Hi from Rick: My Kind of Road Scholars
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| Another Italian girl with no phone number...gets the thumbs-down from Andy Steves. |
Dear Traveler,
I've just spent a great week in Rome. Our son, Andy, is living there on a Notre Dame semester abroad, so Anne, Jackie, and I dropped in for a peek at his experience. Aside from their studies, Andy and his schoolmates are becoming citizens of the world, and their twenty year-old lives are becoming enriched.
Independent traveling is a huge part of any semester abroad. The kids muscle three days of travel fun out of each weekend, grabbing a cheap flight or sleeping on a train bound for someplace new. It's fun for me to see the budget traveler and tour organizer showing itself in my son. As soon as school is out, Andy has his sights set on hiring a small boat with a captain for a low budget Aegean cruise. He explained to me how eight kids sharing the rental cost is no more expensive than settling into a cheap hotel in Athens.
These are mostly corn-fed Midwestern kids who are now insisting on fresh garlic for their bruschetta, drinking tap water to afford a better wine, and marveling at how Italians can be so cynical and fatalistic about their politics (as in bringing back Berlusconi). The boys celebrate — as if winning the lottery — when one of them comes home with the phone number of a cute Italian girl. While Andy says the rigor of the classes here is light, I'm thrilled with the education he's getting.
This month's edition of Travel News is designed to raise your Travel I.Q. a little as well, with my annual overview of what's new in Europe, plus our take on tensions in Kosovo, sights and smells in Istanbul, travel tales from readers, and the latest on our affordable new "Heart of Italy" tour.
Flying home from this trip, I feel like I've peeked behind the door where a party is about to happen. Europe is ready and waiting for us. No need to RSVP.
Happy travels,
Rick