Hiking in the Italian Riviera
Once upon a time, Genoa was a global power. The city republic was one of the most influential and dominant players around the Mediterranean Sea and across Europe, with far-ranging interests in both the Old World and the New, in the Orient as well as in America. As a consequence, the Genoese became rich and…
Alla spiaggia: that shall be the motto for today’s post. Or, to use Henry V as our interpreter: once more onto the beach my friends, once more. This is a seasonal post. But you can do this walk at all times of the year, of course. The trail will not be closed down at the…
One of the best – perhaps the best – thing about travelling in Italy is this: you arrive at your destination and find that everything is better than you felt you had a right to expect. You go to eat in a simple trattoria (or simply buy something from a bakery) and the food is…
Last week, we went in search of the Holy Grail – the Holy Grail of Riviera Easy Hiking, that is. Did we find it? Well, probably not if you apply the most rigid of standards (angelic voices from above, wounds that suddenly close after festering for decades, 1000-year-old guardians who fall down on their knees…
If you are familiar with the landscapes of north-western Italy, you will know that many towns along the Riviera coast are “twinned“ with an older village in the mountains. The reason for this is that coastal settlements were deemed unsafe during the long period between antiquity and the restoration of order under effective governments sometime…
Walks that prominently feature the attractions of a town or city fall into one of two categories. Either they are walks that are great in their own right but perhaps a trifle short (“while you are there, you might as well have a look at the town”). And there are walks that help you to…
The Romans never much liked the Riviera. They found its stony slopes too tiresome for agriculture, its small settlements too poor to plunder, and its mountainous interior too difficult to protect against the troublesome natives. Which is why the Romans did not settle in great numbers here and only ever built a few garrisons in…
Michelin classifies sites and restaurants with a simple three-star system: sites are either “interesting”, “worth a detour” or “worth a trip”. Please note that this is not simply a way of saying “good”, “better” and “even better”: 3-star attractions such as Florence and Venice are good in different ways from a picturesque fishing village. A…
One of the main tourist attractions of the Italian Riviera actually lies a few miles further inland: no visit to this stretch of the Mediterranean coast would be complete without a trip to at least one of the Ligurian mountain villages with their narrow lanes and dark cobbled alleyways. Ligurian Mountain Villages Ten or twenty…
This week’s post takes a leaf out of your local supermarket’s sale strategy. If “2 for the price of 1” helps shift chickens, deodorant, toilet paper and what-not, it should also attract the punters to the Easy Hiker blog. Today, we shall give you a taste of two of the outstanding Ligurian trails, the north-to-south…