People visit our blog site to vicariously travel with us, laugh with us about our quagmires and debacles (learning how to avoid such things themselves), and discover how they can find the joy we experience by getting our guidance about how to travel the way we do.
Our Mission
To motivate our readers to see the world and take the stress out of traveling to places that will change their perspectives and create joy in their lives.
About Us
We’re Dom and Maggie, the two semi-retired, fun-loving travelers who created this awesome travel blog! We have discovered that we both LOVE exploring beautiful and festive places in Europe. We travel frequently and enjoy it so thoroughly that we decided to share our accumulated wisdom and joy to help others in their travel planning to experience the same joy we have. We love sharing our experiences with others and hope you can learn from our sound planning and occasional debacles.
Before we found the joy of traveling to (and then walking and bicycling in) charming historic centers of European towns, we spent too much time looking longingly at photos of others while they were traveling, and wishing we could do what they were doing.
Maggie was tired of working too many hours at a corporate job, and traveling too infrequently. And Dom had a transportation and urban design career that allowed him to see how well-designed and enjoyable the towns and streets in Europe had remained, while many towns in the USA did not allow for the same joy due to the hostile, car-oriented road designs.
The solution soon became obvious – find a way to leverage our mutual love of regularly traveling in the historic Old Towns (Centro Storico in Italian) of European cities on affordable, self-guided 1-3 week trips to experience the joy of walking, bicycling, and exploring in those towns. We realized our love of travel and skills for travel-planning provided a perfect match to do this. Maggie spent much of her career learning about the logistics of travel and is therefore highly skilled in figuring out how to affordably and comfortably travel. Dom loves writing and spent much of his career learning about street and town design, which gives him powerful skills regarding where to go and what to see in Europe.
After years of exploring historic Europe, Maggie and Dom have created this travel blogging site so you can Follow Our Footprints.
Be sure to regularly visit our site because we are constantly adding new pro tips, secrets, hacks, destinations, and lessons learned for European travel!
How We Help
- Our recommended one- and two-week trip itineraries.
- Our detailed itineraries and descriptions that take the mystery out of this sort of travel, and make it both easy and affordable for you to have the time of your life!
- Our recommended secrets, hacks, tips, and insights on how to travel well.
- Our rankings of the best foods, wines, piazzas, streets, attractions, activities and towns to enjoy.
- Our recommendations about how to pack for trips like a professional.
- Reviews on gear we’ve used to help you find what you need.
Why Follow Us
We live by the following principles:
- Be sure to regularly visit our site because we are constantly adding new pro tips, secrets, hacks, destinations, and lessons learned for European travel!
- "It is the things that we DON’T do that we regret" – Unknown
- We believe that if you Follow Our Footprints, you will be motivated and inspired and educated enough to find those breath-taking moments. And to not have regrets someday about the spectacular things you did not do.
- We have spent over 30 years enthusiastically traveling throughout the world and touring countless towns. We therefore know what does and what does not work when traveling. We are so passionate about sharing the great joy we experience in our travels that we would like to have others take advantage of the experience and wisdom we have gained over the years.
What You Learn
You can be confident that with us, you will enjoy…
- Being able to engage in self-guided, feasible travel in Italy, in part by being car-free. Being car-free will save you an enormous amount of money, stress, exertion, inconvenience, and headaches!
- How to find the most affordable flights, lodging and food without sacraficing comfort or quality.
- Knowing which regions and towns are the best, most memorable and unforgettable to visit - along with the sights and things to do.
- Saving valuable time, effort, and stress because we have done much of your legwork in advance.
- Learning from our mistakes so you can avoid them.
- Avoiding “tourist traps” because we have weeded them out for you.
- Benefitting from our ability to recommend the WOW sights and allow you to avoid the ho hum sights.
- Digitized maps of towns we recommend showing the location and -- when relevant -- the historic background, for all the things you need to make your town visits enjoyable. We even include the must-see sights, the boundaries of the historic town center, locations of tourist offices, train stations, outdoor food markets, restaurants, and bike rental places.
In sum, our many years on the road allow us to know what works and what does not work. We know a great many tricks and secrets so that you can experience the time of your lives!
Who We Are
Dom Nozzi
Blogger
Dom has a long list of beautiful, historic European cities on his travel bucket list. He has visited over 56 cities in Italy alone and still has many more to see - so stay tuned! Dom is an amateur photographer and loves writing insightful observations about our travels. Follow his blogs to discover the best destinations in Italy and beyond.
Maggie Waddoups
Blogger
Maggie is our logistics expert. She does all of the legwork when planning our trips. She finds the best airfare, researches pricing and books our lodging, and she figures out the best way to get from point A to point B. Maggie's favorite way to explore is by bicycle, so you will always get great tips on best bicycle rentals and tours in each city.