Bussana Vecchia has a mixed press. For every admirer on TripAdvisor and similar social media sites who calls the small ghost town north of Sanremo “a picturesque artists’ colony”, you can find someone who left unimpressed, calling the place “unbearably twee” or “soulless and commercial”. Whichever way your own opinion may fall, it is undeniable…
It is a truth locally acknowledged – among people who live near the Riviera coast, whether permanently or temporarily – that every trip to the region should include at least some hiking in the mountains. Most of these people are – like us – residents of the coast themselves and would not think of settling…
No matter where your personal preferences may lie, the French Riviera is a great area for hiking. There are short and dramatic trails as well as long and epic ones, trails through lush coastal scenery as well as through lunar landscapes higher up the mountains. There is, however, one type of walk that is nearly…
Guest Post The British are a nation of hikers or as they would say “walkers.” This is testified to in the well-maintained network of public footpaths crisscrossing across the country like a huge spider web. Only in Scotland does the multitude of paths disappear. This is where the right to roam kicks in and the…
A few weeks ago, we climbed the mountains overlooking Monaco (the Tête de Chien) and Eze (Mont Bastide). On Easter Sunday, we turned our attention to the steep hills of Menton and tackled one that overlook our adopted home town. When I wrote late last year that climbing some of the Riviera peaks would be…
By and large, while we may provide you with tips and suggestions, we leave you pretty much free to do whatever you like, dishing out only occasional Iron Rules of Easy Hiking. Here, however, is one: whenever the town you are visiting offers a wall walk, go and take it. Wall walks – carefully landscaped…
A shrine for a world-famous pop star, the second largest private residence in London, the grave of London’s most iconic political émigré: you will come across all that and more in today’s walk – on top of some surprisingly wild scenery, so wild in fact that you would never expect to find anything like it…
Hollywood and Monaco: at first glance, this appears to be a match made in heaven. There are probably no two places on earth that share the same combination of glamour and money – or the same type of cheerful, unapologetic vulgarity. Upon further review, however, you will realize how rarely this seemingly perfect match has…
What is it that gives the French Riviera its unique flavour? It cannot be the mix of sunshine and spectacular landscapes, because many other places in the world have that, too. It cannot be a richness of history and culture, because there is – frankly – little of either. No: the one ingredient that gives…
One day late in the 19th century, Empress Elisabeth of Austria – on a visit to the Riviera di Levante – decided to go out for a walk. Elisabeth, the semi-estranged wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I, was famous for her eccentricities and, among other things, an avid walker. That afternoon, she took a ride…