Marlena De Blasi was settling nicely into her new home and  business in St. Louis. Besides being a food writer and wine consultant, Marlena was the chef in her own restaurant.

That all changed on a trip to Venice where …

I get excited about small businesses that are run with

passion so that’s what I recommend in my guidebooks.

Rick Steves

Thanks to Rick Steves, there’s a collection of micro-mosaics that I got  to see when I was in  London. …

In earlier times—the Renaissance, for example—it was assumed that people were capable of mastering many things. No one was accused of being a dilettante if they wrote poetry, ran a business, composed music, spoke several languages and fought a war …