Hiking in the Italian Riviera
Sometimes, it is best to know little or nothing about the destination you are about to visit: this allows you to keep the option open of surprising yourself. Sometimes, however, a little knowledge can help – and feel like adding a key ingredient to the sauce that turns a pleasant but bland meal into something…
Most people would classify Sestri Levante as a “tourist town”, but you should not think that this is a good reason for bypassing Sestri on your tour of Northern Italy. First of all, because the tag “tourist town”, although commonly used with more than a hint of contempt, is not, if you think about it,…
In these bleak mid-winter days of sleet, snow and icy winds: what could possibly bring more joy than a trip to a place where you can still feel the breath of summer on your neck, a place where, while the season’s paraphernalia (parasols and pleasure boats) may have been mothballed, the spirit of summer is…
Genoa, “La Superba”, proudly stands apart from the rest of the country – and, in many ways, does not feel like an Italian city at all. It is neither elegant (like Milan) nor full of joie de vivre (like Naples), and it is certainly not an open-air museum where everything has been neatly arranged for…
A little over a year ago, we deconstructed the French Riviera’s mainline railway route and gave you a station-by-station guide to tell you a little bit about the towns and the landscapes that lie on the far side of the stations’ concourses. Today, we are going to do the same for Italy: The Italian Riviera…
Last week, John and Julie asked us to take them on a walk. We had met John and Julie for the first time shortly after our arrival in Menton, nearly seven years ago. They were already familiar with our little corner of the world back then, but freely admit that they still have relatively little…
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…
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…
A couple of years ago, we posted a short series of winter walks, arguing that there was a special type of walk which is particularly well-suited to the conditions and requirements of that season. As I said in so many words at that time, a typical winter walk must meet two conditions: it must be…