Today we travel with Samantha Schoech to Venice, Italy, where she basks in afternoon espressos, pitchers of Prosecco, flirtation with an Italian man named Fluvio, and the pure happiness of being unfettered.

Samantha is a writer, traveler, and mom in San Francisco where she works as the books editor at the San Francisco Chronicle. Her essays, fiction, and journalism have appeared in many places including the New York Times, Seventeen, and Travel and Leisure. She was once briefly detained in Panama due to a hotel towel kerfuffle. www.samanthaschoech.com