10 Places I'm Dying to Visit ...

Photo Credit: Philip Rood Photography

I had the chance to go to Paris with members of my French class in high school. Had the tickets booked and everything -- and totally changed my mind. Because I decided that visiting Paris, a city I love without ever having been there, needed to be saved and savored. I decided I wanted to do it with someone I loved, rather than a dozen bubble gum brained high school girls who still laughed at the phrase “un peu,” since it sounded like “poo.”

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I have always wanted to go to Italy -- as you will say. But my number one choice there is Florence, for a variety of reasons. And I’ll be honest, Thomas Harris and Hannibal Lecter in Hannibal (the novel, though the movie had high points in the scenes there as well) had a large part in making me want to see the city. Harris’s descriptions were absolutely exquisite, and Lecter was made for the city.

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I haven’t ever gotten totally over my grunge phase. I wouldn’t want to live on the West Coast permanently, nor would I particularly want to stay in Seattle forever, but a visit is a must. I wouldn’t mind spending time on the coast there and in Oregon, either.

Photo Credit: R@P ~ I'm back

How could I not want to visit the “Paris of South America,” really? I’ll confess, Hannibal had a hand in this as well. However, the culture is so rich and there is such an exciting buzz about the city, I would love to experience it myself.

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We can thank Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil for this, the book and the film. I have been known to actually write an email to the Lady Chablis. I would to just soak myself in all that honey dripping, bourbon soaked Southern madness.

Photo Credit: MikeJonesPhoto

I regret that I haven’t been here, in part because of my love of anything French, but also because it’s so iconic, so ripe with its own culture and madness and exotic excitement. Naturally I would love to go to Mardi Gras, but I’d love to explore any other time as well. Edwin McCain and A Streetcar Named Desire are responsible for this fancy.

Photo Credit: john white photos

I have a cousin in Australia who positively raves about it, and I’ll be honest, Crocodile Dundee got to me when I was a kid. There is such beauty there, I would love to explore the native cultures, and frankly any place that started out as a water locked penal colony for the UK’s bad boys just intrigues me.

Photo Credit: doug88888

This has been a dream for years, one I hope to fulfill someday soon. I just love everything London’s about, and everything it gave birth to in popular culture. Plus, so many of my favorite authors, playwrights, and poets either lived there, worked there, or are buried there. I’d like to pay homage to a lot of locations.

I blame this on my one year of Latin in high school. I didn’t take much of the language away from it but I did fall in love with all the mythology I learned. I’d eschew all the major cities and islands, just to see the Oracle.

Photo Credit: Stuck in Customs

I have to be honest. It would be a kind of … anthropological dream to go here. I’ve heard so many things about Palm Beach society, I’d love to witness it for myself -- even though I probably wouldn’t be allowed to attend anything really chichi!

I just realized how many of these dream locations were inspired by books. Still, a good author can really make you want to be where the story is. Where have books inspired you to go?

Top Photo Credit: Linh_rOm