It’s a major benefit to have a brilliant travel companion who knows her way around and navigates like a personal tour guide. I’m fortunate to have that in my longtime pal Vera, who is a journeywoman at the core. After I arrived before dawn in Rome from New York without any sleep worth mention, she whisked me off for a day trip to Cortona, in Tuscany. What better way to start a 17-day European adventure, in a dream-state with someone else driving? I had deposited my bag at Don