What is your idea of easy hiking
The shorelines of Lake Mergozzo and the Lago Maggiore are less than a mile and a world apart. Where the Lago Maggiore is sublime and dramatic, Lake Mergozzo is serene and understated – and where the former is besieged by crowds, you can conduct a walk around its near neighbour in blessed solitude. The contrast…
On one level, the Borromean Islands in the Lago Maggiore can be seen as three independent destinations: as three little towns that have developed in as much isolation from one another as it is possible for places only a few hundred meters apart. Alternatively, however, you can also understand them as cogs in the same…
The Lago Maggiore is, despite what its name appears to suggest, not the largest body of water in the Italian “Lake District” (that honour goes to Lake Garda), but it is the most stretched-out. The shortest route around it is 170 km long, and more than 60 km lie between Arona in the south and…
Having followed a dried-out river for our last post, we will today explore a dried-out wetlands preserve. The rain in Spain – the little there has been over the past five years – has, it seems, mainly fallen outside of Valencia, and as a consequence, the Albufera wetlands, a short bus ride to the south…
Some travel destinations make you look long and hard for a scenic and entertaining walking route, while others come up with a whole range of suggestions. But there is a third group of destinations that urge rather than suggest, leaving you the sole alternative of doing the hike of their own choosing or no hike…
Today’s post is all about the best walk to have a perfect day in Nice, so good that it is well worth dedicating an entire day to it. You start in the morning walking into the town centre via the Promenade des Anglais (all the way from the Parc Phoenix tram stop, if you can…
In these bleak mid-winter days of sleet, snow and icy winds: what could possibly bring more joy than a trip to a place where you can still feel the breath of summer on your neck, a place where, while the season’s paraphernalia (parasols and pleasure boats) may have been mothballed, the spirit of summer is…
There cannot be many major rivers in the world that have a proper hiking trail attached to them all the way through, from the source to the spot where they join the sea. The Thames, Britain’s most famous river, is lined by such as a “source-to-sea” footpath – which, with a total length of well…
Most cities in the world were founded near a body of water, and for most old cities, this body of water was a river that provided fresh water, a transport connection to the wider world and a handy sewage disposal system. Edinburgh ticks the latter of these boxes, but having said that, it is equally…
This week and next, we shall go on two classic Edinburgh walks, both of which offer you a unique experience. The first one resembles a Robert Burns poem: unpolished and a bit rough, full of drama and life, while the second is flowing and melodious like a Sir Walter Scott novel, featuring great set pieces…