easy hikes and city walks in Italy
Scars, as a rule, do not make human faces prettier but can make them more interesting. The same mechanism is at work in towns and cities. Many modern cities with long histories bear the scars of old catastrophes in their townscapes: we can still see where the structure of London was altered following the Great…
In certain – generally rather expensive – restaurants, they offer you what they call a menu de degustation: which means that rather than feeding you properly with meat and two veg, they show you a little of their art, teasing your taste buds with one bite of this and two bites of that and indicating…
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…
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…
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…
Last week, we told you about hikes – easy ones and not so easy ones – in the rugged Regional Nature Reserve between Camogli and Portofino. Today, we will stay in the Riviera di Levante (the coast east of Genoa), but for a much more civilized contrast programme. You can bring your lazy old dog,…
It actually pains me to write it down, being a “local patriot” who considers the Italian Riviera west of Genoa as his playground and friendly neighbour. But here it goes: in the highlight reel of the Italian Riviera, the East End has all the good bits. A trip to the east of Genoa feels very…
It was Mrs. Easy Hiker who drew my attention to the site. I wonder what these ruins are, she mused: not once, not twice, but repeatedly, and in the end – when that had failed to stir me into action or at least a bout of in-depth research – almost every time we passed the…
If you have ever visited the Italian Riviera, aka Liguria, one of the things you will fondly remember is the train that connects the various small resort towns along the coast. This train is not one of those fancy high-speed bullet numbers that dash through the countryside. Instead, it takes its time – this is…