What is your idea of easy hiking
Among the Great Italian lakes, we told you last week, Lake Iseo is the odd one out. But do not expect a contrast on a par with, say, Dolomites vs. the rolling hills of Tuscany. After all, these lakes on the foothills of the southern Alps have a great many things in common, in particular…
About 15,000 years ago, at the peak of the last Ice Age, hardened snow was accumulating on the Alpine mountains at such a rate that gravity eventually forced some of it down. Large ice sheets crushed into existing river valleys and cut deep trenches into the rock. Imagine an event similar to what happened in…
… domes of foliage from which burst forth a polyphony of lemons and oranges and the ephemeral veil of a foam,of a sea powder that no human foot has ever touched or seems about to, but unfortunately the train accelerates …Towards Tellaro by Eugenio Montale There are about 350 members in the federation of the Borghi Piu Belli d’Italia…
In the afternoon of 8 July 1822, Percy Bysshe Shelley, poet and heir apparent to a baronetcy that came with a large fortune, rigged his sailing boat in the port of Livorno to return from a meeting with friends to his home further up the Italian coast in the bay of La Spezia. Ahead of…
Italian cities share a family likeness that is – like all family likenesses – easier to recognise than to define. Is it the colours (above all, the blend of rich yellows), the delicately balanced proportions, the trompe l’oeil effects, the distinctly classical architectural features? It is probably a little bit from all of that. No…
There are enough hiking trails on the eastern side of Lake Como to keep you busy for more than a week. The most popular of the lot is probably the Sentiero del Viandante, a 70-km-long lakeside trail between Lecco and Morbegno at the foot of the Alps. On our first day at the lake, I…
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our friends and readers! New Adventures for Beginners in 2026 will take us into the hidden world of France’s second city … … up and down the riverside of the European capital of Rock’n Roll … … and into newly created open spaces of somewhere closer…
You can easily spend a long weekend and more exploring the charms and attractions of Anglesey. But, if you must, you can also experience all in one day, enjoying everything that the island has to offer in a single package: Anglesey’s medieval history, … … its rugged natural beauty, … … mysterious Welsh traditions, ……
Wales and Brittany have more in common than bad weather: both regions were once run as independent countries and then gobbled up by stronger neighbours (England and France, respectively). This happened almost a thousand years ago, but both Wales and Brittany are still sitting a little awkwardly in the countries to which they have belonged…
Nantes is one of France’s great provincial cities and stands – in the minds of the French – for the Atlantic West as Marseille stands for the South and Strasbourg for the East. Foreign visitors may be familiar with the city as the entry point to two of the country’s most famous tourist regions: Brittany,…