This is the Untold Italy travel podcast and you're listening to episode number 217.

Ciao at all and benvenuti to Untold Italy, the travel podcast where you go to the towns and villages, mountains and lakes, hills and coastlines of

Bella Italia. Each week your host, Katie Clark, takes you on a journey in search of magical

landscapes, history, culture, wine, gelato, and of course, a whole lot of pasta. If you're dreaming

of Italy and planning future adventures there, you've come to the right place.

Bonjour, everyone.

Here I am freshly back from a whirlwind trip to Italy where I spent some time

in Rome, Bologna and Venice, checking in on what's happening that's new and exciting in those places,

catching up with the Untold Italy team and meeting with some of our amazing partners.

In case you don't follow us on our social media, we also had an exciting

encounter on my last day in Rome. There we were with our friends from LiveTours, casually

wandering past the Pantheon, then who should walk by but travel legend Rick Steves.

Of course, we had to get a selfie. Now, if you're not familiar with Rick,

he's best known in the United States and has almost single-handedly changed the way Americans

travel to Europe via his books, audio guides and tours. And of course, his multimedia approach

to travel is an inspiration to me and the Untold Italy team

and what we're trying to do here at Untold Italy. So that was really a bit of a thrill,

I have to say, and we caught him casually strolling by the Pantheon and had to catch up

because he's quite a tall guy. Anyway, bumping into celebrities is not something that regularly happens to me in

Rome, but it certainly added to an exciting couple of weeks. On the way home to Australia,

I started reflecting on my trip and realised that while I've been to Rome countless times,

there are some experiences that I seek out every time I'm there that I wanted to

...