easy hikes and city walks in Italy
Elba’s most famous visitor stayed on the island for roughly one year. He left, eventually (although he always emphasized how much he had enjoyed the experience), in search for a better job on the mainland. This did, in the end, not turn out very well for him (he lost his new job after a probation…
The charms of Southern Piemonte – as we saw last week – may be rich and many, but a beautiful landscape is not one of them. Most of Southern Piemonte consists of flat, endless fields, so your best bet for a day trip is a town walk. The historically most interesting town in the area…
A few posts ago I told you what made Italy, for us, the perfect travel destination: that wherever you go, no matter how unfancy the place may seem, you will find something beautiful and interesting. Last week, we decided to put that to the test. The county of Southern Piemonte is one of Italy’s forgotten…
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…
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…
Travelling through Europe means crossing mountains and border lines, lines that have – for whatever reason – survived the medieval warlords who drew them in the sand centuries ago, but also rivers and mountains that, once almost insurmountable, have continued to divide tribes and nations for thousands of years. Borders such as the mountain range…
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…