The fruits of visiting Whistler off-season

Travel has inspired artists' creations for centuries, from the stunning vistas and landscapes of 19th century Realist painters to the spectacular photographs of Walker Evans--to say nothing of the many travel-inspired literary works by writers as diverse as Henry James and Jack Kerouac. Continuing the tradition, a new show of artworks about life on the road opened last week at the Mixed Greens Gallery in New York's Chelsea art district. "Road Trip" runs through August 10 and gallery admission is free, so if you're in the neighborhood why not pay a visit to this show, which explores diverse ideas of travel by a talented group of 13 painters, sculptors, and photographers. Among our favorites were photographer Amy Stein's enigmatic portraits of stranded motorists. We also liked artist Kathryn Refi's "Driving Routes," a delicate series of raised-line drawings which trace the path the artist drove everyday for one month. Along the gallery's far wall, don't miss Marie Sauvaitre's documentary project exploring nomadic cultures, from which the artist has produced a series of stunning photographs of Beat generation communes, gypsy trailers, and Bedouin camps in the desert at night.--Laurel Angrist

Yesterday, I told you about the helpful website for budget travelers, EuroCheapo. There's an amusing story behind the founding of the website. Back in the late 1990s, Tom Meyers was a Columbia undergraduate living briefly in Paris as part of a study abroad program. He attempted to create a travel business that would hire American students to serve as tour guides in Paris. But the idea was a bust. He returned to the States, taught himself an Internet programming language, and became a producer for a dot-com company. In 2000, at a Fourth of July family picnic in Bellevue, Ohio, Meyers revealed his latest idea for a business. Why not launch a website that posts reviews of European hotels? (None of the major guidebooks were doing this at the time.) Meyers asked around the table for possible names for his dream company. One suggested name was Antsy Pants. Meyers liked the idea and soon bought the right to use the www.antsypants.com domain name. Three days after Meyers registered this name, he received a call from a company offering to buy it for $5,000. Meyers researched the company and discovered that it had deep pockets. He haggled and eventually received $20,000. He used the cash to fund his start-up, which he named eurocheapo. He moved to East Berlin, where rents were as cheap as $300 a month, and launched his company on June 14, 2001, which is when this photo was taken:

Above: Today's "it's-so-sexist-it's-amusing" headline from Italy. As noted earlier, Italy is very much a foreign country. [Grazie, Christopher Winner]

In an online exclusive, we collected the most frequently asked questions from our readers about Italy vacations, and we forwarded them to Christopher Winner, editor of the Rome-based magazine, The American. Here are his answers to the most asked questions about vacations to Italy. Earlier: Rome fare sale--$536 round-trip, including taxes, from NYC. Seats are still available. Related: Perhaps the best story Budget Travel has ever run about Rome.