Siena for the Palio, Sardinia for the beach, Tuscany for the peace: wherever and however you want to spend your holiday, you can start planning it now with the expert help of Gill Charlton.
Discover: Bergen
Verftet USF, a notable night spot in Bergen, Norway, is located in a former sardine factory.
Discover: Sperlonga
If visiting the Italian town of Sperlonga, try the local mozzarella cheese; it's made with water-buffalo milk.
Airliner's engines appeared to fail
The cause of the incident will remain a mystery until the preliminary findings of an official investigation are published at the weekend but last night experts said the airliner appeared to suffer sudden engine failure.
Discover: Peoria
The Wheels O' Time museum in Peoria (Illinois) features a mechanical barbershop quartet in which all of the figures bear faces of former US presidents.
Discover: Kennebunkport
If you visit the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine, you can learn to drive a streetcar.
A winter trek in Yellowstone
Old Faithful spews thousands of gallons of steaming water right on schedule, but Miguel isn't the least bit interested. He just lumbers by us searching for lunch. That's probably because Miguel, so named by my two daughters, is an 1,800-pound bison who sees Old Faithful every day.
Discover: Little Rock
The Old Mill in North Little Rock, Arkansas, was seen in the opening of Gone With The Wind.
Katie Derham: South Africa, with kids in tow
A holiday that involves taking two young children on a 10-hour night flight sounds like a recipe for disaster. But nothing could be further from the truth if your destination is South Africa, says Katie Derham.
TSA tester slips mock bomb past security
Jason -- that's the name CNN was asked to call him -- slides a simulated explosive into an elastic back support. The mock bomb is as slim as a wallet; its fuse, the size of a cigarette. He wraps the support around his torso, and the bomb fits comfortably into the small of his back.
The Grace, Johannesburg: hotel watch
From this week, Telegraph Travel introduces a new-look Hotel Watch, where we rate hotels out of five Ts and invite readers to submit comments. This week, Graham Boynton stays at an elegant but old-fashioned Johannesburg hotel.
Discover: Ghent
A dish characteristic of Ghent, Belgium is "Gentse waterzooi" -- "boiled water from Ghent." (It does have other ingredients.)
Discover: Hokkaido
Among the culinary "treats" you can experience on the major Japanese island of Hokkaido are asparagus, corn, or squid-ink ice cream.
Discover: Portland
Portland, Oregon received its name as the result of a coin toss -- with the other possibility being Boston.
Discover: Point Reyes National Seashore
Extinct in the park for 150 years, northern elephant seals began re-colonizing Point Reyes National Seashore in the 1970's, and the population has been growing at the astounding rate of 16% annually.
Discover: Orlando
Among the oddities at the Ripley's Believe It or Not! Odditorium in Orlando, Florida is a 3/4-scale model of a 1907 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost automobile -- made of matchsticks.
Discover: Sleepy Hollow
It won't surprise you that Sleepy Hollow has tourable sites related to Washington Irving's eponymous short story, but did you know that you can tour some of them via kayak?
Discover: Kobe
Some of the principal architectural attractions in Kobe, Japan are 19th-century foreign traders' homes, known today as Ijinkan (異人館) -- meaning Barbarian Houses.
Discover: Columbus
Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus, Ohio was the site of General William Tecumseh Sherman's famous "War Is Hell" speech.
Discover: South Tyrol
South Tyrol is the only region in Italy in which the majority of the population speaks German as their mother tongue.
Discover: Shanghai/Bund
How's that again? Huangpu Park, at the northern tip of the Bund district of Shanghai, was the home of the legendary "No dogs or Chinese" sign â€" which in fact never existed.
Discover: China
Nanjing, China had the world's longest city wall. Large parts of it are still standing, though much of the modern city is outside them.
20 ways to stretch your dollars in Europe
Just when I was getting used to the idea that a euro should cost $1.20, our dollar plummets 20 percent, and now a euro costs $1.50. Don't expect our dollar to recover anytime soon because, frankly, we're not as rich as we think we are.