I asked what she did for a living. She said she was a software engineer working with SOA. I did not think about my plane ride much until I arrived in San Francisco to attend the SOA World Conference & Expo this past Monday and Tuesday. The first day of the conference as I walked into the hotel, guess who I saw? My friend who I met on the Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul. What a small world, isn't it? Her company was one of the sponsors of the event.

Perillo Tours, the largest tour operator to Italy, has been a family-run business for over 63 years. Led by three generations beginning with Joseph Perillo, then Mario Perillo and now Steve Perillo, Perillo Tours' fully escorted tours provide excellent sightseeing, first-class hotels, and experienced and knowledgeable tour guides. All tours include transfers, baggage handling, American style breakfasts, tips, taxes, and dinners with complimentary wines and mineral water.

Of all the words that comes to mind when describing the remarkable wines of Chateauneuf-du-Pape, glamorous is not high on the list. Here in the southern Rhone valley you won't find multi-million dollar wineries or multi-star restaurants. And despite the name, there?s hardly a chateau to be found. But the wines are profound, complex, and in a world where it's sometimes hard to distinguish between a cab from California and a boutique wine from Bordeaux they have a character that's all their own.

There are many ways to arrive in Venice but perhaps the very finest way is to do so in your own yacht. Fortunately in recent years several companies have set up shop offering self-drive motor yachts, which enable sailors to undertake such an adventure. We chose to use Connoisseur a British based company using British built boats that come with easy to read instructions all in English. The company has bases throughout Europe and in each employ young English speaking staff full of enthusiasm for yachting vacations.

Replete with history, the land that gracefully extends along the warm waters of the Amalfi Coast has seen the birth of empires and cradled the growth of civilisations. Arguably the best way to explore the west coast of Italy is by boat, providing easy access to quiet backwaters and anchorages far from the madding crowds of landlubbers.

At first glance the coordinates of 44° 25' north latitude and 8° 56' 60 east longitude don't indicate much. However on closer inspection, they reveal a millenia-old seafaring port centrally situated between the Riviera di Ponente and the Riviera di Levant - in the heart of Italy's Ligurian coast. The port of Genoa is the oldest in Italy, and the city's position as an important maritime center was established in the Middle Ages.

Percorrere sentieri centenari alla scoperta di villaggi nascosti per poi tornare al comfort di un classico motoryacht rende il perfetto mix di vacanza.

Hiking on centuries-old footpaths to remote villages, then returning to the comforts of a classic motoryacht provides a perfect holiday mix.