There are enough hiking trails on the eastern side of Lake Como to keep you busy for more than a week. The most popular of the lot is probably the Sentiero del Viandante, a 70-km-long lakeside trail between Lecco and Morbegno at the foot of the Alps. On our first day at the lake, I…
There are many reasons to visit Italy, but here is the most important one: it is the one destination in Europe that is reliably beautiful. Other countries have beauty spots on what is otherwise a coat of many colours, some of which may be rather grey and unbecoming, but in Italy, no matter where you…
Malaga has one of the busiest airports in Spain – outclassed only by Madrid and Barcelona – but Malaga airport was not primarily built to serve visitors of the city. In fact, most people who get off the plane are heading straight for the resorts on the near-by Costa del Sol, and the airport will…
For many years, Malaga was something like the Ugly Duckling among Western Europe’s large cities with a Mediterranean coastline: while places like Barcelona, Naples and Palermo became popular hotspots on the international tourism itinerary, Malaga on the southern tip of Andalusia – despite its attractive jumble of harbour vibes, grand fin-de-siècle architecture and subtropical fauna…
Turin has two sides, we told you last week, and if that was news to you, you may be as surprised to hear that this binary character is also reflected in the city’s topography. Two rivers are crossing Turin, one is wide and luminous, an integral part of the townscape – it passes Piazza Veneto…
If Rome is the heart of Italy and Naples the country’s soul, then Turin is its head. The capital of Italian coffee, cars and cocktails (the home of Lavazza, FIAT and Martini) is also the most rational and most transparently structured city in the land, a place so square that it is not only the…
Just as the Alhambra is more than a mere cluster of palaces, Granada is more than the Alhambra. In fact, Granada downright spoils its visitors with a host of attractions: for starters, it has not one but two historic Old Towns, one – called the Albaicin – that was established under Islamic rule … ……
The Alhambra in Granada, the palace built for the last Islamic rulers of southern Spain, is truly one of the wonders of the world. The most gifted poet on earth would struggle to describe the experience of standing inside a place where walls, ceilings and pillars all appear to dissolve into ornament. More is not…
Tourism is the world’s largest industry. It generates an annual turnover of 11 trillion dollars and employs 350 million people (10 per cent of the global workforce) but stands on feet of clay. Tourism does not fulfil an immediate and vital need (unlike, say, agriculture): humans have lived for thousands of years without spending some…
If you have recently found that very special person in your life, you may think that All You Need Is Love to engineer a successful Saint Valentine’s Day weekend – and you may even be right. The more world-weary among us, meanwhile, are aware that special persons may expect more than Words Of Love and…