Cruise-ship historian and journalist (and occasional Travel Weekly contributor) Peter Knego published an essay and photos on Maritime Matters about his recent day-trip to Giglio Island in Italy to see the Costa Concordia.

Knego writes that passengers on the ferry to Giglio from Santo Stefano were able to view the half-submerged Concordia, as well as assorted support barges and cranes, on their way into the harbor:

"Audible gasps resonated along the deck as fellow passengers pointed their cameras and shook their heads. Multilingual 'how could this happen?'s and 'It's unbelievable's were among the many things muttered as we maneuvered into otherwise beautiful, serene Giglio harbor." 

According to an August report in Travel Weekly, Costa Cruises has pushed back the timetable for refloating the Concordia to spring 2013.

Read Knego's full report on Maritime Matters here.

Not letting any campaign rhetoric go to waste, Spirit Airlines has produced another irreverent ad, this one targeting Mitt Romney.

In a fares promotion emailed less than 24 hours after the second presidential debate, Spirit let would-be customers know that "we've got tons of binders full of sales."

Spirit follows with "Women will love them!"

The ad refers to Romney saying that when advisers presented few women candidates for cabinet positions when he was governor of Massachusetts, he went to a number of women's groups and said, 'Can you help us find folks?' and they brought us whole binders full of women."
 

— Gay Nagle Myers 

A $3.2 billion Paramount Pictures theme park near London is in the planning stage, according to the U.K.’s Daily Mail.

The proposed park would be built on former industrial land in Kent. Paramount envisions that the park will rival Disneyland Paris.

A 2018 opening is targeted.

In the immortal words of Homer J. Simpson: “Mmmm. Beer.”

With the proliferation of U.S. microbrews, there’s no shortage of places in America where suds enthusiasts can get a first-hand glimpse of the magic behind that theoretical curtain.

Fortunately, TripAdvisor was kind enough to track which of these houses of hops are most popular among the folks who care enough about their travel experiences to write about them.

And in this case, New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins, Colo., topped that list, gaining raves for the 90-minute tour it runs Tuesdays through Saturdays.

Allagash Brewery came in second, providing rich rewards for those willing to trek up to Portland, Maine.

Good old Bud crashed the microbrew party, as St. Louis’s Anheuser Busch tour was the third most-popular, while Samuel Adams apparently gives a lot of Boston visitors something to look forward to aside from the Commons and Fenway Park.

And Sierra Nevada Brewing of Chico, Calif., came in at No. 5.

Rounding out the top 10 are North Carolina’s Heinzelmannchen Brewery (there will be a spelling test later), South Carolina’s New South, Kansas City’s Boulevard, Pennsylvania’s D.G. Yuengling and Son and Wisconsin’s Jacob Leinenkugel (we don’t know if cheese is included).
 

— Danny King 

JetBlue is flying above the political chatter with the Election Protection promotion, which gives disgruntled voters the chance to leave the country if their candidate does not win.

The carrier is offering 1,006 free roundtrip tickets (that's 2,012 seats) to 21 destinations in the Caribbean, Mexico, Costa Rica and Colombia for voters not happy with the election outcome. 

"We've all heard it said before: 'If my candidate does not win, I'm leaving the country,'" said Marty St. George, senior vice president, marketing and commercial strategy.

"Fun is one of our five founding values, and in this spirit we decided to give people a chance to recover from the political noise and to follow through on their claim to skip town if their candidate comes up short and the other guy wins."

To be eligible, entrants must visit jetblue.com/electionprotection, choose a candidate and a destination to win a free ticket if the country goes to the dogs.

Randomly selected winners get free passes that can be redeemed for flights in January or February 2013.

(Taxes, fees and accommodations aren't included, but there's no such thing as a free lunch.)

Before voters go to the polling booth on Nov. 6, JetBlue ambassadors will barnstorm the streets of the Big Apple Oct. 17 to 23 to encourage New Yorkers to get out and vote on election day.
 

— Gay Nagle Myers 

Visitors to Rome will soon be hit with fines if they are caught snacking close to monuments and historical sites in the city center.

Under the law, hungry tourists could be fined between 25 and 500 euros (up to $646).

One Italian newspaper, La Repubblica, described the new law as a war against the sandwich.

Similar bans are in force in Venice, where eating snacks is prohibited in St. Mark's Square, as well as in Florence and Bologna.

— Kate Rice