I guess the saying, “The nut doesn’t fall far from the tree” might apply here. This amazing new travel site is the product of my oldest son, Will. He has turned his passion for travel into a terrific website that you should check out! I am so proud (and jealous) that he gets to travel the world! His most recent travels included Moscow, St. Petersburg, Dubai and Mexico City. In 2008, he traveled the world for almost a year! He and I are planning a trip to Morocco in late September.

The photo above was taken shortly after I moved to Florence. Take some time to read about Will and his site below and add it to your favorites!

Hello everyone! I am thrilled to have the opportunity to share with you all something that I have been working long and hard on for some time. If you like my Mom’s blog, I am certain that you will also enjoy exploring this as well. First, a little background . . .

My name is Will Crowthers, son of your beloved “An American in Italy” author, Karen. I am 31 years-old and find myself torn between the comforts of corporate America where I own and operate a small technology consulting company and the wonders, adrenaline, and satisfaction of dropping everything and exploring the world.

While growing up, my mom often took our family on vacations throughout the Caribbean and Mexico. Although these might not be the most novel of locations, they did prepare me for being slightly out of my comfort zone and hearing other languages at a younger age. With that in mind, she really burst my travel bubble with a fantastic trip to Amsterdam that, I believe, really set-off my internal travel bug.

I was 21 years-old and wandering the streets of Amsterdam with my mom – how cool is that!? Most would cower in embarrassment of perusing the red-light district with their mom, but she was adventurous and open-minded enough to make me feel comfortable. On the flip side , she knew how to keep it classy with trips to the Rijk’s and Van Gogh museums, all topped off with some great dinners and drinks in the pubs of Amsterdam.

Images of this trip are still crystal clear in my mind and will always be an important one to me as it truly changed my life. There is no doubt in my mind that my mother’s passion to show me the world, her admirable free spiritedness, and her willingness to do what others might see as impractical or impossible has uncovered my corporate blanketed eyes to my true passion – travel.

Since that “little” trip to Amsterdam, I have covered over 40 countries in the past 10 years and have aspirations to cover another 40 with a specific focus on finding the Top 100 Travel Destinations in the World .

Enter: AbsoluteVisit

AbsoluteVisit.com is a website that I developed with my travel partner-in-crime, Brad Harbach. Brad and I took off on a 10-month, 26 country, action-packed adventure around the globe between 2009 and 2010 which energized our travel spirit to share with others – much like my mom has done and continues to do.

The goal of the site is simple – inspire the world to travel by providing the best travel information and community on the Top 100 Places in the World.

In addition to this goal, we have built in some pretty awesome tools that let you track how many of the Top 100 AbsoluteVisits you have been to (see where I have been to), see where your friends have visited (see where Karen has been to), create a list of your Top 100 AbsoluteVisit Dreams (see where Karen dreams of), and a way to share all of this information with your friends and family. If you want, get started here now!

There are an amazing 12 AbsoluteVisit’s located in Italy making it far and away the most popular country for AbsoluteVisits. Below, for all you Italophiles, I’ve shared a few of the AbsoluteVisit’s from Italy.

AbsoluteVisit #21 – St. Peter’s Basilica

AbsoluteVisit #47 – Florence Cityscape

AbsoluteVisit #34 – The Colosseum

Don’t forget to check out the rest of the Top 100 on AbsoluteVisit.com. I hope we can inspire you to travel just as my mom inspired me.

If you are interested in getting in touch with any questions, comments or suggestions do not hesitate! Please find my contact details here.