Columns

I love France. It is one of Europe’s most diverse, tasty and exciting countries. It brims with the good life and a special appreciation for culture, music, art, food and wine.

But Americans can feel pretty dowdy when confronted with the casual sophistication of the French, who are matchless when it comes to just about anything suave and urbane. In my early days of touring France, I used to worry about being a cultural bumpkin, but now I embrace it. After all, I travel to learn.

Take cheese, for example, which I used to think of as a yellow square wrapped in plastic. It...

Dear Globetrotter:

Welcome to the 457th issue of your monthly foreign-travel magazine. We’re now into our 38th year of publishing ITN, the first travel publication based on articles and letters written by its subscribers, travelers like you, people who pay their own way on trips and wish to share their discoveries.

To all of you who have sent in a letter or Feature Article to be included in this magazine or who have patronized one of our advertisers or sent in the address of someone to receive a free sample copy of the next-printed issue or who have simply subscribed...

For travelers to Great Britain, Italy or France, here are a few important changes to be aware of in 2014.

GREAT BRITAIN

• London continues to grow and thrive, post Olympics. Free WiFi is everywhere, bus transportation is more efficient than ever, and the city’s freshly scrubbed monuments have never looked so good. 

Some of the biggest changes are in East London, where backhoes and bulldozers buzz around busily turning the 2012 Olympics site into what is now Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (great for Londoners but a bit far from the center for most tourists...