easy hiking trails in Europe
Over the years, we have taken you to hike in many places all over Italy: coasts and mountains, lakes and rivers, cities and isolated villages. Today, we will tell you what to do at the end of a long hiking day – or rather, what not to do to avoid falling into the Circles Of…
People come to Verona for a variety of reasons: to see its architecture, … … to attend the world’s largest outdoor opera festival, … … and, of course, for Romeo and Juliet. It is here, after all, where the most famous love story of them all is set and where the theatrical world’s best-known love…
When new administrative districts were created by the French revolutionary government in 1790, the names for these départements were nearly always based on rivers and mountains. Traditional names counted for nothing, since the idea was to avoid any references to religion or the culture of the ancien regime. Not even the département of Paris was…
Close your eyes and think of – no, not of England (for a change) but of Brittany: what do you see? Let me guess: I suspect that your mental image may very well feature rugged cliffs and rocky coastlines plus, perhaps, a couple of weather-beaten seamen in a small fishing boat, brazing the winds and…
Among the Great Italian lakes, we told you last week, Lake Iseo is the odd one out. But do not expect a contrast on a par with, say, Dolomites vs. the rolling hills of Tuscany. After all, these lakes on the foothills of the southern Alps have a great many things in common, in particular…
About 15,000 years ago, at the peak of the last Ice Age, hardened snow was accumulating on the Alpine mountains at such a rate that gravity eventually forced some of it down. Large ice sheets crushed into existing river valleys and cut deep trenches into the rock. Imagine an event similar to what happened in…
Cities have a choice: they can look either forward or back. Those with a clear sense of their own identity often opt for the latter, preserving the past and giving way to the new only if this helps them to strengthen what appears to grow naturally from their deep-rooted traditions. While other cities, those that…
Having addressed the issue of Milan’s alleged lack of “Italianness” in last week’s post, we will today deal with another stick that is often used to beat the city with: Milan “does not do quirky”, it is said. This is an accusation that can be refuted rather easily. All it takes is a visit of…
You will often hear people say that Milan is the “least Italian of Italian cities”, by which they mean: a well-ordered place that lacks the “typically Italian” sense for the joys of anarchy. On today’s walk, we will do two things: first, confirm that, yes, Milan is rather straight-laced and square (in more than on…
Riverwalks are popular for a large number of reasons. They are easy-to-navigate (there are only so many possibilities of heading the wrong way) so you can concentrate on what’s on view, they are lined with towns and public transport connections so you can stop and start your hike almost anywhere you like, and changes in…