A grandmother and her granddaughters at the ballet in Tblisi

"I expected to find Tbilisi's elegant Edwardian-era opera house virtually empty; but was astonished to find it packed to its ornate rafters with hundreds of preteen girls and their doting adoring grandmothers.

"For two full hours, the youngsters sat in silent spellbound attention as beautiful ballerinas bathed in a pale blue light pirouetted past them. The little girls' eyes glowed with unadulterated awe. Then, at the grand finale, the little girls leaped up, almost as one, and seemed to rock the building with their thunderous applause."

We think you'll really enjoy Steven Knipp's story on the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, now an independent nation. Steven is a real professional and a seasoned traveler, and it shows in his debut with GoNOMAD.

We also have Editor Max Hartshorne reporting from Medellin, Colombia, where an era of fear has ended and a new era of hope has begun. That's exciting. Cindy Bigras has a wonderful story about Bologna: the storied history, the museums and concert halls, the basilicas and other architectural marvels, the splendid cuisine, and above all the spirit of hospitality.

In our Family Travel Section, we introduce two excellent new writers, Kate Cosme of South Deerfield, Massachusetts, and Moumita Deb of Mumbai, India, who write about vacations that are fun for the whole family, Moumita in China and Kate in Old Orchard Beach, Maine.

Lisa Lubin and Darrin Duford both make their second appearance on the site, Lisa with a piece on bicycling in Vietnam and Darrin with a visit to a market town in Ecuador. Associate Editor Stephen Hartshorne reports on fine art and family fun in Rockland, Maine, Marika Hill gives us the lowdown on how to ride a camel and avoid venomous snakes in India's Thar Desert and Will Seigler hunts for dinosaur bones in Colorado's Dinosaur National Park.

Just another month of top-notch travel writing on GoNOMAD.com.