Month: April 2026

Style Stealers

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Top Posts

Jennifer Tilly’s $40,000 Crystal Bear Bag

Rachel Zoe Used These Beauty and Makeup Products on Season 15 of RHOBH

Amanda Batula’s Plaid Bikini

Kyle Richards’ Tan Leather Lace Dress

Kyle Richards’ Navy Tie Neck Shirt and Tan Woven Bag

Dorit Kemsley’s Brown Wrap Dress

Dorit Kemsley’s Turquoise Necklace and Gold Hoop Earrings

Dorit Kemsley’s Navy Satin Shirt and Belted Pants

Dorit Kemsley’s Season 15 Reunion Look

Rachel Zoe’s Season 15 Reunion Look

Rachel Zoe’s Rainbow Metallic Pleated Maxi Dress

Rachel Zoe’s Black Sequin Please Do Not Disturb Bag

Dorit Kemsley’s White Floral Embroidered Corset

Kyle Richards’ Season 15 Reunion Look

Rachel Zoe’s Black Paisley Print One Shoulder Dress

Amanda Batula’s Cartier Watch from Kyle

Originally posted at: Dolores Catania’s Blue Off the Shoulder Dress and Sunglasses

With overtourism increasingly becoming an issue worldwide, it’s becoming more important than ever to turn to smarter alternatives. In the European cities of Barcelona and Venice, overtourism is threatening to overwhelm local life and heritage sites, and while cruise tourism has contributed, budget airlines, social media and short-term rentals all play their part.

Restrictions are slowly being put in place as a counterbalance. In the US, there are entry fees to National Parks and some special attractions, while in Italy, fees have been introduced at hotspots such as Rome’s Trevi Fountain and Pantheon, and Juliet’s House in Verona. In Venice, a day visitor access fee is applied on selected dates and on the Amalfi Coast, the Cinque Terre National Park Card is required for access to some trails, with prices rising on peak days.

While you may not be deterred by the fees, you won’t be alone in being put off by the crowds. Shoulder season travel is one option. But my advice when it comes to avoiding the crowds in Italy is to skip the high-profile attractions and instead seek out attractions and locations that take you deep into Italian culture.

Art and Architecture

Few cities in the world are as densely packed with art treasures as Florence, making it irresistible if you can visit during the shoulder season months or, preferably, winter. An excellent alternative for art enthusiasts is Ravenna on the Adriatic Coast, once the capital of the Western Roman Empire and later the heart of the Byzantine Empire. The city is best known for its UNESCO World Heritage basilicas, filled with extraordinarily intricate mosaics, as well as being home to the tomb of Dante Alighieri.

When it comes to architecture, Venice is admittedly in a league of its own, as much for its big hitting sights like the Doge’s Palace and St Mark’s Basilica as for its hidden squares, pretty bridges, and mesmerising palaces along the Grand Canal. But the downside is the tourist crowds. By contrast, the quiet towns of Mantua and Vicenza are not only crammed with Renaissance masterpieces but are also living breathing towns where local life is in full swing.

Walking in Italy’s National Parks

The trail that links the five villages of the UNESCO Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera is as pretty as a picture: think terraced vineyards, clusters of pastel-coloured houses and dramatic coastal scenery. But in the summer months, the busiest trails are jam-packed. For spectacular views without the crowds, travel a little further south to the Cilento National Park where the best sea view hikes provide views of old watchtowers, hidden inlets and stunning bays with turquoise water. Follow coastal trails past sea caves and limestone cliffs, pausing for dips in empty beaches only accessible on foot or by boat.

Alternatively, join a group to hike in the remote Abruzzo, a region which comprises three of Italy’s most spectacular national parks, making it one of Europe’s greenest areas.

Vineyard Visits and Wine Tasting

Many of us automatically associate a wine tasting holiday in Italy with Tuscany, not least because Tuscany’s iconic wines, such as Chianti and Brunello di Montalcino, are widely exported. If you’ve already experienced Tuscan vineyards and want to explore Italian wines that are less readily available elsewhere, choose a less obvious region of Italy such as Friuli Venezia Giulia where numerous small local wineries are tucked away in the quiet hills bordering Slovenia.

Enjoy slow travel at its best at informal tastings, with wine paired with local produce such as ‘prosciutto di San Daniele’, in the cellars of small family producers.

Where to Find the Best Food in Italy

However long you spend in Italy, I defy you to find an answer to this: the truth is you can find superb food wherever you are in Italy, and every Italian will claim that the food in their region is superior!

You can, however, improve your chances of finding superb food with a couple of small measures. The first and most obvious solution is to side-step the tourism-saturated hotspots in the historic centres of any big city, avoiding menus in multiple languages.

At coastal resorts, head away from the beach strip and ‘restaurants with a view’ and seek out simple trattoria showing shorter menus with regional specialities. Lastly, holiday in regions such as Piedmont or Emilia Romagna where you’ll find a strong focus on local food culture.

Exploring Italy’s Ancient History

Discovering Italy’s ancient past isn’t just a case of visiting Pompeii and Herculaneum. Certainly, those sites are extraordinary, but for a more crowd-free experience, consider swapping Pompeii for Paestum or travelling even further back in time and exploring the ancient Etruscan sites in and around Orvieto. The gorgeous hilltop town has an extraordinary subterranean world, a vast underground network of Etruscan-era caves, wells and tunnels. Of course, the town still attracts tourists but stay a night or two and you’ll find yourself amongst locals.

Seaside Stays

With a total coastline of over 4,500 miles, Italy has plenty of seaside towns to choose from. The Amalfi Coast towns – Amalfi, Sorrento and Positano – are amongst the best known internationally but were certainly not designed for summer crowds. Likewise, Liguria’s pocket-size coastal town of Portofino.

Swap Amalfi and Portofino for Lerici on the Italian Riviera, for the island of Elba or the laidback relaxed atmosphere of Santa Maria della Castellabate in the Cilento region.

Let’s Chat:

Do you actively seek out quieter, less popular destinations? How do you choose where to go? Can you recommend anywhere off-the-beaten track in Italy?

Style Stealers

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Originally posted at: Liz McGraw’s White One Shoulder Jumpsuit and Oversized Sunglasses

Style Stealers

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Top Posts

Jennifer Tilly’s $40,000 Crystal Bear Bag

Rachel Zoe Used These Beauty and Makeup Products on Season 15 of RHOBH

Amanda Batula’s Plaid Bikini

Kyle Richards’ Tan Leather Lace Dress

Kyle Richards’ Navy Tie Neck Shirt and Tan Woven Bag

Dorit Kemsley’s Brown Wrap Dress

Dorit Kemsley’s Turquoise Necklace and Gold Hoop Earrings

Dorit Kemsley’s Navy Satin Shirt and Belted Pants

Dorit Kemsley’s Season 15 Reunion Look

Rachel Zoe’s Season 15 Reunion Look

Rachel Zoe’s Rainbow Metallic Pleated Maxi Dress

Rachel Zoe’s Black Sequin Please Do Not Disturb Bag

Dorit Kemsley’s White Floral Embroidered Corset

Kyle Richards’ Season 15 Reunion Look

Rachel Zoe’s Black Paisley Print One Shoulder Dress

Amanda Batula’s Cartier Watch from Kyle

Originally posted at: Alicia Carmody’s White Floral Ruffle Dress

If you have been married for a long time and are now divorced or widowed, or even if you have never married at all, chances are your ideas about love are outdated. I don’t mean that as a criticism. I mean it as a relief.

When I found myself single in my 60s after more than 30 years of marriage, I had one simple thought. I didn’t necessarily want to be alone. I would like some companionship. I would just see what happened. And then I started to notice something. I wasn’t even sure I wanted a long-term relationship at all. Not because I was closed, but because for the first time in my life I wasn’t sure the old destination was still the right one.

If any of that sounds familiar, these questions are for you too.

Do You Even Want a Relationship?

This sounds like a simple question. It is not. After years of building a life around someone else’s rhythms, of compromise and caregiving and the thousand small adjustments that come with sharing your life, you may find yourself with something you haven’t had in a long time. Your own mornings. Your own space. Your own way of moving through a day. And you might be surprised to find that you like it.

That doesn’t mean there are no lonely days. There are. But there is a difference between loneliness and solitude, and many women at this stage are discovering what it feels like to wake up excited about the day simply because it belongs entirely to them.

So, before you start looking, it is worth asking honestly: Do you want a partner, or do you want the idea of one? There is no wrong answer. But there is an honest one, and it is worth finding before you begin.

What Does a Relationship Even Look Like at This Stage?

When you were young the path was visible. You dated, you got serious, you moved in or got married, you built a life together. But in your 60s that script doesn’t apply anymore, and nobody has handed you a new one.

Do you date casually and see what unfolds? Do you keep your own homes, your own independence? Do you introduce this person to your children or keep those worlds separate? Do you even want to merge your life with someone else’s after finally learning how to live on your own terms? The questions you are asking now are completely different from the ones you asked in your late 20s. That is not a problem. That is growth.

What About When Someone Gets Sick?

This is the question most of us don’t say out loud. After years of caregiving, of showing up for people you loved through exhausting seasons, it is worth asking yourself honestly whether you want to do that again. If you fall in love with someone and they get sick, do you want to be the one to take care of them? You are allowed to sit with that question. But you deserve to know what you are actually signing up for, and to choose it with your eyes open rather than find yourself there by default.

Is It Even Worth the Risk?

Here is the math many of us are doing quietly. On one side, the risk of heartache. Of opening yourself up again, of letting someone in, of building something tender and real and then losing it. At this age you know exactly how much that costs. On the other side sits the possibility of being alone for the rest of your life. That word lands differently in your 60s than it did in your late 20s.

There is no right answer to that calculation. Some mornings the freedom feels like everything. Some evenings the quiet feels like too much. What matters is that you ask the question honestly and simply hold it. Because how you answer it, on your best days and your hardest ones, will tell you something true about what you actually want next.

What Do You Actually Want Now?

Not what you wanted in your late 20s. Not what you think you should want. Not the relationship that would make sense to other people. What do you want now, from exactly who you are today?

Maybe companionship sounds lovely. Someone to share a meal with, to call when something funny happens, to sit with in comfortable quiet. Maybe the idea of letting someone in again feels like too much right now. Maybe both of those things are true at the same time. That is allowed. You don’t have to have it figured out before you begin.

Maybe that is enough for now. To stay open. To see what happens. Maybe that is what love looks like in your 60s. Not a search exactly. More like a quiet willingness to be surprised.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

What does your current self look for in a relationship? Do you prefer to be on your own, or do you really want company? What do you love and what do you hate in your current situation, whatever it may be?