I loved your articles on Verona & Vermont. Having never been to Verona I want to take you with me when I do go there.

Woodstock is one of my favorite towns in Vermont. Did you know that the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller House has the largest private collection of Hudson River School paintings in the United States? Honest to goodness it's true, I've done the research. Most of them were purchased by the Rockefellers.

What a grand idea to take along the luxury editor! I'm keen to see more on Italy and would love to try off the beaten path hotels and locations, but my Italian is limited to "pizza, per favore" and "Cinzano, per favore" where would I feel the most comfortable?

You can get by pretty well in most of Italy with just a few phrase-book words. Younger people, and those in hotels and tourist-related places speak enough English to be helpful when you reach an impasse, and Italians are naturally helpful and hospitable, so they will find someone to translate. When I moved to Verona, all I knew in Italian were menu words, and I got along fine. Remember that Italians speak with their hands, faces and a lot of body language, so they are easily understood.

I do suggest, however, that you shy away from more remote places in southern Italy until you have been there long enough to pick up a bit of language -- they are much harder to understand and Engish is less spoken (outside of Sicily, where everyone seems to have relatives in the United States.