What do Bill Clinton, Sylvester Stallone and Sandra Bullock have in common? In fact, all three have lived in the Washington, DC, area, according to Bigwig Digs, a new website that maps the former homes of celebrities.

OK, so the term "celebrity" is used loosely here. While Hollywood stars like Bullock, Stallone, Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn have called Washington and its suburbs home, most of the stars on Bigwig Digs' maps are government-related, from former presidents to political strategists and insiders such as Karl Rove, Rahm Emanuel and J. Edgar Hoover. But there are also musicians (Duke Ellington, Dave Grohl), journalists (Bob Woodward, David Brinkley), sports stars (Mike Tyson, Alex Ovechkin), and more.

In central Anatolia, about three hours south of the capital of Ankara, is Cappadocia, one of the most popular areas to visit in Turkey. Renowned for its "fairy chimneys" – wind-swept rock formations that sprout from the landscape looking like stone mushrooms, Flintstone dwellings and phalluses – and vast network of caves, many of which served as places of worship for early Christians, Cappadocia has an unforgettable mix of the natural, mystical and historical. It is for these reasons that Cappadocia was one of the first sites in Turkey to be named to UNESCO's World Heritage list.

While the technical boundaries of Cappadocia's UNESCO site lie within the town of Göreme, the Cappadocia region is vast, covering about 100 square miles. Within this area are dozens of towns, many of which are equipped with cave hotel accommodations, the region's most sought-after lodging. But with so many cave hotels to choose from – and so many new caves being dug out to handle the influx of tourists seeking that "authentic" Cappadocia experience, how do you know where to stay? I've stayed in Cappadocia on numerous occasions and can recommend the following towns for a vacation.

"Saturday Traffic Alert," read the subject line of an email from our vacation property manager.

We were packing up after a blissful week in midcoast Maine, where my family and I had spent the days either on a boat; on the shore, finding leftover shells in the mudflats; or driving the rural roads of the St. George peninsula. In the evenings, we returned to the house where we cooked our own meals and usually collapsed into bed before 10. Seven days and six nights of pure idyll justified Maine's self-proclaimed title as "Vacationland."

But then reality struck: a traffic alert. The property manager explained:

"It happens every year from about the 3rd Saturday in July - through the 3rd Saturday in August - it's become a regular Maine tradition. The 'great Wiscasset bottleneck.' The small village of Wiscasset has a well known food wagon called "Red's Eats" right in the center of the village the [sic] develops long lines early in the day. As a result, traffic slows to figure out why people wait for hours to get a lobster roll (that we think is no different than lobster rolls elsewhere) and all those 'rubberneckers' build up the traffic lines quickly."

We hadn't heard a traffic report in over a week, and now, if we didn't leave town early enough, we would have to endure a traffic jam – for a lobster roll.

Have a look at the map above. In this globalized world, where countries are essentially brands, this map, which uses each country's respective flag design to delineate its borders, probably doesn't seem so unusual, save for that large red swath in Asia marked with a hammer and sickle. Created between 1971 and 1972, this "Mappa" is one of the signature works of art created by Alighiero Boetti, the Italian artist whose paintings, kilims, sculptures and mixed media pieces form an exciting exhibition at New York City's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

"Alighiero Boetti: Game Plan," which runs at the MoMA through October 1, 2012, is the first major exhibition in the United States of the works of Turin-born Boetti, who made art from the early 1960s until his death in 1994. Associated with the Arte Povera (Poor Art) movement in Italy, Boetti found a lot of his inspiration by exploring travel, maps, geography, stamps and postcards.

Gallery: Alighiero Boetti: Game Plan

[Photo above courtesy MoMA]

If you are a smartphone user and love to travel, this has probably happened to you: you return from a trip abroad to find your cellphone service provider has piled on hundreds of dollars for roaming charges and data usage. No matter that you purchased an international plan or topped up with extra data before you left. You're now faced with a huge bill and a growing ulcer from the stress of it all.

Some elect for a workaround, getting an unlocked phone and performing the old SIM-card switcheroo when traveling overseas – but that's not especially convenient. What is convenient is a Tep pocket Wi-Fi, a personal hotspot that lets you cheat on your cellphone service with pay-by-the-day Wi-Fi.

Here's how it works:

Lenin's Tomb, the place in Moscow where the father of the Communist Revolution lies embalmed, waxen and puffy behind glass, is endangered. As Russians move further away from Communism, a majority – 56 percent – thinks that Lenin should be buried. Members of the administration of Vladimir Putin, who was just elected to a third term as President of Russia, have also voiced concerns about the aging tourist attraction.

"A body should be interred in the earth," said culture minister Vladimir Medinsky speaking on a radio show in Moscow this week. Medinsky suggested that Lenin could be buried in a state funeral observing, "all fitting state rituals, distinctions and a military salute in a suitable place" by 2013. On the other hand, the Red Square mausoleum where Lenin lies perpetually in state will remain. "It must remain. It would be possible to turn it into a museum of Soviet history that would be very well visited and could have expensive tickets," said Medinsky. Russia's remaining communists are against this move, of course.

Whether Lenin will be buried soon remains to be seen. But there is one component of this burial controversy that must have Lenin turning in his grave even before he is six feet under. Apparently, more than 2,000 Russians have already placed bets on the fate of Lenin's corpse.

[Photo Flickr/wordcat57]

Every single "Star Wars" movie, save "The Empire Strikes Back," uses the desert landscape and dusty villages of Tunisia as backdrops for the planet of Tatooine, the place where Luke Skywalker grew up. Specifically, Luke lived until the age of 19 at the Lars Homestead, the fictional name for a very real building that was, until recently, in danger of collapse.

To the rescue was neither Luke Skywalker nor George Lucas, but Mark Dermul, an avid "Star Wars" fan from Belgium who has been leading "Star Wars" tours of Tunisia since 2001. On a trip to Tunisia in 2010, Dermul discovered that the rounded hut that served as the exterior of the Lars Homestead in the film was in a state of disrepair. Dermul then set up the Save the Lars Homestead Project, working with the Tunisian Tourist Office and Tunisian government to secure the proper permissions to restore this movie landmark.

Are you visiting Washington, D.C., this summer and looking for fun family activities? The National Building Museum (NBM), D.C.'s museum dedicated to architecture, engineering and design, will offer a 12-hole mini-golf course under its 159-foot-high vaulted ceiling.

From July 4 through Labor Day (September 3), visitors can play Museum Golf among holes with building-related themes. NBM enlisted the help of area design and architecture firms to construct holes inspired by actual buildings, bridges, landscapes, or monuments, including the White House and Eiffel Tower, as well as more fantastical ones, the likes of which will remain a secret until the NBM's course opens in July.

A round of mini-golf will cost $3 with museum admission or membership, or $5 without admission. While you're there, make sure you check out NBM's LEGO exhibit, which also closes at summer's end.

[Photo Flickr/mikethecat]

It wasn't long ago when you could visit the attic or basement of most any home in America and find stacks of yellow-spined back-issues of The National Geographic Magazine. Thanks (or no thanks) to digital advances, that scene isn't as common today.

While there are still avid collectors of the esteemed magazine dedicated to history, science, nature, geography, travel and learning, there are far fewer than in 1974 when a science satire magazine, The Journal of Irreproducible Results, suggested that the sheer weight of all these collected periodicals would lead to the apocalypse.

In the March 1974 issue of The Journal of Irreproducible Results, George H. Kaub wrote the following:

This continent is in the gravest danger of following legendary Atlantis to the bottom of the sea. No natural disaster, no overpowering compounding of pollutions or cataclysmic nuclear war will cause the end. Instead, a seemingly innocent monster created by man, nurtured by man, however as yet unheeded by man, will doom this continent to the watery grave of oblivion.

The very best travel photos should trigger two desires. First, they should inspire the viewer to want to travel to the place that is the subject of the image. And, second, they should instill in the viewer a curiosity about the art and craft of photography.

Today's photo of the day satisfies both of these criteria. Oilfighter used his Canon 5D Mark II DSLR to photograph sunset at Horseshoe Bend, the famous spot within the Grand Canyon where the Colorado River bends. In his description of the photo, Oilfighter tells us a brief story of why he decided to photograph Horseshoe Bend on that day. Additionally, he provides info on the lens and filter he used, thereby giving a welcome photography lesson to accompany this marvelous shot.

Share your best travel images with us by adding them to the Gadling Flickr photo pool for a future Photo of the Day.