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Corinna B November 22, 2022

Great Gift Ideas And Stocking Stuffers For The Travelers In Your Life

Whether you are looking for Black Friday sales or Cyber Monday sales, or just want some gift ideas for the travelers in your life, the following are either things that I use on every trip, or are things my Glam Italia Tour travelers have used and I have thought were pretty cool. Almost everything on this list is under $30.

Best Travel Gadgets

The absolute MVP travel gadget this past year was my Apple Air Tag. I actually have a few of them in different bags, but he peace of mind I got every time I landed and could see my suitcase was at the same airport as I was, was worth its weight in gold.

At the time of writing this post Amazon has AirTags at their lowest price ever.

You probably already know that in the post-Covid world airlines have been losing up to 10% of checked luggage. Travelers with Air Tags could at least tell the airline exactly where their bag was, be it in the wrong country or be it in the misplaced luggage room. Personally I flew 8 internationals and 16 domestics this year and breathed a massive sigh of relief when I could see my suitcase had landed with me. Available in single units for under $30 on Amazon

Travel Charger

You should always fly with a fully charged external power bank. Although many planes now have chargers in the seat back, they don’t always work. If your flight gets delayed/rerouted you need to be able to have phone/electronics access.

Best travel Portable Chargers — Portable Charger

You also need an external battery for when you are out an about on your trip. Typically while traveling we take more photos and videos than usual, and that uses up your phone battery really fast. You can find portable chargers in a variety of sizes and weights, most of which are light enough to keep in your handbag and not weigh you down. See Portable Phone Chargers here on Amazon.

Travel Adaptor

If traveling to a foreign country, most of the time you will need a travel adaptor to not only configure that country’s different plug shape, but also to convert the electricity to their voltage. Without an adaptor, should they have a higher voltage than your home country, your electronics will fry the moment you plug them in. (The U.S. runs on 110 volts whereas Europe runs on 220.) Similarly, if your country runs on 220 volts and the guest country is 110, your electronics will operate at half speed.

I have used this travel adaptor for years. (Mine is in blue) It is compatible with 150 countries around the world, so it will no doubt work with wherever you are going! See it here on Amazon.

Electronics Case

I have been using a small packing cube for my electronics, but several of my tour travelers this year had these electronics cases. They come in several colors.

These electronics cases are quite a slim fit, so pack easily into your hand luggage/carry on bag. I always recommend bringing a back up charging cord and a back up charging block, as these both have a habit of disappearing/being left behind. See Electronics cases on Amazon here.

Handheld Fan

Like the electronics case above, this handheld fan is also on my personal Christmas list!

This past summer there was a heatwave in Southern Europe and it was very hot every day. Some of my travelers brought these handheld fans with them, and I seriously wished I had one! The fans are small enough to slip into your handbag, yet are surprisingly effective! I also like that they have a USB charger, so you’re not having to mess around with buying batteries. See handheld fans here on Amazon.

Flashlight

This one is also on my Christmas list. It doesn’t hurt to have a powerful mini flashlight with you when you travel.

Whether you’re walking home in the dark or whether someone has blown the electricity in your apartment, (happens all the time in Italy where I travel all summer!) it is definitely advantageous to have a more powerful light source than your cellphone. This mini flashlight measures less than 5 inches and only weighs 4 oz. It fits easily into a handbag, or clips onto a pocket. See it here on Amazon.

Travel Hairdryer

I have had this tiny hairdryer for several years now, and it is definitely another travel MVP. Although incredibly small it is also incredibly powerful. I have very thick hair and am able to blow-dry it in normal time, even though this dryer is tiny.

The Titanium part of the dryer gives you a smooth, quick blow-dry, and stops the crazy, static hair you can get from regular hotel hairdryers. At an average price of $35 it is a smoking deal! Check for Black Friday sales and Cyber Monday sales. Find it here on Amazon.

Kindle

This is another of my absolute MVP travel electronics, and is something I use every day of my life. It took me a while to move into reading digitally, and for the first few years I just used the Kindle App on my iPad. 2 Christmases ago I bought myself a Kindle Paperwhite (bought in the Amazon Black Friday/Cyber Monday for sale. (For $99).

Not only is is amazing for travel, it is has become indispensable in my daily life too. The Kindle Paperwhite holds around 5000 books, is waterproof and glare resistant (perfect if you like reading at the beach or by the pool). There are several different types of Kindles, but I have and love the Paperwhite, so that’s the one I talk about.

Kindles are so lightweight and slim, you can slip them in your handbag and read anywhere. You don’t need to have a light on to read with a Kindle, so can comfortably read without waking the person next to you. I don’t know how I ever managed without mine! See Kindles here on Amazon.

Kindle Unlimited: I bought the Kindle that didn’t come with Kindle Unlimited. (You can add Kindle Unlimited any time) Because kindle books have no manufacturing or shipping costs, most sell for $5 or less. Authors receive the same amount of royalties regardless of whether you buy a $24 paperback or a $4.99 eBook, so you can read very inexpensively with Kindle. You can read library books on Kindle via the Libby App – it connects to most local libraries.

You also have the option of joining Kindle Unlimited. This gives you access to millions of books for free, all covered by your monthly membership fee. All of my books are in Kindle Unlimited, so you can get them free too! Check out Kindle Unlimited here.

You can also get/give memberships to Amazon’s audio book program, Audible. Gift memberships can be for 3 months, 6 months or 12 months. Check out Audible Gift Memberships Here.

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Corinna B November 17, 2022

Colleen Rothschild Skincare: Best Ever Black Friday Cyber Monday Sales!

If you’ve been following this blog for a while you’ll already know I love Colleen Rothschild skin care and haircare products. I love them in my regular life, but also when I travel.

This post contains affiliate links, see disclosure for details.

I have a discount code that you can use throughout the year, CORINNA20. This gives you 20% off anything that’s not already discounted, which during the year is a smoking deal. But I just got notice that there’s a big sale for Black Friday and Cyber Monday over at Rothschild. From what I can see it’s 30% off, site wide, along with special deals which are incredible! The discount codes are at the bottom of this post.

The MVP Cleanser

My absolute ride or die product is the Colleen Rothschild Radiant Cleansing Balm. I can’t do without it. It travels the world with me (in a smaller container) and I always have a backup tub of it in my bathroom closet, A.K.A the makeup artist stock room. (In my other life I have been a makeup artist for 30+ years)

Colleen Rothschild cleanser — Colleen Rothschild Radiant Cleansing Balm

Here’s what I love about it:

It stays in this balm form until your emulsify it either in your fingers or on your face. This makes it the most perfect product on the planet for travel.
It dissolves makeup (even waterproof products!) and cleanses skin, all in one luxurious step.
It is super gentle even on sunburned or wind burned skin.
It seems to work on all skin types, from dry skin to stressed out or sensitive skin, normal to oily skins, it just works.
It’s super concentrated, so a tub lasts for ages. I normally buy 2 tubs in the Black Friday sale and they get me through most of the year.
I can easily scoop enough for 8 weeks travel with my Glam Italia Tours in Italy, into a small travel sized tub and it lasts. Because it is in a balm form it doesn’t leak or spill in your skincare bag.
Once you’ve cleansed with it, your skin doesn’t feel pulled or tight – it feels nourished, like you’ve just had a facial.

Get Radiant Cleansing Balm in the Black Friday sales for 30% off here.

Favorite Travel Moisturizer

If you’ve ever traveled to Italy in the summer you’ll already know it’s very humid. So if you want your skin to stay hydrated but not have your makeup slide right off, you need a product that works well in heat and humidity. I travel with Colleen Rothschild Sheer Renewal Cream, which despite its name is actually a lightweight product that still packs a punch.

Colleen Rothschild Sheer Recovery Cream — Sheer Renewal Cream

Here’s what I love most about it:

It has a lightweight texture, yet still gives your skin ample hydration. (Skin that isn’t hydrated enough looks old. So let’s keep our skin looking young!)
It has an almost powdery finish, so makeup doesn’t slide off.
It gives your skin protection from environmental pollutants
It somehow burs and diffuses fine lines, which also helps you look more youthful.
I travel with the travel size version, but even the full size tube packs well, and neither size leaks in your skincare bag.

Facial Oil #9

I have used this facial oil for years now, and absolutely swear by it.

Facial Oil Number 9 is made up of 9 transformative oils that work together synergistically to moisturize and nourish your skin on a deeper level. I use this one at night, after my nighttime moisturizer. It doesn’t have an oily finish, so doesn’t wreck your pillowcase.

Colleen Rothschild Face Oil Number 9 — Colleen Rothschild Face Oil 9

Here’s what I love most:

It gives your skin a super boost. My skin is naturally dry, so drinks this up in a second.
It doesn’t have a greasy finish.
It comes in a pump action container, so doesn’t spill or make a mess.
The full size isn’t too big to travel with, although I use the travel size when I’m not at home.
If you get windburned or sunburned it gives you extra soothing results.

Travel Sized Products

If you don’t want to make a huge commitment but still want to try the Colleen Rothschild skin care products, I recommend getting the Discovery Kit. This is a kit with 7 products in travel sizes. There are the three products above, as well as a make, a night cream and a skin polish. There are several other travel kits, but this is my favorite. On Cyber Monday there is a mega discount on the Discovery Kit

** I refill the Radiant Cleansing Balm travel size tub from my full sized one as needed.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday Discount Codes

From November 18th – 26th: To get 30% discount site wide on Black Friday us the code BF22

Cyber Monday: from November 27th-29th to get 30% discount site wide, PLUS special deals including a mega discount on the Discovery kit, use the discount code CM22

Corinna B November 17, 2022

Gifts For Travel Lovers Amazon: 14 Fabulous Books Set In Italy

The post contains affiliate links. If you purchase something via one of these links this blog may receive a few cents commission – not enough to pay the costs of hosting this blog, but enough to help a bit…

Wondering what to buy for the traveler in your life who either loves Italy, is planning a trip to Italy, or who just needs more Italy in her life?

The following books are all set in Italy and make great gifts for others or for yourself.

At The Table Of La Fortezza

This gorgeous cookbook is fabulous both for those who love cooking and those who just love dreaming about Italy! The author bought and restored a beautiful Medieval fortress in northern Tuscany, where she hosts cooking retreats and vacations. Did I mention dreamy?? See here on Amazon

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Murder In Tuscany

T.A Williams has written multiple books set in Italy, all of which are easy, breezy reads. Murder In Tuscany is the first book in a new detective crime series. A British detective receives a retirement gift of a two week writing course at a villa in Tuscany. Preferring to remain anonymous, he doesn’t tell the other course attendees about his past career, but within a couple of days there is a murder in the villa. Of course, he gets drawn in to help the local homicide detective from Florence, and in the process takes us on glorious ride discovering the local town, figuring out who the murderer is, and exploring the villa and its grounds. You’ll be wanting to move there yourself before the book is over and the mystery is solved!

These cozy mysteries are unenjoyable read, even more so being that they’re set in a gorgeous Tuscan town close to Florence. See here on Amazon.

Under Italian Skies

Would you do a house swap with a stranger, and spend the summer in a villa in southern Italy? If so what would you do if you fell in love with the villa, the town and Italy itself and didn’t want to leave?

Nicky Pellegrino’s books are all set in Italy, mostly in the south. And be warned: they are super addictive! I’ve read and loved all of her books.

Her series about the Villa Rosa is wonderful (just be sure to start with the first one!) This book is a stand alone (not in series) but regardless will get you hooked, and no doubt start looking at doing an Italian house swap, or at least daydreaming about it. Under Italian Skies will get you thinking about house swaps, southern Italian towns, and the endless possibilities awaiting you. See it here on Amazon.

From Scratch

Trembi Locke’s beautiful memoir has become a hit show on Netflix, but you should still read the book. From Scratch is a love story, a story about loving Italy, and about great loss. You’ll fall in love with Trembi’s story right up until it breaks your heart. Beautifully written, this one should be on your must reads list. See it here on Amazon.

A Beautiful Crime

A Beautiful Crime is a stylish story of intrigue and deception that takes place in modern day Venice. It grabs you from the beginning, takes you through twists and turns and has you questioning: is crime always bad?

Fabulously written, with a real surprise at the end. Love it! See it here on Amazon.

Palace of the Drowned

Also set in Venice, Palace of the Drowned is a combination of mystery, psychological thriller and suspense. Beautifully written, the story takes place in 1966, the year of the biggest flood in Venetian history.

Chances are you won’t be able to put it down – I know I couldn’t. See it here on Amazon.

La Passione: How Italy Seduced The World

Can you imagine painting without Leonardo, opera without Verdi, fashion without Armani, food without the signature tastes of pasta, gelato, and pizza? The first universities, first banks, first public libraries? All Italian.

In La Passione, New York Times bestselling author Dianne Hales attributes these landmark achievements to la passione italiana, a primal force that stems from an insatiable hunger to discover and create; to love and live with every fiber of one’s being. She captures the spirit of the country and explains how the Italian passion drives everything that happens there. Italophiles will love this book!

I have two of Dianne’s books on this list and have just discovered a 3rd to put on my own must read list. See it here on Amazon.

In Other Words

Jhumpa Lahiri was already a Pulitzer winning author when she wrote this book. In Other Words (In Altre Parole) her first non-fiction work, is a memoir about her love of the Italian language and her efforts to learn it.

Deciding that full immersion was the way to master it, she moved her family to Rome, where she began to read and write only in Italian. To begin with this was only in her journal, but it led to this book, an autobiography written in a dual language format of both Italian and English. In Other Words is about learning to express yourself in another language, feeling exiled by your lack of language, and then finding a sense of belonging and reinvention. The book has been enormously successful, and is still an Editor’s Pick book on Amazon. See it here on Amazon.

Murder In Chianti

Murder in Chianti is book one in a three part cozy mystery series. Ex NYPD homocide detective Nico Doyle moves to Chianti to grieve his dead wife. One morning he hears a gunshot and a wailing dog, and when he walks into he woods to investigate, stumbles across a murder. The local police detective on learning of Nico’s professional background, gets him to help investigate the murder, and this is where the mystery begins.

With the beautiful Chianti backdrop, this series is a fun read for mystery lovers. See it here on Amazon.

La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair With Italian, The World’s Most Enchanting Language

La Bella Lingua is the second of Dianne Hale’s books on this list. She was awarded an Honorary Knighthood by the President of Italy in recognition of this gorgeous book.

The fantasy of living the Italian life is powerfully seductive. But to truly become Italian, one must learn the language. This is how Dianne Hales began her journey. In La Bella Lingua, she brings the story of her decades-long experience with the “the world’s most loved and lovable language” together with explorations of Italy’ s history, literature, art, music, movies, lifestyle and food in a true opera amorosa — a labor of her love of Italy.

Over the course of twenty-five years, she has studied Italian through Berlitz, books, CDs, podcasts, private tutorials and conversation groups, and, most importantly, time spent in Italy. In the process the Italian language became not just a passion and a pleasure, but a passport into Italy’s storia and its very soul. She invites readers to join her as she traces the evolution of Italian in the zesty graffiti on the walls of Pompeii, in Dante’s incandescent cantos and in Boccaccio’s bawdy Decameron. She portrays how social graces remain woven into the fabric of Italian: even the chipper “ciao,” which does double duty as “hi” and “bye,” reflects centuries of bella figura. And she exalts the glories of Italy’s food and its rich and often uproarious gastronomic language: Italians deftly describe someone uptight as a baccala (dried cod), a busybody who noses into everything as a prezzemolo (parsley), a worthless or banal movie as a polpettone (large meatball).

Like Dianne, readers of La Bella Lingua will find themselves innamorata, enchanted, by Italian, fascinated by its saga, tantalized by its adventures, addicted to its sound, and ever eager to spend more time in its company. See it here on Amazon

Love In A Tuscan Kitchen

Chocolate cake makes sweet dreams come true.

In a real-life fairy tale, author Sheryl Ness shares how she fell in love with Vincenzo, a chef in a quaint Tuscan kitchen, over his decadent hot chocolate cake.

This enchanting memoir will transport you to the cobblestone streets, lush hillsides dotted with grapevines and olive trees, and unique characters that create the backdrop for Sheryl’s Italian love story.

Love in a Tuscan Kitchen is sprinkled with traditional recipes she collected along the way and flavored with rich accounts of how her dreams were fulfilled many times over while living in a picturesque village in Chianti.

Raise a toast and taste pure joy as Sheryl opens her heart to love, and in turn finds herself on a remarkable journey of discovery through the people, traditions, and customs of Italy as the blond Americana fell in love with the chef with twinkling eyes. See it here on Amazon.

The Italian Villa

I’m not normally a reader of WWII fiction, nor of romance, but Amazon recommended this book a while back, so I decided to at least whip through the first few pages just in case. And I’m so glad I did!

The Italian Villa tells the story of a small town waitress in the U.S who having discovered she was adopted, then inherits a beautiful villa in Italy. While visiting the villa she discovers an old diary in her birthmother’s belongings, and believes the truth about her family is hidden somewhere within its pages.
But when a devastating betrayal in the final pages of the diary unlocks a heart-breaking secret about who her mother really was, the chance for a new life shatters in front of her. Can she persuade the locals to forgive her past and accept the truth about her identity?

See it here on Amazon.

Bella Figura: How To Live Love And Eat The Italian Way

“Uprooting her life, London-based Kamin Mohammadi relocated to bucolic Florence. Her glorious memoir Bella Figura is witty, intelligent and heartfelt in equal measure and will delight anyone dreaming of a summer holiday—or a brand new life—in Italy.” —Taiye Selasi, The Guardian

“If you’ve ever thought about quitting your job, moving to Italy, wearing incredible clothes and eating unbelievable food, here’s your bible.” —Fodors

Bella Figura came out at the same time as my first book published, so I have always felt a huge affinity for it as we paralleled our way through our first year of book sales. Bella figura refers to the Italian concept of making every aspect of life as beautiful as it can be. This is the story of Kamin Mohammadi’s life changing year in Florence, and how it taught her a happier, more beautiful way of living.

“She walks down the street with a swing in her step and a lift to her head. She radiates allure as if followed by a personal spotlight. She may be tall or short, slim or pneumatically curvaceous, dressed discreetly or ostentatiously—it matters not. Her gait, her composure, the very tilt of her head is an ode to grace and self-possession that makes her beautiful whatever her actual features reveal.”

I love this book. See it here on Amazon

Lizzie And Dante

I often ask my newsletter members for book recommendations, and this was one of them. Lizzie and Dante takes place under the sun on an idyllic Italian island. A luscious story of love, courage, and Italian wine, Lizzie & Dante demands to know how far we should travel to find a future worth fighting for.

This is another book that is hard to put down, and that will have you wanting to visit the place it is set in. I loved this book. See it here on Amazon.

Most, if not all are available in digital format as well as paperback. (If you already have a Kindle or if you have the Kindle App on your laptop/phone/iPad etc you can use the Kindle option. If you don’t have a Kindle yet I recommend the Kindle Paperwhite. For years before I bought a kindle I read digitally on my iPad. (Kindles normally go on sale on Black Friday and Cyber Monday) If you have Kindle Unlimited many of these books will be available to you for free.