easy hikes and city walks in Italy
On the basis of the evidence, it feels safe to say that the Empire’s troops did not come here to enjoy the beautiful beaches The history of the Riviera, if we are honest, begins in the 17th century when its oldest towns were built, and it really picks up 200 years later with the invention…
Forbidden fruit: taste it and find out what made Sanremo famous. Coastal walks on the Italian Riviera, ideally, connect two seaside resorts that are well worth a visit in their own right. Whether or not these outings are successful, ultimately depends as much on these two resorts as on the walk itself – the more…
If you blink at the wrong moment on your Riviera train journey, you may miss it, but that would be a loss and a pity We first discovered Cervo about a year ago when our train journey to some other place down the Italian Riviera had been interrupted, falling rocks having damaged the tracks, and…
Walks on the Riviera coast work best when they combine colour and contrast The French and the Italian sides of the Riviera, while having much in common, also reflect many characteristics of the very different countries to which they are attached. The French Riviera, for example, is better “organized” and more clearly structured into individual…
What to do with only two hours in Genoa? Genoa is the capital of the Italian Riviera, more or less what Nice is on the French side, but with one important distinction: Whereas all visitors of the French Riviera will, sooner or later, get to Nice (to go shopping, to do sight-seeing or simply to…
Happy Italian families, sunshine and local delicacies combine for a perfect winter walk on the Mediterranean Winter walks very much have their own logic: a successful outdoor experience between December and February requires more careful thinking than a journey at any time of the year, even in the relatively mild and balmy climate of the…
If you are in a rush, you could reduce those two hours in Milan to 15 minutes …. and still see Italy’s largest Cathedral, the world’s oldest shopping mall and opera’s most famous theatre, all of them “next-arcade neighbours” in one of the smallest central cores of any major city in Europe In the last…
… at Milan’s Cimitero Monumentale But there are cracks in the bombast, and you can feel how a very modern sense of discomfort is creeping in. For centuries, death operated a strict two-tier system: cathedral tombs it was for crowned heads and high clergy, the local churchyard for everybody else. (Unless you were a certified…
The provincial capital of Bolzano has a long history, rich cultural attractions – and even some lessons for all of us. One thing is for sure when you go hiking in the Gardena Valley: sooner or later you will come to Bolzano, in nearly all respects the hub of the province, if only between trips…
… with the sound of sizzling frying pans on our Selva-to-Monte-Pana hike in the Dolomites Something I forgot to mention in the report from our first hike in the Dolomites: for the hiking guides, that hike served as their “orientation tour”, intended not only to familiarize the hotel’s newbie guests with the landscape but also to…