“Guided walks in London, Rome, Paris, Dublin, New York and San Francisco are now available on increasingly popular iPods, but a live tour can provide a much richer experience…

Or so says Paul Bennett, owner of the highly acclaimed Context Tours, who maintains that “there’s no substitute for the impromptu interaction with a knowledgeable and personable guide — best of all, one with a Ph.D. in the topic! Socrates had it right…

When you can ask questions and engage in a real dialogue, learning happens.”…

On a guided walking tour, travelers are not only listening, but also seeing, hearing and feeling….
Most guides are constantly researching and thinking of clever ways to explain historical background and current happenings in a city.
If a new building is going up, they know about it. If a place has just been renovated, they will tell you why and how.

Unlike the voice on the iPod, live guides live right in the city and know the enchanting alleys and shortcuts. After the overview a guided walk provides, it’s much easier to return to places along the way. And walkers learn a lot while they are strolling along.

The tours themselves also provide entertainment. On a route through Dickens’ London, a guide, fully costumed in a long dress and bonnet, will act out scenes from novels like “Oliver Twist.”

On a tour of Rome’s Forum and Coliseum, you may go to a special panoramic location with a knockout view of the ancient city’s temples, palaces, courtyards and government houses.

On the French Revolution Walk in Paris you may stop in front of Le Procope, the café where Voltaire, Robespierre, Marat, Ben Franklin and others often met, and be treated to rich, anecdotal history. ” (via msnbc.msn ) by Emilie Harting (FORBES TRAVELER)

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“Actor Robert Wagner, who appears occasionally on CBS’ Two and a Half Men, chronicles his six decades in show business in his bestselling memoir Pieces of My Heart, which will be released in paperback on Sept. 15…

He spent part of the 1960s living in Italy and France but now resides in Aspen., Colo., with actress Jill St. John, his wife of 19 years…

Q: Where have you been recently that you liked or were surprised by?
A: I was in Beaune (in the Burgundy region). I had driven through there before but this time was a tremendous experience. I was really taken by it. I love the French country.

I was able to appreciate it and accept it more this time. Some friends of ours asked us to go with them and this one man is very much into wine. He was able to open some doors for me at cellars that were incredible. I hadn’t been aware of those wines in that part of the world. I stayed at L’Hôtel de Beaune. It was just wonderful. I’m not very good at those long dinners. I’m more of a bistro and country cooking (man).

That’s what I like — simplicity… and this time was such a simple travel experience for me and that always makes it better.

Q: What’s the best place you’ve ever visited?
A: I lived in Saint Paul de Vence, France, for a year in the 1960s. What did I do? I lived. I drank it all in. I took it into my soul. I did a movie. I had given up my apartment in Rome. Oh, it was a wonderful time. I lived at La Colombe d’Or and I never thought that would happen to me.

David Niven had introduced me to the hotel and I had heard about it. I got to know the people who ran it, the Roux family. I just loved it there. I felt so at home and they were so warm to me and nice. It was a great privilege to be able to stay there for that length of time. I’ve been back several times. It’s very romantic.

I was back there with my (second) wife (Marion Marshall), who is the mother of my daughter Katie. I was back there with Natalie (he married actress Natalie Wood twice) and with Jill. That whole valley is so captivating and the warmth and feeling of the people and the feeling of life is there. I had no obligations then.

Natalie and I had divorced and I was kind of on my own. And then Marion and I went there. Timing is it. It just worked for me and I was able to take it in, thank God.
Now all of these places have changed so much because of the people who have found them and go there. It’s just become overpowering. The thing about traveling for me is the culture and being able to engage yourself in it. You find that the basic needs and wants and caring are all the same, particularly when you see people with children and young people.” ( via usatoday.com) by Kelly Carter

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“Tom Hanks dashes through a graceful Roman piazza, past an ancient Egyptian obelisk surrounded by fountains of water-spouting lions, his eyes focused on a church tucked into the corner of the square.

Many of the film’s church interiors aren’t the real deal, but the exteriors often are authentic.

Moviegoers know that his character, Robert Langdon, is trying desperately to stop a grisly murder, following a trail of secret clues laid down nearly four centuries ago by the scientist Galileo and the baroque sculptor and architect Gianlorenzo Bernini. What they don’t know is that this graceful piazza itself harbors a dark secret.

Piazza del Popolo — and its namesake church, where Langdon is headed — was built to evict Nero’s ghost. This had been the hated emperor’s ancient family estate, and his likely burial spot, and area residents had for centuries complained that Nero’s evil spirit haunted a pine grove on the site. Finally, the Vatican chopped down the trees, exorcized the site, and built the piazza and its church “of the people.”

Many of Rome’s important sites are featured in “Angels & Demons,” the latest codes-and-clues thriller courtesy of author Dan Brown, director Ron Howard and leading man Tom Hanks.Travel + Leisure slide show: Rome’s “Angels & Demons” secrets (spoiler alert!)

These Roman spots are full of secrets and scandals, and while the movie reveals several — and invents a few more to serve its plot involving Illuminati assassins and Renaissance intellectuals — the true miraculous and demonic events that took place at them are often even stranger than those Dan Brown’s imagination could whip up.

First, a reality check: the movie’s church interiors aren’t the real deal. Howard wasn’t allowed to film inside any of them, especially in the Vatican. (Actually, no one can shoot movies in the Vatican, not even the producers of the official John Paul II biopic.)” ( via cnn.com  ) by Reid Bramblett

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here to read the rest of Rome’s ‘Angels & Demons’ secrets

Pack your bags for Rome and save room for bonus miles! Beginning this April, the gracious piazzas, ancient walkways and grand boulevards of Italy are closer than ever with new daily nonstop service between Washington Dulles and Rome. Fly between April 1 and May 31, 2007, and bring home up to 15,000 bonus miles

The Pointswizard.com Spin: Don’t live in Washington DC area? Fly to DC from your home airport and get the United flight from there.