All posts filed under: Culture

Ciao, Sicilia! Sicily Travel Guides

Published by

Ciao, Sicilia! I mean even that alone sounds sexy, no? Dolce & Gabbana built their brand around it. As an American living in Italy, it can be easy to fall into that La Dolce Vita myth. Everything is beautiful, everywhere is magical. Though, being primarily based in Northern Italy, I’ll let you in on something: Southern Italy has my heart. From my time in Puglia in my early 20s, to now, Sicily is decidely my happy place in Italy. Maybe it’s the island life, I know it’s the hospitality, food, people, ‘tude. The people are warmer, their accents more melodic, more swaggy. Tuscany is beautiful, but I truly believe, Sicily is what Americans want when they come to Italy. A lot of Italian-Americans are Southern or Sicilian… so maybe it’s the familiar? Did you know that in 1945 and 1946 a strong Sicilian separatist movement campaigned for Sicily to be admitted as a U.S. state? Black Americans, you might be drawn to Sicily too… from True Romance to Little White Lies, are they those mythic …

Neoclassical School Building in Arizona Desert

Sonoran Desert Inn: The Only Non-Profit Inn in the USA

Published by

A way to rethink the way we travel is through sustainable tourism. Travel and hospitality can be a polluting, displacing industry and the concious traveler often wants to put their travel dollars towards righting this. Welcome to Sonoran Desert Inn, the only non-profit inn in the USA doing things a little bit differently. Sonoran Desert Inn is the only non-profit inn in the country.  Based in Ajo, Arizona, right on the border with Mexico in the Sonoran desert, this inn is housed in a converted school house of  those once robust, desert mining towns that dominate imagery of the west. Do you like off-the-beaten-path travel visiting ghost towns, old mining towns or factory towns? Then this place is for you. And you’d be giving funds to marganilized communities. As a not-for-profit organization, the inn functions to attract visitors to Ajo and the surrounding region. It helps to support Ajo’s economic development through direct employment and partnerships with local businesses, entrepreneurs, and artists. The inn partners with ISDA (International Sonoran Desert Alliance*) to tell Ajo’s rich history in early 20th century America. John Greenway was the manager of the New Cornelia Copper …

Italy Announces New Digital Nomad Visa

Published by

In order to aid with tourism revitalization and slow tourism in particular, in May, Italy will be announcing a year-long renewable digital nomad visa to non EU citizens. Years ago, when looking into residency permits in Italy, I found the process a bit archaic in regards to today’s world and digital nomads. One of the standards of self-employment required you to invest a couple hundred thousand euros in a company in the country! More often than not, technology moves faster than bureaucracy and Italy wants visitors to know they’ve heard and received! The country wants slow tourism and this is another arm of it! Italy’s digital nomad visa will attract talent to the country as well as even revitalize places that have lost residents from brain drain, age, or in the case of Venice, rising housing costs due to tourism. So who are digital nomads? According to the decree: “Citizens of a third country, who carry out highly qualified work activities through the use of technological tools that allow them to work remotely on a …

eating pizza with Winta

Guide to Black Owned Italy

Published by

Last year I introduced Tripadvisor’s audience to my dolce vita with a Guide to Black Owned Italy. But that was just scratching the surface. Immediately after I found out about more businesses and many of you sent me others. The response was exciting and inspiring. Want to know one thing I wish people knew that I have learned while living in Italy? How diverse the country is. In both its ancient history — the diverse Roman Empire — to recent history like Italian Somaliland to immigration now, Italy’s diverse population influences much of what it means to “be Italian.” Coffee from Ethiopia and Marco Polo’s China expeditions contributing to the origins of pasta are far too often ignored and unknown. Often, this history is “hiding” in plain site: William Shakespeare’s Othello, Blackamoor art, the stories of Alessandro de’Medici, the Black member of the famed Florentine Medicis. There was even a Black Roman emperor, Septimus Severus from 193 – 211. To say “there are very few black women in Milan and Italy as a whole” as …

Woman Looking over Bell Rock Trailhead in Sedona Red Rock scenery behind her

Sedona Energy Vortexes – A Guide to Perfect Vibrations

Published by

Here’s a trip to consider for the start of your new year: the Sedona energy vortexes. Sometimes you travel for enlightenment or peace of mind. To find yourself. This can happen on any trip but there are certain parts of the world that are known as spiritual centers to “speed up” the process. Pilgrimages to Mecca. Seekers in India. The metaphysical vibrations with the Sedona energy vortexes. Long before the psychic Page Bryant named the energy vortexes of Sedona in 1980s, Native Americans recognized Sedona as a spiritual and healing center. The Yuvapai, Navajos, Hopi and Tonto Apaches only used the land as sites for sacred ceremonies. They came to heal in the red rocks of Sedona. Within these energy vibrations they found their hearts. But I’m not into all of this New Age stuff That’s why Sedona is a perfect trip. You don’t necessarily subscribe to visiting a place because an 80s psychic says it’s a hotspot? Understandable. But I definitely wouldn’t call centuries old Native American traditions, “new age.” If nothing else, there …

Dancing with the Bride

Tripadvisor Byline: Wedding Planning During Covid

Published by

Are you planning a wedding during this Covid pandemic? I have some advice for you via Tripadvisor! Wedding planning during Covid: it’s been rough! This past weekend I saw one of my first maskless weddings come through on my Instagram stories. The wedding was in New York where we have high vaccination rates and I couldn’t help but to smile. Slowly, we can start looking forward to these things. But it was pretty risky of the bride. Who knew President Biden was going to exceed his vaccination targets within the first 100 days in office. Brides like my dear friend, Kelly King, postponed their weddings more than once another friend Camilla Lesser, after going through several plans, eloped and had a beautiful wedding in St. Lucia. I spoke to these brides and wedding planner Courtney Ajinca, who planned Cynthia Bailey and Mike Hill’s wedding for Tripadvisor.com. It’s one of the most awful things you can tell a couple in the months or weeks before their big day: “We have to cancel the wedding.” More often …

Audacity Fest Badge Nneya Richards

BIPOC Travelers + Allies See Me at Audacity Fest Sat May 1st!

Published by

I am so appreciative of the support you perfectionists have given me over the years. I love being able to impart my experience and industry knowledge to you and here’s a fun accessible opportunity coming up for you to hear me and my colleagues speak. BIPOC Travelers + Allies See Me at Audacity Fest Sat May 1st!I’ll be speaking on a panel on Bridging the Gap from Industry to Influencer. There are a few verticals to what is known as the BIPOC travel movement. Forward facing, we have the influencers who work their magic in the social media space. Internally, we have the corporate partners that are our representations at the Board of Tourism tables. On the research side, we have the data aggregators to help create the full picture, through numbers, of our impact on the industry. On the ground, we have the vendors and suppliers who help bring our experience to life. This panel is a moment for us all to come together and see how we can advocate for one another.  I’m so excited to chat …

Cropped Stella Tripadvisor Image

New Byline for TripAdvisor: A Profile on Stella Jean!

Published by

I have a new byline for TripAdvisor: a profile on of Stella Jean, my favorite Italian designer! In honor of Black History month, I’ve contributed to Heather Greenwood Davis and Sarah Greaves-Gabbadon‘s package celebrating Black Joy internationally. The women wonderfully state You won’t find tragic stories in this package. Instead, we’ve opted to focus on Black Joy, on the parts of travel that draw us all year long, and on the ways we are working to change the industry so that it welcomes us as much as we yearn for it. Travel is in our blood, whether by force or by choice. And in a year when the world has shut down much of our access to it, we hope the decision to celebrate our past, present and future – told through this collection of contemporary stories by young Black writers – resonates with you, too. Heather Greenwood Davis and Sarah Greaves-Gabbadon Take a look through this package, and check out my quick run down on Stella Jean! For me, it was exciting to share …

Black guy on Florentine bridge on Tripadvisor homepage

Giving Tripadvisor a Taste of My Black Italy

Published by

When Tripadvisor reached out to me to create a Tripadvisor Black Owned Italy guide for their Black History Month package, curated by my friends and colleagues @JetSetSarah and Heather Greenwood Davis , I jumped at the chance. Italy is often portrayed as a very homogenous country. This lends to the erasure of a thriving BIPOC community. I often wonder if it’s the chicken or the egg in a country’s brand. Is it tourism boards that solely portray a beautiful yet stagnant view of the country; a view that is deeply rooted in the past? Or is it the travel publishing industry that chooses to only tell the same stories that fit in specific schemas of Italy? One of the most visited posts on ‘N A Perfect World is Black friendly travel destinations. Even more wonderful is when you can support Black-owned businesses in these destinations! We out here! These Black Italian businesses and creatives I featured in the Tripadvisor Black Owned Italy Guide offer a window into Italy’s multicultural present. There was only so much …