Travelers' Intercom

Japan opens the island of Iwo Jima to visitors one day each year, usually in early March. During a tour with Military-Historical Tours (Alexandria, VA; 800/722-9501, www.miltours.com) in 2007, I took a truck to the cave where the Japanese hospital was located during WWII. The sides of the cave were lined with old shoes, an assortment of baskets, canteens, old gasoline drums and empty sake bottles.

About 20 yards into the cave there was a ladder leading up to a “spider hole” in the ceiling. From the outside it would have been camouflaged. A Japanese soldier could open it, pop his...

In northern Italy, the communes of Vicenza, Marostica and Bassano del Grappa are commonly touted as “very wealthy.” Well, I wouldn’t know about that part, but in early May ’09, after a week’s stay in Venice, I was certainly happy to have discovered all three.

Vicenza is known as “an inland Venice” and for its many works of the 16th-century architect Andrea Palladio.

Villa La Rotunda is considered Palladio’s finest work. (From the bus station, take the No. 8, or you can bike or even walk to it.) The design contributed to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. It is private, but my...

Our daughter and 14-year-old grandson spent two weeks with us in Italy in July ’09.

For our flight home from Venice, we needed to get from the San Zaccaria vaporetto stop (near Piazza San Marco) to Marco Polo Airport. We learned about the new bus number 5 from Piazzale Roma (across from the train station) that allows travelers to go directly to the airport in 30 minutes instead of having to resort to one of the VERY expensive private water taxis or going to Mistra on the mainland to catch a bus. It starts around 5 a.m. and runs every half hour throughout most of the day and evening...