Few things in unfamiliar cities are as irresistibly enticing as hilltop castles. I don’t know about you, but whenever I spot one such castle perching over a city that we are visiting for the first time, I feel something very powerful is pulling me up – and cannot rest until I have looked down on…
The Calabrian town of Cosenza – situated on the toes of the Italian boot – appears to be haunted by its own past. Much of this is down to the old town’s video-game architecture and the mix of busy street life and eerily quiet lanes, often within a cat’s whisker of each other. But partly…
Only a couple of weeks to go until the Olympics! And to get in the right mood for this biggest sporting event of the year, we have created our own Olympic challenge: the Easy Hiker Pentathlon of (1) visiting what was 100 years ago the biggest tourist attraction in the area around Nice, … ……
Agropoli is the perfect day trip from Naples. This small and picturesque town, located at the southern tip of the Gulf of Salerno, is only one hour away by train from Naples and will provide you with a much needed balm for your nerves and soul after a few days in Europe’s most anarchic city….
There are two ways of exploring Naples. You can opt to tick off the well-known points of interest: the Caravaggios and the catacombs, the churches and the royal palaces. But you can also venture out into the streets of the city without a fixed itinerary in order to experience Naples on a visceral level: immersing…
In any sequence that is set in time – sequences of any length and type, from songs in a Broadway musical and dishes in a tasting menu to blog posts about a specific destination – two items are of particular importance: the first (to set the tone) and the last (to sum up). So, for…
Not all villages in Provence were built high up on a hill around a castle or an ancient cathedral, although sometimes it may seem that way. This has more to do with the logic of international tourism than the actual settlement patterns of the local folks. Most villages and small towns in southern France, after…
Today and for the next couple of weeks, we are asking you to accompany us into one corner of France that has managed to preserve both its natural beauty and much of its original character: this is the land where the lush Rhone valley of the Drome departement – nominally part of the central region…
This is our last post of Münster, that jewel of North-Rhine-Westphalia, … … and the number one daytrip destination of Germany’s most populous if not (in general) most picturesque regional state. For many years, we have invited you to accompany us on our exploration of the city, encouraging you to discover Münster’s works of modern…
The shorelines of Lake Mergozzo and the Lago Maggiore are less than a mile and a world apart. Where the Lago Maggiore is sublime and dramatic, Lake Mergozzo is serene and understated – and where the former is besieged by crowds, you can conduct a walk around its near neighbour in blessed solitude. The contrast…