This little clip tells the saga of a day in Rome a few years ago that I’ll never forget.
An evil man pretending to be me did all sorts of wicked things, including putting Parmesan cheese on spaghetti with clams. But thankfully, three young and courageous girls — forces for cuisine justice — saved the day.
Watch more of The Food Police’s adventures at foodpolice.it. Learn more about the producers at cross-pollinate.com and orvietoorbust.com.
Since I’ve been filming new TV shows in Bulgaria and Romania, people have been asking if I plan to start running tours or writing guidebooks to this underappreciated corner of Europe. We do have a Bulgaria tour, but currently, we don’t have plans to produce more on these two countries.
However, during our filming, we enjoyed the support of several wonderful guides I’d heartily recommend. Guiding in these countries is inexpensive and — particularly since most travelers are steep on the learning curve here — particularly helpful. Hiring these guides is an exceptional value that adds understanding and enjoyment to any trip.
Throughout Bulgaria, our guide and on-screen sidekick was Stefan Bozadzhiev of Lyuba Tours. Exceptionally knowledgeable, well-connected, and simply fun to travel with, Stefan manages and guides our Rick Steves Best of Bulgaria in 12 Days Tour. This may be the most underrated of our 40-plus tour itineraries — and if you have a couple of weeks to spend in Bulgaria, this tour is definitely your best bet. But for a shorter or independent visit, see if Stefan or one of his colleagues is available to guide you: lyubatours.com, lyuba.tours@gmail.com.
In Romania, we worked with different guides in each part of the country. I’d recommend each one for their area of specialty, but most of them also cover the rest of Romania as well.
In Bucharest, two equally great guides are Dan Nica (tourguidesromania.com, dsnica@gmail.com) and Ana Adamoae (guidedtoursbucharest.wordpress.com, aadamoae@gmail.com). Both offer insightful tours that make it easier to appreciate Romania’s bustling and intimidating capital.
For Transylvania, we worked with Daniel Gheorghiţă, who runs Covinnus Travel (covinnus.com, office@covinnus.com). Daniel was knowledgeable, with a sharp sense of humor and a knack for understanding — and putting us in touch with — exactly the experiences we were seeking.
In Maramureș, at the rustic and remote fringe of Romania, a guide is particularly helpful for navigating the extremely traditional culture — which comes with a big language barrier and plenty of cultural treasures that demand insightful explanation. Teo Ivanciuc was our man in Maramureș (www.maramurestour.com, teofilivanciuc@yahoo.com). Teo was supremely knowledgeable, tireless in helping us sniff out meaningful experiences, and a passionate ambassador for his home region.
Unfortunately, we did not have time to include the famous painted monasteries in Bucovina in our new show. However, through our scouting we met Ciprian Slemco, who runs Hello Bucovina (hellobucovina.com, contact@hellobucovina.com). If you’re headed to Bucovina, Ciprian (“Chip” for short) helps bring the precious folk art to life.
A heartfelt thanks to Stefan, Dan, Ana, Daniel, Teo, and Chip for all of their help as we’ve worked hard to introduce their countries to American audiences. Our crew loved filming in these places, and our hunch is that the new shows (premiering this fall on public television) will spark some serious interest in Bulgaria and Romania. I have a feeling these guides will be plenty busy…
I’m back home for a couple weeks’ break from Europe. Here’s a look at the reality of packing light (with a quick review of exactly what I lived on for two months in Europe) — and the reality of buying something you’d never wear back home.
Thanks for traveling with me for the first half of my “100 days in Europe” blog series. In the last two months, we’ve careened together from Lisbon, Madrid, and Barcelona to Italy, Normandy and Paris to Bulgaria and Romania. Coming up soon are 50 more days in Europe: Austria, our My Way® Alpine Europe in 12 Days Tour (through the mountains from Salzburg to Chamonix — which I’ll be leading), the Netherlands, filming three TV shows in southern England, and filming the Palio in Siena. Hold on to your castanets (or whatever you shake in these lands)…it promises to be a fun ride.
Cesare, the Montepulciano coppersmith, didn’t make the cut.
It is with great sadness that I announce that this amazing little clip of a wonderful artisan – and a charming man – won’t be in our upcoming show on Tuscany. One of the great challenges for me is to review a too long rough cut of one of our TV episodes, and then cut it to size. We routinely end up with shows 90 seconds or two minutes longer than our 30 minutes. The shows are already tight – with nothing really obvious to cut. My choice: to clip bits out of several artfully edited modules or to excise an entire bit in order to let the surviving sequences be seen in their full and proper glory. Painful as that is, I generally prefer the latter tactic. Here is a 70-second sequence showing off the wonderful coppersmith of Montepulciano – which won’t be part of our new series this fall. (I’m sure we’ll find a use for it somewhere, though!). Enjoy.
I’m between trips, back in the office for a few days, heading into my studio next week to record an exciting batch of new radio interviews. We’re cooking up about 10 hours of great talk radio, and I’d love to have you join me on air! Please have a look at our recording lineup and sign up to be part of the conversation.
Interview topics, with well-traveled authors and experts, range from Vietnam and North Korea to London, Provence, and Nicaragua. I’ll be talking about the wonders of America’s national parks with author Terry Tempest Williams, hearing about contemporary Australia with actress Marta Dusseldorp, and learning the unwritten rules of conversing in French. Also, my son Andy (who’s just published his first guidebook) will be sharing tips for fun weekend getaways across Europe.
You’ll hear these interviews in the next few months on “Travel with Rick Steves” on public radio and on my weekly podcast. If you’ve never called in, it’s easy and fun (and if you get on the air we send you a free Rick Steves guidebook of your choice as a thanks).
And if you want to eavesdrop on the live recording sessions, listen as they happen June 13-17.