San Gimignano, the New York of the Middle Ages Truly great hiking trails are a mix of four elements, and the Via Francigena – stretching for nearly 2000 km from Canterbury to Rome – has them all. Firstly and secondly, the Francigena Way features beautiful landscapes and variety: the combination that defines any “good” hiking…
Columns and cupolas in search of nervous excitement Montecatini prides itself, with a certain justification, on its reputation as a “city of the arts”. The Montecatini Contemporary Art Museum is well stocked and the proud owner of a large-scale work by Joan Mirò, and for as long as anybody can remember, artists have always loved the resort….
Tuscany is where two of Europe’s foremost cultural routes cross, one an ancient pilgrim’s path to Rome and the other a network of spa towns across the continent. Such a crossing may be a great starting point, but eventually, you have to decide which way you are going – or, at the very least, which…
The Foro Italico manages to combine the ludicrous with the appalling. It is found in the north of Rome and is, in a way, the most incredible thing I have ever seen. Imagine a monument constructed by the Nazis for the glorification of Adolf Hitler and his achievements that for some reason survived WWII –…
A walk through the EUR district demonstrates that bad governments can have amazingly good taste. Rome is one of the few cities in the world that have never been entirely redone – unlike Paris and London, for example, both very old cities, too (although not quite as old as Rome) which today consist largely of…
Roman Holidays Eating in Rome One of the great advantages of having a holiday flat in a residential area – rather than a downtown hotel – is that you are going to live like local people and do what local people do, if only for a week. You shop for groceries in ordinary supermarkets, search…
Walks in Italy Imperia and its Two Seaside Resorts Today’s post gives you two Italian seaside resorts for the price of one: both of them more than 2000 years old, but very different in nature – one spunky and bustling, full of compromises between the wish to preserve the past and the necessity of living…
Here is something for your bucket list: Crossing Borders on Foot We are crossing borders all the time, more than any generation before us, but choose to do so in the most uncivilized way possible – most of the time above the clouds on our way from one identikit airport to the next. Trains and…
