Elena Vasquez · May 21, 2026
Bring a proper layer or gamble on a scarf bought from a street vendor — one of these choices gets you into the Sistine Chapel, and one of them doesn’t, and I watched the losing version play out in real time. A couple ahead of me had clocked an hour and forty minutes in the … Read more
Elena Vasquez · February 16, 2026
Three separate trips, three separate itineraries redrawn around what was on a plate. I have detoured a road trip for nothing more than a cheese shop. I have let a train leave the station without me because a salumiere and I were locked in a heated debate about the correct fat-to-lean ratio in culatello. Given … Read more
Elena Vasquez · December 26, 2025
The Basics of Vatican Dress Rules Zero euros — that’s what it cost me to get bounced from the doors of St. Peter’s Basilica on an otherwise unremarkable Tuesday morning, because a security guard didn’t like the length of my shorts. My father spent 38 years telling everyone he’d finally travel once he retired, and … Read more
Elena Vasquez · November 30, 2025
Every “SPF 30 will do just fine” line in a packing guide is setting you up to burn — I’ll get to that disaster in a minute. What actually took effort wasn’t sunscreen, though; it was getting all of us in the same city after six years of “we should all go somewhere together” talk, … Read more
Elena Vasquez · November 30, 2025
Two hundred and eleven dollars — that’s the number that flashed across a fare alert one Thursday afternoon, low enough that letting it slide felt like a mistake I’d regret. By the next morning I’d bought the ticket without booking a single hotel or mapping out a single day, and that gamble turned into the … Read more
Elena Vasquez · November 29, 2025
Waiting for the right travel companion versus just booking the flight alone — one gets you to Rome, the other keeps you stuck at home scrolling itineraries. Solo travel wasn’t something I’d tried before this trip, and the idea genuinely unsettled me: no one to weigh options with, no one else to blame when plans … Read more
Elena Vasquez · November 17, 2025
Half the advice floating around online about eating in Rome tells you to just wander into whatever trattoria looks charming near the Colosseum and trust your gut; the other half insists you should never eat within five blocks of a major monument, full stop. The second piece of advice is the one that’s actually correct, … Read more
