easy hikes and city walks in Italy
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…
When we first visited Siena, as part of a sponsored organized tour, we were taken for a walk down the high street straight into a museum, came out 2 hours later and went, more or less, directly back to the bus. No disrespect to our hosts (one branch of the large and sprawling tree of…
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…
Our final word from last month’s Slow Travel Fest in Tuscany, and we have deliberately set today’s walk apart from the other posts. For two reasons: firstly because the Sentiere Elsa is only incidentally linked to the festival’s central themes (of drilling deep into your holiday destination instead of merely skipping over its surface), through…
Slow Travel, as we told you last week, may involve a lot of hiking, but there is more to it than that. Another key imperative is to take not only your physical self on the journey you are undertaking, but also your mind. Translated into every-day terms this means that the challenge is to take…
“Slow Travel”, above all, means to explore your destination at a speed which is natural to the human species. The human mind did not evolve to process impressions when hurled along at the speed of a car or a coach. So if you want to give your travel experiences a chance to penetrate the mere…
You probably have heard about the concept of slow travel. If so, you will have a broad understanding of its principles. After all, up to a point, the movement’s name is self-explanatory: if you intend to “travel slowly”, don’t rush. Take your time and take it easy. So far for general principles. It is a…
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…