After the 12th century hydraulic engineer Alberto Pitentino had surrounded Mantua with a network of artificial lakes on three sides, he went on to complete the ring of water around the old town by adding a canal in the south, providing merchants and traders with both a fresh water resource and a cross-town transport route….
The north Italian city of Mantua is that rare thing, a town entirely surrounded by water. Three lakes and a river … … provide a luxuriant setting of natural beauty for the architectural gem in their middle, turning Mantua – quite literally – into a treasure island. In view of such a magnificent and stunning…
Last week, we discovered that the “Cézanne Walk” in the artist’s home town of Aix-en-Provence is not the perfect route to finding out more about his paintings. We shall be making up for that today, venturing a little out of town for a “pilgrimage of artistic discovery” to a place which is, more than anything…
For many years, Aix-en-Provence had cornered the market for Picturesque Market Towns In Southern France. Easy-to-reach (just over an hour by train from Marseille) and pretty-to-look-at, it ticks all the important boxes for visitors. If you came from Northern Europe or North America and wanted to see a Typical Town In Provence, old men playing…
How many forests must a man walk down before you can call him a hiker? I have no idea. But here is something I do know. Long before you have reached even half that figure, you will have experienced a case of “hikers’ dejà vu”: the feeling that you have walked down the same forest-dash-coast…
The north German city of Lübeck was very much built “on the waterfront”. But which water would that be? This is far from clear because there is a confusing variety of rivers, canals and natural waterways that all serve to connect the city to the Baltic Sea as well as to other sea ports. If…
Thomas Mann was the world’s last great pre-modern novelist (with works such as Death in Venice and The Magic Mountain). He is also the perfect guide through the streets of his hometown of Lübeck, perhaps the most beautiful and historically important European city that you have never heard of. What makes Lübeck such a rewarding…
On any hiking holiday in the Loire Valley, you will, sooner or later, pass through one of the two largest towns in the area, Angers and Tours. You may also find yourself having a couple of hours to kill. Today, we will give you suggestions of how to do this. Easy Hikes on River Promenades…
This week’s walk is, at first glance, a carbon copy of last week’s: we take a walk along the Loire, … … see a beautiful castle … … and visit a historical little town that was built in its shadow. What’s more: the centrepiece of the walk is another river island in between the train…
Hiking and cycling make good bedfellows. There are only a few areas where you see one and not the other – even in high altitudes on rugged terrain where mountain bikers have become ever more prominent over the past decade. One exception is the Valley of the Loire in central France. This valley is famous…