Travel Tattler

Travel Writer Michael Patrick Shiels has journeyed to more than 35 countries and countless tourist destinations studying travel industry methods and trends. At TravelTattler.com, he reveals tourism's successes...and failures. Shiels, a widely published author, has collaborated on titles with Larry King, Donald Trump, Emmy Award-winning golf commentator Ben Wright, golf architect Arthur Hills, and wrote a "For Dummies" book.

Tipperary or Tiger Town?

St. Patrick’s Day – Ireland’s national holiday – is celebrated all over the Emerald Isle and around the world including,… Read more »

Joe Maguire and others at Palmetto Dunes enjoy the resort’s lush waterways and natural beaches. (Photo by Michael Patrick Shiels)

Lansing to Low Country: Half-Back Snowbirds Settle in SC

The term “halfbacks” usually makes Lansing-area residents think of players carrying the football for Mark Dantonio’s team at Michigan State… Read more »

Mike Scully raising hands to celebrate during college game.

Super Bowl City Welcomes Michigan Game-Goers and More

Lansing lobbyist and businessman Gregory Eaton is one of very few people who have attended all 52 Super Bowls and he planned to be in Georgia for Sunday’s 53rd….

Under the original "Itala Pilsen" sign, Michael Patrick Shiels sits with Lorenzo Motta at Bar Vitelli's.

Follow Godfather character Michael Corleone into Sicily

Rookie mobster Michael Corleone, in Mario Puzo’s book “The Godfather,” is sent in exile from New York to hide out in Sicily. In the resulting Academy Award-winning movie, director Francis Ford Coppola chose the tiny village of Savoca – population 89 – as the location shoot for those old world scenes starring Al Pacino. Many of them were filmed over a six-week period on the patio of Bar Vitelli, Savocaa’s small, cliff-side café near the location of the church in which Corleone marries Apollonia Vitelli – the daughter, in the story, of the cafés owner.