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…
A few weeks ago, we climbed the mountains overlooking Monaco (the Tête de Chien) and Eze (Mont Bastide). On Easter Sunday, we turned our attention to the steep hills of Menton and tackled one that overlook our adopted home town. When I wrote late last year that climbing some of the Riviera peaks would be…
By and large, while we may provide you with tips and suggestions, we leave you pretty much free to do whatever you like, dishing out only occasional Iron Rules of Easy Hiking. Here, however, is one: whenever the town you are visiting offers a wall walk, go and take it. Wall walks – carefully landscaped…
Last week, we told you about hikes – easy ones and not so easy ones – in the rugged Regional Nature Reserve between Camogli and Portofino. Today, we will stay in the Riviera di Levante (the coast east of Genoa), but for a much more civilized contrast programme. You can bring your lazy old dog,…
If you have ever visited the Italian Riviera, aka Liguria, one of the things you will fondly remember is the train that connects the various small resort towns along the coast. This train is not one of those fancy high-speed bullet numbers that dash through the countryside. Instead, it takes its time – this is…
Last week, we enjoyed the baroque splendour of the landscaped gardens around the Prinz Moritz trail. Today, we stay in the same area and (roughly) the same period of German history, moving only a few kilometres up the Lower Rhine Valley and a few decades down the line to the time of the friendship between…
In Tuscany, landscape and urbanity are so closely interwoven that they create one large tapestry of culture which is governed by consistent aesthetic, economic and historical principles. While the Renaissance town palazzi reflect the pride and the wealth of the landowning families (it is said that Florentine rulers never ate or served anything in their…
Minds much greater than my own have wrestled with this question without ever finding a conclusive answer: Where does the Riviera start? It does not take a great mind to see where it ends. Even I can see that it comes to a grinding halt at Cinque Terre, southeast of Genoa. As to its start…
As far as most tourists are concerned, the Riviera mainly consists of mountains and beaches. But that does not mean that mountains and beaches are all there is. In many places, admittedly, the transition from one to the other is rather sudden and immediate. On the French side of the Riviera (in particular), the mountains…
The island of Capri – just off the Italian coast near the southern city of Naples – is a truly dazzling spectacle. You could be forgiven for thinking that a theme park operator had carefully assembled all the familiar Mediterranean motives – azure skies and the turquoise sea, rocks, trees, hills, a marina, caves –…
