A gift for N.C.'s globe-trotting gov

We have the perfect going-away gift for N.C.’s globe-trotting First Couple, Mike and Mary Easley.

The summer issue of Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel magazine is out. The cover story: "Authentic and Romantic Italy."

It includes these appealing bargains: A guest room in a trulli house in Trullidea, Puglia, for $135 a night and a guided shepherd’s breakfast tour in Val Di Kam, Sicily (freshly-made cheeses, bread and olive oil served in a village courtyard) for $39.

Tips such as that would have saved taxpayers a load of cash when Mary and Gov. Mike jetted to Italy on official business in May. Ditto for the First Lady’s "cultural" missions to France, Russia and Estonia, where one dinner bill featured $647 worth of comfort food such as pheasant stuffed with homemade sausages. (For cryin’ out loud, think about the N.C. barbecue that would have bought!)

What do you do with a governor who brushes aside such exorbitant travel like crusty bread crumbs?
Send him a subscription to Budget Travel ($12 a year, $20 for 2 years and just $25 for three years!) to the governor’s mansion – COD.