Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
preconceptions and opening myself up to new experiences, I've achieved a new appreci-
ation for all sorts of highbrow stuff I thought I'd never really “get.” Thankfully, people are
sophisticated about different things, and I relish the opportunity to meet and learn from an
expert while traveling. I'm the wide-eyed bumpkin…and it's a cultural show-and-tell.
For example, I love it when my favorite restaurateur in Paris, Marie-Alice, takes me
shopping in the morning and shows me what's going to shape her menu that night. We
enter her favorite cheese shop—a fragrant festival of mold. Picking up the moldiest, goo-
iest wad, Marie-Alice takes a deep whiff, and whispers, “Oh, Rick, smell zees cheese. It
smells like zee feet of angels.”
Family Pride and Fine Wine
I've been inspired by how the pride of a family business or regional specialty stays
strong, generation after generation. In Italy's Umbria region, I have long taken my
tour groups to the Bottai family vineyard. Cecilia, the oldest daughter, is no longer
the little girl that I once knew. Now, as her parents are taking it easy, she greets us at
the gate and shares her family's passion with us. Cecilia walks us through the vine-
yard, introducing grape plants to us as if they were her children. As we follow her
into the dark, cool tunnels of her vast cellar—dug a thousand years ago—she finds
just the right bottle to share. And finally, we gather at the family dining table in a
room that has changed little in 200 years.
