CapRadio Music Classical host Kevin Doherty is blogging from the CapRadio Travels trip to Scandinavia. This is his first post from the trip. Check back for more over the next few weeks!

Kevin called us from Copenhagen and he and his wife Sarah had this short exchange with CapRadio's Paul Conley:

Sitting in the airport in Stockholm waiting for our flight to Copenhagen, one of the CapRadio Travelers said to me it’s hard to believe that we’re about to be on day five of our trip to Scandinavia. Time really does fly when you are having fun. We are without a doubt having fun — but like any vacation there is always a little stress involved.

Luckily our guide Shlomit Lasky from Earthbound Expeditions — which partners with CapRadio on this trip — is a consummate professional. She immediately sprang to action to help when some of our fellow “Earthbounders” had some issues with their luggage. Shlomit describes herself as a wandering Jewess from Berlin. Israeli by birth, Shlomit is an actress, screenwriter, author and apparently a passionate seeker of knowledge with a knack for history. She is warm, organized, and incredibly helpful, which I think has had all of the travelers at ease from the very beginning.

Earthbound Expeditions guide Shlomit Lasky leads the CapRadio travelers through Stockholm. Kevin Doherty / Capital Public Radio

It would be a day or two before our friends would get their bags back but that didn’t have them in bad spirits. It almost seems that would be impossible in the stunning city of Stockholm, the capital of Sweden as well as Scandinavia’s largest city. The city is made of roughly 25-30,000 islands according to one of our local guides.

It’s unseasonably warm and sunny for this time of year according to many of the locals, and it was evident on the faces of everyone in town. Tourists and locals alike were out in droves soaking up the beautiful weather.

With 18-plus hours of daylight it’s hard to believe there ever is a winter in Stockholm. Winters can be pretty rough, though, with sunlight in December clocking in right around 6 hours a day. But right now we are focusing on the summer paradise that is Stockholm.

Our first full day in Stockholm consisted of a walking tour of the Old City, the Royal Palace, and the Vasa Museum. Much of the city is easily accessible and very pedestrian friendly. In fact, a lot is within a 20-minute walk from our hotel.

A side note here: When I think of an “Old City,” my brain immediately turns to Old Town Sacramento. Well, Old Town Sac is a baby in comparison to the Old City of Stockholm, whose charter dates back to the 13th Century.

The Royal Palace is stunning and full of history as we toured its many decorated rooms. We learned a lot about the history of the monarchy of Sweden and the changes it’s undergone in its nearly 1,000 years of existence. Considered a constitutional monarchy, Swedes seem to have a lot of respect for their royal family.

The highlight of the day, however, was the Vasa Museum. The museum was built around the imposing ship commissioned by King Gustav Adolphus in 1626. The ship took two years to build and was intended to show off the strength of the Swedish Navy.

The not-so-indomitable Vasa ship that was discovered 333 years after it sunk on its maiden voyage in 1628. Loren Kerns / Flickr

The Vasa would never have that opportunity, however. On its maiden voyage in August of 1628, the ship sank within 1,000 meters of its departure point. Problems were noted in preliminary testing, but the King was impatient and wanted to see the newly minted flagship of his fleet in action.

The ship was discovered 333 years later in about 14,000 pieces under the sea and pieced back together. The museum was built around the ship, pieced together the vessel’s history as well as the ship itself. Cold and dark, the museum has an ominous presence and the ship is an awesome sight to behold. I strongly encourage a stop at the Vasa if you’re ever in town.

A quick note about our guides: While Shlomit is the guide for the entire tour, each day we’ve had a different local guide and they have been treasures. All are so knowledgeable and friendly that they’ve made the experience something very special. Inger was our guide on day one; on day two we had Inger’s cousin Lena.

We met Lena in the lobby of the hotel after breakfast on day two. She took us to the ferry as we headed to Feather Island or Fjaderholmarna. The place was an exquisite summer getaway full of little artisan shops and restaurants. Overall the food has been spectacular and quite seafood heavy, but the fish is incredibly fresh.

The CapRadio travelers tour Feather Island, or Fjaderholmarna.

While the tours have been immensely enjoyable and informative, we’ve all had plenty of free time to take in the sights. That’s been a really nice aspect of this trip, because while some folks would like to relax and stay close to the hotel, others were feeling a bit more adventurous.

I could have easily spent another three or four days in Stockholm, but alas our journey has only just begun. The next stop is Copenhagen. Did you know that Copenhagen is the bike capital of the world? How many bikes per person do people own in Copenhagen? Think you know? Find out in the next blog post in the next couple of days.

It has been five long years since I co-led the “Bella Italia” trip through Venice and Tuscany with Donna Apidone. I had come to expect first class hotel accommodations and knowledgeable, friendly guides and, once again, Earthbound Expeditions did not disappoint

On June 17, our enthusiastic group of 30 CapRadio travelers hit the ground running on an unseasonably hot and humid day in Rome, which made it feel more like August than mid-June. 

We built up quite an appetite as our gifted guide Natalia Mandelli led us through a walking tour of the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon. We had a great deal of pasta at the famed La Carbonara near Campo de’ Fiori.

Our lively group brought their walking shoes, which came in handy when we got to Pompei and Mt. Etna. Karen Carchidi, who took many great photos, wrote, “It was a fun group of people who were all very welcoming and inclusive. But what would you expect from the intelligent, conscientious, creative kind of people that listen to Capital Public Radio?!” Michelle Calvo was also generous with her excellent photographs. For a look at some of her pictures and other images from the trip, click here.

Every group has one person who is somehow able to sniff out the best places to eat and that award goes to Susan Hansen. I often asked Susan and her husband Robert, “Shall we eat, or shall we dine?” We also had a wine cognoscenti with us, my brother-in-law, John Vincenti. He made wise decisions with the list.

John Walker was our classical music expert (and he was also a very good sport when I kept calling him Johnny). Koichi and Michiko Takamura, who traveled with CapRadio five years ago, led the many treks on the off-beaten trails. Although most of our travelers were in their sixties, we had two lively young women, Amanda Shattuck and Emi Calvo. Traveling with their families, they were fun to be with and reminded us to watch our step.

Rome has many rooftop gardens and we embraced the view from ours at Hotel Savoy. At night, my sister, brother-in-law and I crossed the Tiber and dined al fresco at Sabatini in Trastevere.

The following day we visited the beautiful Villa d'Este Gardens just south of Rome, then had a group lunch at a rustic pizzeria in Tivoli. We then departed for the Amalfi Coast.

Our hotel in Ravello was a convent built by the Augustinian friars and converted to Hotel Parsifal in 1948. I savored absolute stunning views from my room.

There are two breathtaking public gardens in Ravello, Villa Rufolo and Villa Cimbrone. Gore Vidal loved it here and Richard Wagner composed music inspired by the gardens. They still have summer concerts here and among those who have performed are Wynton Marsalis, Dave Holland, and Kenny Barron plus many iconic classical musicians and dancers.

After dinner, we were treated to a concert presented by the Ravello Arts Council featuring the Diomende Piano Quintet performing the music of Johannes Brahms and Dmitri Shostakovich. The concert was held in the intimate setting of a deconsecrated church in the Annunziata Historic Building.

The following day we caught a ferry to the Isle of Capri. This island is only four miles by two miles and is correctly pronounced KAH-pree (unlike the song or pants). We wisely avoided the shopping mecca of Capri Town and headed to Anacapri, which sits higher on the island with beautiful views of chalky white limestone cliffs and well-maintained gardens. Villa San Michele has delightful gardens and a scenic view of Mount Vesuvius in the distance.

We enjoyed many exquisite meals in Palermo. Trattoria al Piccolo Napoli is a great seafood restaurant founded in 1951 by Orazio and Rosetta Corona and now run by his son Pippo. When I asked Pippo's son for a wine list, he said, "I am the wine list," and proceeded to rattle off a number of great white wines from Mt. Etna.

Being of Italian heritage, I’ve always been partial to wines from the Piemontese region. Lately, however, I’ve noticed that legendary chefs and industry titans such as Mario Batali and Angelo Gaja have begun to praise wines from southern Italy. Although Sicily is now famous for the rich red Nero d’Avola, the dry white wine blends from Mt. Etna proved particularly pleasing to my palate, pairing well with the seafood of the region.

After touring Etna under the guidance of Maria Cannavo, we dined at the estate of the Murgo winery. Murgo makes a Champagne-method sparking Brut that is truly world class!

The volcanic vineyards of Mt. Etna have attracted a growing interest from several wine critics. While prices are generally inflated in the U.S. for these wines, we found many bargains here in Sicily.

Famous for his Piemontese Barolo and Barbaresco wines, Angelo Gaja recently purchased land on the southwest slopes of Etna in a joint venture with Alberto Graci. Graci is a former financier who has been making great wines in the area for a decade. The deal comes after several excursions to Etna by Gaja, starting in 2015, when the two men met.

“We have a lot of things in common—one is curiosity,” Graci told Wine Spectator. “We were in touch often—talking about wine and life, and we spoke about the idea of doing something together. Everyone who comes on Etna falls in love with it. Angelo on Etna is like a volcano on a volcano.”

Speaking of a volcano on a volcano, many thanks to my dynamic sister, Palma Vincenti for assisting Natalia and Maria with interesting facts about the historical significance of the region and for engaging the locals with her fluent Italian.