Surely it’s no a surprise to hear that Michael and I love reading blogs. Most Saturday mornings you’ll find us curled up on the couch, each with our own laptop & a Scratch bagel, browsing the morning away. Between the two of us we keep up with a wide variety of blogs – cooking, photography, design, tech, etc. In an attempt to round out Map & Menu as one of your go-to resources for all things food & travel, we’ve decided to end each work week with what we’re calling a Weekend Reads post – a selection of articles & photos that we found most interesting & delightful in the past week. We hope you enjoy it!

Jamie Beck’s photos of her recent trip to Florence have me wanting to pack my bags and head straight to Italy. Having studied abroad for a semester in Florence in college, I’ve found myself scrolling through her photos multiple times this week, reminiscing about my adventure abroad.

We’ve made these Salty Chocolate Chunk Cookies from Bon Appétit twice in the past few weeks. It is now officially my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe of all time. In fact, I made a new batch last night!

These black & white photographs from Muffy Aldrich that her father took in 1964 have me daydreaming about a summertime windjammer cruise off the coast of Camden, Maine.

Steve Corry, owner/chef of Portland’s Petite Jacqueline & Five Fifty-Five, shares a few romantic Valentine’s Day recipes in the latest O, The Oprah Magazine. It’s so fun to see one of our favorite local chefs in the publication. You can bet that we’ll be attempting each of the three recipes soon.

Snow-covered Paris is absolutely gorgeous, is it not? Paris in Four Months, one of my favorite blogs, shares the most lovely photographs of the city, but these winter shots are some of the best.

This is the first week we’ve been back at the gym since being sick for three weeks, and while Michael watches ESPN from the treadmill, I have been hitting the elliptical each day to this playlist from one of my favorite bloggers, Kate of Wit & Delight. (The best track is #7, La Forêt!) It would also make a pretty fun road trip mix, as would most of her playlists.

If you have any must-read articles or posts to share, we’d love to hear about them – feel free to leave a comment in the box below with a link. Happy Friday!