Serendipity is a wonderful thing. The dictionary defines it as “finding something good without looking for it”. The concept apparently has a long tradition in the history of science and discovery, but is – in my view – specifically useful as a strategy for exploring a new or even an already familiar place: instead of…
When we talk about “storied“ towns and cities, the kind of story that we have in mind involves palace intrigues and poisonous plots, riots and revolutions, blood and fury: Troy, Jerusalem, Rome. Not all municipal histories, however, unfold on such an epic scale. There is a no less interesting category of shorter and sharper morality…
This is the time for New Year resolutions, and here is ours: to dedicate more time to provincial France, the vast spaces between capital and coastal areas (vast by European standards, that is: France has a smaller surface area than the US state of Texas). Where the US have their flyover states, France has its…
Are you sitting comfortably? Enjoying your Christmas holidays in the warmth of your home while you can hear the winter rains coming down and the cold winds blow? Good. Because today’s post is not meant to chase you out of the house in search of some outdoor experience but to make you lean back and…
Palm trees, beaches, speedboats: these are the things the Riviera does well. Christmas, not so much. That does not mean that the people over here ever give up trying, but that they do so, with mixed results. Take, for example, Christmas Markets. In the Friench Riviera, any such event always has that unmistakable air of…
On my bookshelf of travel literature, there is also a German book on the Italian Riviera, which is 400 pages strong and which describes every church, historical palazzo and – so it seems – every hamlet on the Ligurian coast with a Teutonic passion for detail. But there is no mention of Bogliasco. Not a…
Travel destinations can be broadly divided in two categories: the “hedgehogs“ that know how to do one thing only (but know this one thing very well), and the “foxes” that know many things. If hedgehogs – say the Niagara Falls and Venice – were books, they would be like detective stories: no matter how much…
Most of the parcs departemental in the south of France lie hidden in the back country. Off the top of my head, I can name only two that you are ever likely to see “accidentally“, passing through by car or by train, and these two could not be more different. The Esterel (with its red…
Hiking in Italy – interrupt me if I have told you this before – can be an exasperating experience. Far too often, you are distracted from the beauty of the scenery by the need to ward off evil trolls who seem determined to test your orienteering skills or, just as frequently, your fortitude and your…
Livorno has a bad reputation. It is the third largest city in Tuscany and the province’s “gateway to the Mediterranean“ (as the biggest city and largest port on the Tuscan coast). You will rarely find it being mentioned in the same breath as Lucca or Arezzo, the leading lights in the second or “worth a…