Destination: Italy, 2007 (Venice, Florence, Rome, Pompeii)

How to Book: “I did the whole trip on the Internet, including plane tickets, train tickets, tickets for museums, the Vatican tour…It all worked out beautifully. There’s a wonderful Web site called InItaly.com and that will link you up to whatever you need.”

How to Get Around: “We did train everywhere. I was told to do first class and have lunch on the train because it’s really beautiful and it’s a great way to see the country.”

Where to Stay: “Palazzo dal Borgo Hotel Aprile [in Florence]. Very reasonable price, right on the Via della Scala. It was a wonderful little hotel, and the front desk would recommend [restaurants] and you’d call and make the reservations and you’d go there and they’d go ‘Oh, yes! The Hotel Aprile, come in, come in!’”

Where to Eat: “The food in Florence was spectacular. There’s one that’s really wonderful – Trattoria Trebbione. Fabulous.”

Memorable Moment: “When you turn the corner [at the Academia in Florence] and you see [Michelangelo’s] David there under that dome with that pale, blue background, tears came to my eyes. It was magnificent.”

Don’t Miss: “You must go look through the keyhole at the Knights of Malta [in Rome]. I’m not going to tell you what you see – it is spectacular.”

Take Your Breath Away: “Pompeii was spectacular because you think why would you build a town on the foot of a volcano and then you get there and you go, ‘I get it’…The other moment that really took my breath away was the first time I stepped into the basilica of St. Peter’s. I had no idea of the enormity.”

Off the Beaten Path: “We went to the crypt of the Capuchin monks [in Rome]. It was creepy…You see these rosettes and you realize they’re all made of vertebrae, and they’re surrounded by ribs and there’s the wall of skulls and it’s, ‘Oh…my…God.’”