We are heartbroken to learn that this venerable icon of the city was engulfed in flames today, the 15th of April, 2019.  It is one of our favorite places in the world and a highlight of our Clued In Paris.  The fire started in a section of the cathedral that was undergoing intense, urgent renovation work that was to be completed in early 2020. Please join us in our prayers that the 800 year-old structure can be saved; its main, tallest spire and the entire roof has already collapsed and much of the interior art and historical artifacts are now at great risk.   -Dean Dalton and Andie Easton

We are thrilled to announce that our next “concise and opinionated” travel book will be Clued In Barcelona, debuting in December 2018! We are busy packing our bags and making those all-important dinner reservations for our October trip to Spain where we will finalize all the photography needed for this latest edition. We adore Barcelona, especially in October when the crowds (and the heat) have left. Here’s a first-look at our new cover featuring “Detective Otto.”

Olé everybody!  ~Dean & Andie

We hope you are! The glorious Regata Storica (historic regatta) may have its roots in the 13th century but you can still enjoy it today. On September 2, 2018 at 4pm, ornate boats and the Doge’s own golden bucintoro will start the festivities. The procession boasts fabulous 16th-century costumes, and afterward exciting boat races will take place culminating in the much-anticipated two-oar’d gondola race. You can see it all for free if you snag a spot along the edge of the Grand Canal between the University Ca’ Foscari and Palazzo Cavalli. If you really want to do things right, pay €60 for a seat on the floating awards stage by visiting VeneziaUnica.it.  The official schedule of events is listed below. In addition, you can see the race participants being blessed at the base of the Santa Maria della Salute church on the Thursday prior.

Happy travels, Dean and Andie

4pm –       Historical boats pageant

4.30pm – Twin-oared regatta of children’s boats

4.50pm – Young rowers twin-oared pupparini regatta

5.10pm – Women’s twin-oared mascarete regatta

5.30pm – Garda Lake bisse regatta

5.40pm – Six-oared Caroline regatta

6pm –      International universities boat challenge

6.10pm – Twin-oared gondolini regatta

It’s June and that means the start of the summer travel season in Europe. When visiting popular cities like Florence, it’s important to have some tricks up your sleeves like knowing which tiny spot has the best coffee, or knowing the location of a delicious restaurant that’s off the beaten track. So it is with evening entertainments, and Florence’s very best almost-secret speakeasy features the best mixology ever. Yes, we’re talking about our  favorite, The Mayday Club. And because it’s not outlandish, the crowds don’t know about it; it can be your secret place that not “everyone in town” is trying to beat a path to. It’s centrally located at via Dante Alighiere 16. What’s more, they’ve just announced their annual ten newly-inspired cocktails. (Note: The Mayday Club is closed during the month of August.)

See details and more photos on our Clued In Florence city-extra page, found through the menu above.  (If you’ll be in London instead, be sure to make reservations at Nightjar.)

Cheers and happy traveling! Dean and Andie

Check out our newest offspring on amazon.com now. Get the 411 without the blah, blah, blah.

Hello all.  We’ve just updated all of our city-specific webpages with great info (and re-named them City Extras.)   You’ll find them through our main menu above.   This month they are especially pertinent to those traveling to our favorite places in May.  Also, brand new to our site is a page section called First Page Peeks for the Curious. This can also be accessed above, and allows potential readers to see the first main page of each of our travel ebooks, even the one for Florence that isn’t even out yet!  (Look for its publication in May.)

Enjoy Paris in springtime on an electric bike and take in some sights at the same time!

Wow, what a trip!  Our team just got back from Florence, Italy and all we can say is, Clued In Florence is going to be fantastic.  We gathered current info, took thousands of photos, met some incredible people, and cannot wait to share it all with you. This particular city guide will have everything today’s traveler needs to know– along with some surprises that we don’t want to give away just yet.  As usual, it will be completely different from other travel books on the market and will boast our expected “signature” of bringing you sights and restaurants you won’t read (or hear about) elsewhere.  We’re so excited!  Look for it to make its debut on Amazon.com sometime in May, 2018.  We will update this blog page with a more specific date once we have it. And a BIG thank you to all our blog-site visitors who’ve been contacting us about this new book.  Trust us, we’re writing as fast as we can!!

Once again the Clued In travel team is packing the suitcases and we could not be more excited!  Not only are we heading to one of our favorite countries, Italy, we are going there especially to finalize research and photography for our newest eBook, Clued In Florence!   Look for its debut in May.  We have long been wanting to give our readers the down-low on Florence and the time finally seemed right.  Honestly, if any city needs a Clued In travel guide it’s probably that one.  As complicated as Rome and Venice are, Florence is more-so and our upcoming guide will definitely give readers a leg-up on what to see there (and what not to waste precious time on.)  Arrivederci! See y’all on the other side of this trip.

~Dean & Andie, and the entire Clued In Travel Team

Debuting May 2018, only on Amazon!

Try Rome!  Of all of our featured Clued In European cities, it has the fairest weather and the least crowds. Having said that, we can’t promise there will be no rain at all, but storms hitting the Eternal City tend to blow past so fast that a quick duck into a pasticceria or café is usually all it takes to get past it.  We love Rome when it’s free from the the gazillions of tourists who descend on it during the summer months, and believe a city can best be explored in the off-season when you can easily breeze right into sights that in August would take you half a day to get in to. In addition, airfares and hotel rates are great.

Of course, it does matter precisely when in March one goes.  Many pilgrims visit Rome the week prior to Easter where special events at the Vatican are ongoing.  In 2018, the holiday falls on April 1st. For this reason, Holy Thursday and Good Friday (March 29th & 30th) will bring out the masses. On the other hand, if you don’t mind navigating the crowds you could have a very memorable experience attending mass at St. Peter’s Basilica during such a time. All are welcome; you certainly don’t have to be Catholic to attend (or admire) all the pomp and circumstance.

Also, the Rome Marathon –which is usually scheduled in late March– has been moved to April 7th for 2018, no doubt because of Easter falling on April 1st. It takes runners past most of the major sights- something you may want to be aware of.  But throughout most of March, Lenten processions are many and give visitors a taste of the local culture.  On the Ides of March (the 15th) commemoration of Julius Caesar’s death will be taking place by his statue near the Roman Forum. Out best advice is to make sure the timing of your visit matches up with your own interests.  As the temperatures can vary between 40 to 62 degrees, just be prepared to layer your clothing. 

Will the Clued In Travel team be there in March? you might ask…  We sure will.  We’ve got some research to do.  (But more on that later.)  See you there!

~The Clued In Travel Team

In addition to our main blog at cluedintravelbooks.com, we offer city-specific blogs as well! Be sure to check these out, especially if there’s a city our books cover that you will be visiting soon (or are already at!)  We say this because those other pages have very current, additional info beyond our ebooks that you will want to know about. The clickable menu (at the top and bottom of our blog site) list all seven cities.

The  January 2018 updates to each city blog have now been completed. These cover Pancake Day in London, costumed balls in Venice, a lesson on the pasta shapes found in Rome, Valentine’s Day happenings in Miami Beach, Valentine’s Day romance in Paris,  the Chinese New Year’s parade and festival in New York, and the immense annual pillow fight in San Francisco.