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The Florida Keys Overseas Highway is a living corridor of reefs, bridges, history, and local tradition. We sit down with journalist and photographer Andy Newman, who spent 44 years with the Florida Keys Tourism Council, to build a true start-to-finish Florida Keys road trip.

We talk logistics: how long the drive takes, why the mile markers function like addresses, and when you can get away without hotel reservations. From there, we trace the story behind the islands themselves: Henry Flagler’s Overseas Railroad, the 1935 Labor Day hurricane, and how the modern highway opened the Keys to a different kind of traveler.

Then we start the itinerary. Key Largo brings John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park and the Christ of the Deep, plus smart reminders about the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and boating responsibly around shallow, sensitive habitat.

Islamorada delivers sport fishing culture, the History of Diving Museum, and the simple joy of hand-feeding tarpon. Marathon adds the Dolphin Research Center, Aquarium Encounters, the Turtle Hospital, and a walk into history on Pigeon Key. The Lower Keys bring Bahia Honda beaches, key deer, and even an Underwater Music Festival.

Key West rounds it out with the Conch Republic story, Hemingway Days, six-toed cats, sunset celebration at Mallory Square, and the option to reach Dry Tortugas National Park and Fort Jefferson.

If you love travel stories with practical tips, local food, and real history, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share it with your favorite road trip partner, leave a review.

Andy Newman is currently an avid fisherman and photographer, and lives in the Florida Keys.

Podcast host Lea Lane has traveled to over 100 countries, and has written nine books, including the award-winning Places I Remember (Kirkus Reviews star rating, and 'one of the top 100 Indie books of the year'). She has contributed to dozens of guidebooks and has written thousands of travel articles. Read her weekly essays on Substack.
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Our award-winning travel podcast, Places I Remember with Lea Lane, has produced over 130 travel episodes! New episodes drop on the first Tuesday of the month, on Apple, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts. All episodes are also on her website: placesirememberlealane.com
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Travel vlogs of featured podcasts-- with video and graphics -- now also drop on YouTube.

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We’re joined by American expat resident Cherie Siebert to trace Vienna from its Habsburg-scale grandeur to its everyday pleasures. Vienna can feel like a living museum and a laid-back neighborhood on the same afternoon.

We talk through how easy it is to get around on foot and by public transportation, where palace areas like Hofburg, Schönbrunn, and the Belvedere fit into a real day, and why seasonal markets mix architecture, craft, and local tradition.

From St Stephen’s Cathedral’s tower and crypt to the surprising places where Roman ruins appear under your feet, Vienna keeps handing you history.

Then we follow the sound. Cherie shares her favorite place to hear classical music, the Musikverein Golden Hall, plus the pull of the Vienna State Opera. As for art, the city’s deep museum bench, including Gustav Klimt’s iconic “The Kiss.”

We also make room for the city’s hard truths, including Holocaust memorial reminders found by simply wandering the center.

To round it out, we get into Vienna coffeehouse culture, where to skip long tourist lines, why locals treat cake and coffee as a ritual, and how wine bars and nearby wine inns expand the food story.

We also cover parks, Danube swimming spots, the Prater Ferris wheel at night, and easy day trips by train to Salzburg, the Wachau Valley, Bratislava, Budapest, and even Prague.

If you enjoyed this, subscribe, and share the episode with a fellow traveler.

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Cherie Siebert is an expat who lives in and loves Vienna. She is a teacher, jewelry maker, traveler and life-lover. Find her at artsfish@me.com

Podcast host Lea Lane has traveled to over 100 countries, and has written nine books, including the award-winning Places I Remember (Kirkus Reviews star rating, and 'one of the top 100 Indie books of the year'). She has contributed to dozens of guidebooks and has written thousands of travel articles. Read her weekly essays on Substack.
_____
Our award-winning travel podcast, Places I Remember with Lea Lane, has produced over 130 travel episodes! New episodes drop on the first Tuesday of the month, on Apple, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts. All episodes are also on her website: placesirememberlealane.com
_____
Travel vlogs of featured podcasts-- with video and graphics -- now also drop on YouTube.

Send us Fan Mail

Sicily is an Italian island in the Ionian sea between Italy and the African coast. Greece, Rome, the Arab world, and Norman Europe left remnants there that you can still experience.

Chef, blogger, and tour director Ric Orlando tells us why Sicily feels different from the rest of Italy. His “deep dive” trips take the Anthony Bourdain approach seriously: spend time with locals, follow the market stalls, and let conversations set the pace.

We get into Palermo’s layered history, the Palatine Chapel’s mosaics, Monreale, Teatro Massimo, and the city’s street markets.

Ric also explains how Sicily’s volcanic soil around Mount Etna is changing the island today, from a booming Sicily wine scene to new crops driven by climate change, and why infrastructure outside the main tourist cities still shapes daily life.

Then east to Catania, to the “Black City” built from dark volcanic stone. We linger at the pescheria fish market where small boats sell the morning’s catch. We talk Sicilian flavor, especially the Arab influenced sweet and sour combinations, and we end with cannoli, farm made cheese, and the living traditions of Piana degli Albanesi.

Finally, Taormina brings cliffside beauty, a Greek theater, an artistic past, along with the modern 'White Lotus' buzz, before Ric shares a personal memory that ties family photos back to a real village festival.

Come wander through the best of Sicily with us. Subscribe, share with friends who love food and history, and leave a review.

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Our guest, Chef Ric Orlando, leads tours to Sicily.

Podcast host Lea Lane has traveled to over 100 countries, and has written nine books, including the award-winning Places I Remember (Kirkus Reviews star rating, and 'one of the top 100 Indie books of the year'). She has contributed to dozens of guidebooks and has written thousands of travel articles.
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Our award-winning travel podcast, Places I Remember with Lea Lane, has produced over 125 travel episodes! New episodes drop on the first Tuesday of the month, on Apple, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts. All episodes are also on her website: placesirememberlealane.com
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Travel vlogs of featured podcasts-- with video and graphics -- now also drop on YouTube.