that on the weekend.

Poptarticus

Shannon from the Slow Travel community runs the wonderful Poptarticus blog - music, wine and travel. I helped Shannon move from Movable Type to the WordPress software (okay, I forced her to make the move because I like the templates on WordPress better) and updated her template a bit (still same purple and lime green colors).

Dream of Italy - Villa Rentals Issue

I have been writing articles about villa rentals for Kathy McCabe’s Dream of Italy September newsletter. The newsletter will be out this week and I will post again with more information.

This will be the first media announcement of the Slow Europe website! Too bad we are not ready with the website yet - but we should be by mid-October. We are working away creating lists of our favorite agencies and resources for vacation rentals in Europe.

2 Baci in a Pinon Tree

Valerie has been running her blog 2 Baci in a Pinon Tree since 2005 when she and Bryan first starting planning the move from New Mexico to Ascoli Piceno (Marche, Italy). Valerie helped me with the Dream of Italy articles, editing, removing the parts that I over-write, and adding the parts I missed. Thanks Valerie!

Back to Work on My Own Stuff

So, this explains why I have not been writing for my blog - I have been working on other people’s blogs and doing some writing. Another friend has just started in the blogging world but we are waiting until Wednesday to launch! I will post about it then.

We also went up to Boulder for a long weekend - still thinking of moving there. Each time we visit, we fall more in love with the town.

www.google.com/chrome/

I downloaded it yesterday and I like it! The download and install is quick and easy (and free). Happy to say that all my websites work with it.