Traveling with the Stars: Ashley Greene 
By Kelly Carter for USA TODAY
Actress
Ashley Greene plays vampire Alice Cullen in the Twilight franchise. The latest installment,
The Twilight Saga: New Moon, opens Nov. 20. The
Jacksonville, Fla., native says she rarely left her home state until she began acting. "Everywhere I go now, I'm like this wild-eyed child taking everything in," she says. Greene shared her travel highlights and tips with
Kelly Carter for USA TODAY from Vancouver during filming of
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, which opens in 2010.
Q: Where have you been recently and what did you like about it?
A: Vancouver. I've been here for the past two months. It's an incredible place to live and film. They have the seawall, where you can run and ride bikes right by the water. It's really nice and relaxing. I went to an incredible restaurant last night called Market by Jean-Georges in the Shangri-La Hotel It's a really beautiful place. You can go to
Grouse Mountain and go hiking. They have kayaking. It's really green and very clean air.
It kind of reminds me bit of New York the way the city is set up. You can literally walk. They have
Yaletown and
Gastown and different parts of the city like in New York. If you wanted to walk around the whole city you can, which is nice because in L.A. you have to drive everywhere. We walk to the restaurants. And there's great shopping here. I have a (shopping) problem. I'm kind of glad that I'm working (so much). During the beginning I wasn't working six-day weeks. I had a little time on my hands and my bank account has taken a hit.
Q: What's the best place you've ever visited?
A: Italy. It was for the last week of filming for the second installment (
New Moon). We went to a town called Montepulciano in Tuscany. It was really, really amazing. For one, the food is absolutely incredible. There's no preservatives. It's real food. I don't even like tomatoes and I was eating tomatoes in Italy. The quality is better.
They took us to this bed-and-breakfast called Relais San Bruno. It's half of the reason that I loved and adored the place so much. It was an estate that they turned into a seven-villa bed-and-breakfast that's family run. We'd get up in the morning and run outside on the treadmills overlooking Tuscany and you actually wanted to because it was beautiful. They had their own pool. It was gated and completely private. Every morning we'd wake up at 7 a.m. to a huge breakfast with homemade breads, cakes, meat, yogurt, coffee and tea. And of course they would do the same thing for lunch and at dinner everyone would get off work and go back to this bed-and-breakfast. They would have this huge dinner set up. It was like this big family reunion. I am definitely trying to get back there as soon as I'm done working. What I like is it's not touristy at all. You're really in this element. It's not Americanized at all.
Q: What's the most surprising/unexpected place you're ever visited?
A: Growing up, we weren't the most wealthy family. Until I started acting, I was in Florida and I never expected to be able to travel, so going anywhere like Berlin or Italy is surprising. I went to Berlin and I expected it to be like Montepulciano and me running around like a chicken with its head cut off because perhaps no one speaks English and I don't know anything. I got there and everyone spoke English and everything was so modern. They had to rebuild the whole city. I had this misconception in my head, because we had just left the (Italian) countryside. I was expecting that kind of European feel. It was very modern architecturally. I was really surprised with everything. And their food — they serve kind of American or French food. I guess because Berlin is such a touristy place, they don't have German restaurants. It's all American restaurants. It's weird. I wanted so badly to experience a little bit (of German food). My manager and I went to this hole-in-the-wall German diner. It was really, really filling. We ordered everything, which was maybe part of the reason it was so filling.
Q: What's your favorite vacation spot?
A: Honestly, right now, because I miss my family, I really love going back home to Jacksonville. I'm a very big beach, water and tropical destination-type person. Going back home is on the top of my list and Key West is another place. Growing up, I remember every year my dad and mom would take me and my brother to the Florida Keys and stay for a week or two. It's absolutely beautiful. It's really hot but literally you run around with a bathing suit on the whole time. You go out on the boats and go snorkeling and lobstering. You get to cook your own fish. It's an amazing place that is very relaxing and fun.
Q: Can you offer an insider tip or recommendation for your favorite vacation place?
A: If you go to Jacksonville, you should definitely go to Angie's Subs on the way to the beach. It's this mom-and-place shop that is a staple in my life every time I go back home. I make my dad go there with me. I always get Boar's Head turkey and slather it in this Peruvian sauce that they have there. You can buy bottles of it, which I've done and had shipped out to L.A.