Check out Marni’s recent posts on her trip to Italy at the end of October!

Here are excerpts from the posts.

Olive Trees in Buttrio, Italy

This past Friday I travelled to Buttrio, Italy.  It is a small town close to the Slovenian border and about a two and a half hour bus ride from where I live.  My landlady invited me on a day trip with her theater-going group.  The whole day was planned out.  We had breakfast around 9:30 a.m. at Il Vagabondo, an agritourism farm.  Agritourism includes visiting a farm, buying products directly from the farm, picking fruit, feeding animals and/or staying in a bed and breakfast on the farm.  Our next stop was the olive orchard to pick as many olives as we could!

Read and see the pictures of the rest this post at Un avventura d’oliva in Italia.

Breakfast at Il Vagabondo

The food at Il Vagabondo was fresh and organic…and incredibly tasty. (I hope I get these Italian terms right.  If I don’t, please correct me!)

The first meal of the day is breakfast. The house cheese, caciotta, and the house salami, with some fresh bread.

Read and see the pictures of the rest of this post at The Food at Il Vagabondo.

Millstatt monestery

Marni Spott is recent graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder and is currently on a Fulbright Language Teaching Assistantshp in Austria.

This is an excerpt from her travel blog ‘Heart of a Traveller‘

My landlord and her sister-in-law recently took me on a nice stroll through the forest near the Millstätter See, about 10 minutes from Spittal.  Words are not necessary for this post, except this very good piece of advice:  If you ever want to go mushroom picking, make sure you take an expert (like my landlord) along, otherwise you may just pick the wrong mushroom.  Just like their mad skills at wood stacking, Austrians (and Germans) have mad skills at mushroom picking – and this time their lives really depend on this ability!

Read the rest and check out her excellent photos!