Living in New York’s beautiful Hudson Valley gives me access to amazing array of day trips within a 2-hour radius, from the frenetic energy of New York City to the bucolic elegance of the Berkshires, where a group of culture-rich towns and villages are set amidst a modest mountain range in western Massachusetts.

As a semi-regular visitor to the Berkshires, one of my favorite places to visit is The Mount in Lenox, the stately mansion designed and built by Edith Wharton, who took possession of it in 1902.

Though she didn’t live here long — only ten years or so — it was in that interlude that she wrote her breakthrough first novel, The House of Mirth (1905) and the haunting classic, Ethan Frome (1911). Read More→