On May 3, 2014, for the fifth time, I returned to Bolzano, Italy, for a week at the Parkhotel Laurin (Via Laurin Strasse 4, 39100 Bolzano/Bozen; phone +39 0471 311 000, www.laurin.it), what I consider a palace with an included you-never-want-to-miss breakfast (March ’12, pg. 47).

For lunch, I returned to the delightful Hopfen & Co. (Piazza delle Erbe 17, Bolzano; phone +39 0471 300788, www.boznerbier.it) for their version of risotto with arugula, mushrooms and thin slices of...

My girlfriend and I decided to take a brief vacation to the Dominican Republic, Dec. 6-10, 2013. We chose the Dominican Republic because we had heard that the weather there in December was warmer than Cancun’s.

Our hotel was the Excellence Punta Cana (Playas Uvero Alto, Higüey, Provincia La Altagracia, Dominican Republic; phone, in the US, 866/540-2585, www.excellence-resorts.com), touted as a 5-star resort. It was part of an all-inclusive travel package costing us $2,600 that I saw...

Every year in May, Holland celebrates two special days: Day of Remembrance on May 4 and Day of Liberation on May 5.

My husband, Al, and I were in Holland on both of those days in 2005. On the Day of Remembrance, we saw how they decorated military cemeteries with flowers and observed two minutes of silence at 8 p.m. (This was observed throughout Holland, even at traffic stops.)

On the next day, Holland celebrates the end of World War II. At the war memorials and other places, we...