Just the words, “World Travel,” sound romantic. What’s it like to really chuck it all and travel around the world for a year? After visiting over a dozen countries on a shoestring-budget, I thought I’d do a little visual re-cap of some of the highlights. First stop, on my world travel adventure – Australia, including the Great Barrier Reef in Cairns, where I took a leap of faith as well as a leap in the ocean, and...

Cinque Terre (translated The Five Lands), a Unesco World Heritage Site, is a necklace of 5 seaside villages strung along the Italian Riviera. It’s some of the most beautiful and dramatic coastal scenery anywhere in the world (my opinion, but also that of countless others). The colorful villages are linked by hiking trails that wind along the coast, up high through olive groves and vineyards, and down low along the water. The whole trail...

Rome, the Eternal City – it was known that way even among the ancient Romans, because the Roman people thought no matter what happened to the world, the brightness of Rome would burn forever. One of my Travel Angels, Beth, made it burn even brighter, when she booked us into the Waldorf Astoria with her travel points, high up on a hill, a true room with a view. It’s a great city to share with a friend! There’s so much to see...

The Isle of Capri, even the name sounds romantic! To stay on the island would be lovely (and cost a king’s ransom), but for a much smaller sum, you can take an all-day tour. The driver met me in the lobby of my hostel and brought me to the harbor in Sorrento, where the boat captain and the rest of the guests were waiting. We climbed aboard Blu Toy, a medium-sized dark blue powerboat, and whizzed off across the azure sea. I sat out on the...

Sweaty bodies, women flapping fans, it was standing room only on the train to Pompeii, temps hovering around 100 degrees. I’m wishing I brought my daypack with a water bottle, the small fan my Japanese Air B&B host gave me as a gift, and my umbrella for shade, instead of my small purse, but it’s too late now. On the good advice from my hostel host, I already had a tour ticket so I didn’t have to wait in line. If you go to...