Oltrarno – Frumpier Sister of Florence but More Fun
| | |

Oltrarno – Frumpier Sister of Florence but More Fun

To tell you the truth about our recent trip to Tuscany: Florence and the Easy Hikers did not quite hit it off this time. Florence, of course, will survive this, but so shall we. We had visited Florence before, many years ago, and still have pleasant memories from this trip. What has changed in the…

Magnificent Renaissance Men in their Flying Machine in Fiesole Florence
| | |

Magnificent Renaissance Men in their Flying Machine in Fiesole Florence

Just as any trip to Tuscany feels strangely incomplete without the glories of her capital city, no visitor of Florence should leave without having made an excursion into the surrounding countryside, no matter how brief. Tuscany is one of the world’s truly legendary landscapes, a category which includes places like the Provence and the Black…

Florence and the Arno : Far From the Glitz and the Madding Crowds
| | |

Florence and the Arno : Far From the Glitz and the Madding Crowds

For a country with one of the longest coastlines in Europe, Italy – it has always seemed to me – has a surprisingly large number of large landlocked cities: Milan, Turin, Florence.  Even Rome, strictly speaking, has no sea harbour (Ostia is more than 30 km away). What is the common secret of these places?…

Easy Hiking in Elba – In Search of Time Past and a Good Time
| | |

Easy Hiking in Elba – In Search of Time Past and a Good Time

No trip to Elba would be complete without a search of time past: a visit to places that are associated with the island’s most famous ever resident. A Bonaparte Pilgrimage Walk might feature stations all across the island: the central highlands with Napoleon’s summer residence in San Martino, for example, the west with the residence…

Go Easy Hiking in Elba into the Heart of Lushness
| | |

Go Easy Hiking in Elba into the Heart of Lushness

After our first foray into the spectacularly beautiful landscapes of Elba – a coastal walk, nominally, but one which turned out to involve quite a lot of climbing – we were a little apprehensive before our second tour on our itinerary. This route, after all, was to take us all the way up to Marciana…

Easy Hikes in Elba – the Mediterranean’s Emerald Isle
| | |

Easy Hikes in Elba – the Mediterranean’s Emerald Isle

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 Best of the Slow Travel Fest in Tuscany 2018
| | |

The Best of the Slow Travel Fest in Tuscany 2018

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…