For over 30 years and more than 200 trips through Italy and France, I have experienced these magnificent countries in every possible aspect ~ first, as a backpacking college student studying art history and, ultimately as I now near my "golden years", more comfortably than those hostel days of youth. I have traveled single and married, alone and with groups, behind the wheel of my own car and been chauffeured over the autostradas and back roads, traveled by train and in the front of the bus as tour manager, crisscrossing these most beautiful countries. And over the years I've gathered stories, met some unforgettable characters, made memories and relished in little slices of life that offer a glimpse into these countries that I so passionately love, revealing why, somewhere down in some forgotten place, we're all Italian or French at heart!