Category: Travel Recommendations

The 10 Best Places for Pancakes in the USA: Updated Summer 2025

by mattathomeintheworld, posted in Travel Recommendations, USA, USA Roadtrips

Pancakes. Hotcakes. Griddle Cakes. Flapjacks.

No matter what they’re called, they happen to be one of my favorite ways to start the morning, and when I travel around the country, I make it a point to seek out the very best local places to find these breakfast staples. I personally don’t like a lot of extra stuff on or in my pancakes:  whipped cream, sprinkles, candy, chocolate chips, strawberry sauce, ice cream, hot fudge – in my opinion these are usually just ways to mask a boring or poorly made pancake. A really top-notch pancake should be able to stand on its own, maybe with some simple blueberries in the batter, and always with a little help from butter and real maple syrup.

I’m updating this post again this year. Things change. Even some of the best restaurants may go out of business, some places that used to be good seem to fade in quality, and in my continued travels, I discover new places that I feel obligated to include in my list. So… here are my latest rankings as of June, 2025.

To find the best pancakes in the country, read on!

Berry Picking In Southern New England

by mattathomeintheworld, posted in Blogs, New England, Travel Recommendations, USA

In a recent segment of WJAR TV 10’s Studio 10 program, I recommended some local places to pick your own berries this summer. I will post a link to the interview in a couple of days, but here are some of the places I mentioned in the segment. But hurry, strawberry season is short-lived and as soon as the summer heat sets in, it will be over! Click on the link above to watch the segment.)

Continue reading “Berry Picking In Southern New England” →

Please Come to Boston

by mattathomeintheworld, posted in Blogs, New England, New England, U.S.A., United States, USA

I grew up an hour south of Boston, and though my mom would bravely venture into the city to take me to the Science Museum or the Aquarium once in awhile, most of my family and the people I grew up with viewed Boston as a dangerous place, filled with traffic, aggressive drivers, and an indecipherable pattern of narrow, one-way streets. If someone were foolish enough to venture in, they were considered lucky to have found their way out alive and unscathed.

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Some Dining Recommendations for Southern New England

by mattathomeintheworld, posted in Blogs, New England, Travel Recommendations, USA

On the latest segment of WJAR TV Providence’s “Studio 10” program I discussed some of my favorite local places for great food. Below is more information about some of these spots and a few more I didn’t have time to get to! Enjoy! (Click on the highlighted link to view the TV segment)

Continue reading “Some Dining Recommendations for Southern New England” →

The Virtual American Road Trip

by mattathomeintheworld, posted in Blogs, U.S.A., USA Roadtrips, USA Roadtrips

As many of you already know, during my 35 years or so living in California, I made over 40 round-trip drives across the USA to visit friends and relatives in Massachusetts, Virginia, Tennessee, and Florida. One of the most freeing experiences for me is to be out on the open road, listening to my music and stopping wherever I choose to sample the local cuisine, take a hike or a swim, or visit some local attractions.

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Fall in New England: Suggestions to Enhance Your Leaf-Peeping Experience

by mattathomeintheworld, posted in Blogs, New England, Travel Recommendations, U.S.A.

With Labor Day Weekend now behind us, the smell of pumpkin latte will soon be wafting through the crisp autumn air. On the September 3rd episode of WJAR-TV’s Studio 10 program in Providence, Rhode Island I talked about suggestions for fall getaways in New England and you can watch it here with this link to the episode: For those who got to view the episode – and those who didn’t – I thought I’d summarize some of those suggestions here. Hopefully they’ll help those of you fortunate enough to do some leaf peeping in the northeast this season to make the most of your visit!

Studio 10, with host Christina Erne
Continue reading “Fall in New England: Suggestions to Enhance Your Leaf-Peeping Experience” →

Making All the Right Choices: Antica Trattoria al Sole, Italy

by mattathomeintheworld, posted in Europe, Italy, Travel Recommendations

On my most recent trip to Italy I experienced a big disappointment when a friend of mine from Vicenza and I were supposed to get together and the plans fell through. Actually, it would have been a sad meeting because he owns a pizzeria and gelateria but is being forced to close his business for the foreseeable future due to skyrocketing energy costs. I’d been invited to come by for his final night in business and looked forward to seeing him again, as well as sampling his fine organic pizza and gelato one more time. But on the appointed night, I drove to his shop in Vicenza only to find it closed and dark. I sent a few text messages that went unanswered and was stymied by what might have happened. Confused and sad that I‘d apparently missed him, I then had to attend to the immediate situation: I was very hungry and it was after 8PM on a Sunday night, so I knew I might not have many options for dinner. Relying on good old Google, I searched, “best restaurants near Vicenza” and up came the name Antica Trattoria al Sole, which roughly translates into: Ancient or Old Restaurant in the Sun. It was located a few kilometers outside Vicenza in the small village of Castegnero, so off I went into the unknown.

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Hurricane Matt: The Unusual Storm That Ate Its Way Across Florida

by mattathomeintheworld, posted in Blogs, Florida, Travel Recommendations, USA Roadtrips

When I’d cover the topic of hurricanes in the course on Natural Disasters that I taught for many years at my former university, I’d sometimes joke that these storms seemed to have an uncanny knack, an amazing ability to aim for highly vulnerable mobile home parks. Well, not unlike a Category 5 hurricane, I recently cut a swath across Florida’s midsection from the Gulf to the Atlantic, and while mobile home parks remained safe and untouched, every highly rated restaurant on tripadvisor.com was directly in my path. Hurricane Matt, the first unofficial storm of the 2021 Hurricane Season, left his mark on the Sunshine State. Let’s retrace the path of this culinary storm.

Hurricane Matt brewing in the Gulf?
Continue reading “Hurricane Matt: The Unusual Storm That Ate Its Way Across Florida” →