Mark Gordon Smith, founder of Private Italy Tours, shares the current state of travel to Italy. 

Find out how hotel costs in Italy are changing and which websites you can use to find competitive fares and techniques to negotiate directly with airlines. 

Mark also shares where visitors are going in Italy to avoid crowds and large cities, the new itinerary services offered by Private Italy Tours, and their newest tour addition in 2024 to Trentino Alto-Adige.

Also on Speaking of Travel, Tina Kinsey, Vice-president of Marketing, PR, and Air Service Development at the Asheville Regional Airport, shares how design, engineering, financing and construction take significant time in the “airport world,” and how this well-connected airport is leading the way to the future. 

Stay tuned! Only on Speaking of Travel.

Guest Links:
www.private-italy.com
https://flyavl.com Thanks for listening to Speaking of Travel! Visit speakingoftravel.net for travel tips, travel stories, and ways you can become a more savvy traveler. 

Private Italy Tours With Mark Gordon Smith And Asheville Regional Airport Update With Tina Kinsey

Welcome to Speaking of Travel, an IHeart Radio show and a global podcast. Host Marilyn Ball speaks to people from around the world about their uplifting and encouraging travel experiences. Speaking of Travel is also having an impact in bringing awareness to the travel and tourism industry oriented around sustainability, conservation, eco-tourism, and education. No Passport Required!&nbsp;

Society & Culture

Personal Journals

History

Philosophy

Places & Travel

Vanessa K. Harper runs Travel Cuba With Us, a tour company specializing in ethical traveler tours and yoga retreats to directly support the Cuban people. Vanessa is also the founder of  a nonprofit organization prioritizing food and medicine aid to individuals in need, apolitical academic engagement, and micro-grant support for independent artists and entrepreneurs.

Vanessa has practiced yoga since 1997 and became a certified yoga teacher practicing a variety of styles of yoga, including Bikram, Ashtanga, Baptiste, Kundalini, and Mixed-Level Power Vinyasa. She and her husband, Alejandro Berroa, also offer their signature Cuba Yoga Retreats program, an immersion experience that physically, spiritually, and culturally engages guests both on and off the mat. 

Vanessa knows Cuba and so can you. Her team offers unique perspectives and intimate insights into Cuba and provide personalized cultural immersion experiences to support the local economy. Their designed custom itineraries for solo travelers and guide group trips specialize in history, culture, artist’s studio visits, photography workshops and rural farm adventures. You really must go! 
 
So tune in! Only on Speaking of Travel.  Thanks for listening to Speaking of Travel! Visit speakingoftravel.net for travel tips, travel stories, and ways you can become a more savvy traveler. 

Travel To Cuba With Vanessa K. Harper

Traveling with children is always challenging, but for parents of children on the autism spectrum and/or those who have mood and attention disorders, it can be especially intimidating. 

Dawn M. Barclay wrote Traveling Different: Vacation Strategies for Parents of the Anxious, the Inflexible, and the Neurodiverse as the essential resource to make the cultural, educational, and bonding benefits of vacations available to all. 

The multi award-winning parenting and travel guide was recently released in a paperback edition and is an important read for all families and especially those with autistic or otherwise neurodivergent children.

Dawn shares the latest cities and countries that are making a concerted effort to be autism-friendly and how the growth of the vacation rental certification company, Becoming RentABLE , is helping families with a commitment to inclusion and the need to reshape the landscape of travel for individuals with disabilities.  And find out how changes at the Champion Autism Network, once known as the Champion Autism Network CAN Card, is now known as AutismTravel.club and how the membership makes it easier to plan and enjoy your family fun with access to autism-ready businesses who will help you and your family have a wonderful vacation.  Also on Speaking of Travel, Tina Kinsey, VP of Marketing, PR, and Air Service Development at the Asheville Regional Airport, shares how the airport is like a small city with an interconnected system of tenants and administrators and a tremendously complex system of firefighters, police and groundskeepers.

Tina provides an update about the airport's major changes and how they will continue over the next decade as it adapts to a rapidly growing population base and the region’s ever-expanding reputation as a tourist destination. And how you can stay connected to the most current changes and be prepared. 

Tune in. Only on Speaking of Travel!  Thanks for listening to Speaking of Travel! Visit speakingoftravel.net for travel tips, travel stories, and ways you can become a more savvy traveler. 

Travel Strategies For Spectrum And Special Needs Families And Asheville Regional Airport Update

During a 40-year freelance career, Nan K. Chase has written about French Catalonia, urban wilderness in San Francisco, hunting for gemstones in North Carolina, and dozens of other off-beat topics and destinations. 

Nan shares how she became a travel writer and what it was like before computers, the Internet, and plastic diapers. And find out how her wanderlust shifted over the years and how she navigates traveling today. 

Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, New York Times, Southern Living, and Air & Space Magazine. Nan tells a great story about how that one happened! 

With North Carolina her home base for four decades, Nan relocated five years ago to the wilds of Southwest Virginia, where she now writes about wildflowers, bicycling, and learning to shoot. She is the author of "Asheville: A History," and "Lost Restaurants of Asheville," as well as two books about the edible, drinkable landscape.

An enchanting trip down memory lane. A must listen! 

Only on Speaking of Travel.  Thanks for listening to Speaking of Travel! Visit speakingoftravel.net for travel tips, travel stories, and ways you can become a more savvy traveler. 

Travel Writer Nan K. Chase Traces Four Decades Of Heartwarming Travel Storytelling

Deanna Jannuzzi is an Initiated Priestess in the Lineage of the Alchemical Rose, a Somatic Practitioner, and Soul Awakening Coach. Deana facilitates retreats, rituals, and ceremonies around the world. 

Weaving in Transcendental Breathwork, Sound Healing, Personal Sovereignty and Empowerment, Shadow Integration, Sexual Reclamation, Consent Culture, and more, Deanna emphasizes the importance of personal sovereignty and self-expression, helping individuals find their voice, align with their purpose, and cultivate connections that nourish the Soul. 

Deanna shares how the beauty of travel, and travel itself, is an inward journey just as much as it is an outward journey. She guides the evolving process of self-discovery to help bring actions and ideas into alignment so you can better know who you want to be and how you impact the world you are living in.  Discover how Deanna created her Mary Magdalene Pilgrimage in Southern France and find out about other upcoming retreats and personal retreats.  Also on Speaking of Travel, there’s so much we can learn to allow ourselves to show up, not only for ourselves, but for each other too. Adam Laufer and Erin Everett are Weather Workers and Ceremonial Leaders in the tradition of don Lucio Campos de Elizalde, a master weather worker in Morelos, Mexico. 

They dedicate their lives to service, working to bring the balance of weather to their home communities so their lands and the people will thrive and benefit.  

 Erin and Adam share how we can learn to grow and live from a place of stability and weather storms with more ease. And even become better travelers. 

 Find out why people follow traditional cultures to uncover what might be missing in our growth. And Erin and Adam explain why traditions and ceremonies are important to be a part of ongoing wisdom that is unbroken from ancient times. 

A must listen! Only on Speaking of Travel. Thanks for listening to Speaking of Travel! Visit speakingoftravel.net for travel tips, travel stories, and ways you can become a more savvy traveler. 

Traveling Inward With Deanna Jannuzzi And Finding Wisdom With Adam Laufer and Erin Everett

Justin Belleme, owner and founder of JB Media Group and publisher of Romantic Asheville, shares how working with local entrepreneurs in the community and supporting organizations he believes in helps them achieve their vision. Justin is a travel industry leader and provides strategic direction and expertise in the travel and tourism industry, and is an advocate for sustainable growth and fairness in all business. 

 JB Media is a B Corp Certified social impact marketing agency dedicated to increasing the reach and authority of social enterprises, conscious companies, and mission-driven organizations across all digital channels. Justin explains how  becoming a Certified B Corp brings you into a global community that is using business as a force for good and embraces collaboration with other change makers with shared visions and values.  Also on Speaking of Travel, Tina Kinsey, VP of Marketing, PR, and Air Service Development at the Asheville Regional Airport, shares how aviation organizations help bring others together to leverage knowledge and experiences.

Tina describes how aviation organizations bring industry players together with other players in the industry who they most likely would not have met without specific business or personal relationships. And how they develop a community.  

And she explains how the need for information, expertise, or even special help might arise and how everyone comes together for support. You'll also discover why these connections within special aviation organizations are formed and why many in the industry eagerly join without hesitation. 

Tune in for some big news happening now at the Asheville Regional Airport! Current updates and more!

Only on Speaking of Travel! Thanks for listening to Speaking of Travel! Visit speakingoftravel.net for travel tips, travel stories, and ways you can become a more savvy traveler. 

Private Italy Tours With Mark Gordon Smith And Asheville Regional Airport Update With Tina Kinsey

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