Renting a car in Las Vegas? Take your time

Rosie O'Donnell's cruise company for families with gay members, R Family Vacations, has decided that its ship won't stop at Bermuda after all--because it didn't want passengers to have to deal with protests by church groups. What a shame. The best way for people to get comfortable with us--and by "us" I mean both gay people (which includes me) and also anyone who feels different from society at large--is to actually interact with them. It's a missed opportunity, and a surprising one from someone who makes a living being upfront and outspoken.

Our new issue of Girlfriend Getaways officially comes out today, and we're proud like new parents. It's a treat to work on a different magazine sometimes, even for the guys. Though I had a weird moment talking about Girlfriend Getaways on Fox News recently... After asking me all of the normal questions, the host, a woman, asked me if I had any advice for women out there about how exactly they should go about asking permission from their husbands to take a girlfriend getaway. I froze... Permission? What decade is it?

Last week, Christopher Winner, the Rome-based editor of The American magazine, answered more than 100 reader questions about Italy in one of Budget Travel's weekly live chats. (Read the informative transcript by clicking here.) Winner's publication recently picked the best dining spots in top Italian cities. I trust this list partly because it's written by English-speaking Italians and American ex-pats and is intended for use by English-speaking visitors to Italy. I also trust this list because... ... I've sampled a few of the top restaurant picks myself, and I know they're fantastic choices. One of the picks is Da Abele in Milan, which serves the best risotto I've ever eaten in a restaurant. (Its creaminess and toasted nuttiness are the stuff of dreams.) Winner's list includes restaurants that are located outside of the main tourist districts. Da Abele, for one, is located several subway stops away from Milan's pedestrianized tourist zone. Visiting a restaurant like Da Abele offers a chance to truly eat like a local, instead of dining at one of the usual suspects listed in a guidebook. During my visit to Da Abele last fall, I was seated in a room with four tables. Seated around me were a family celebrating a father's milestone birthday, a set of three fashionably-dressed friends having a girl's night out, and a pair of middle-aged lovers. No tourists were in earshot. If you've tried any of the restaurants on 1">the list, we hope you'll post your comments below. For a glossary of Italian terms to help you find your way around Italian dining, click here. You'll find free recipes that emphasize Bolognese cuisine by clicking here. The recipes come from The Silver Spoon, which is "Italy's answer to the Joy of Cooking." For Budget Travel's advice on renting an apartment in Venice, click here.

Ever wanted to go between the moon and New York City? Head over to 43places.com, where you can browse hundreds of different places both familiar and fictional. The free (just create a profile) site is based on the idea that every person should visit (or aspire to visit) about 43 places. Travelers can make lists of the places they want to go and help others by rating all the places they have been. Places can range from well-known cities to fictional settings, such as Narnia and Middle Earth. For travelers, the site pretty much serves the same function as TripAdvisor, letting users post their own thoughts about places, but it adds a dimension by allowing people to post thoughts about places they'd like to go. The site also allows users to add descriptive tags to places, such as "cafe," and then search to find other locales that have the same tags, such as other cafes worldwide. 43places.com fits nicely within the ranks of TripAdvisor and IgoUgo. It's pretty fun to see where other people have been compared to where they want to go; just watch out or you may go mad to the tune of Christopher Cross.--Lindsey Ramsey