There are many ways to see Italy, but surely one of the most unique has to be by steam train. Mark Nicholls enjoys a nostalgic steam train tour across the Apennines from Rimini to Florence, then to Siena, Pisa – and Pistoia, the home of Italian steam. The air dances, black smoke drifting on the […]
Joe Gartman pays a visit to the home of the Brownings and reminds us of their path to love and fame… The courtship of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning may be the most thoroughly documented in history, because it was conducted almost entirely by letter. And Robert was certainly a very impetuous wooer; in his very […]
Over the past few years many people have asked me to write a blog, me, I’m not even on Facebook! But, I do like writing and relish the opportunity to share our Italian adventures with you. Was it the classic midlife crisis move, maybe, maybe not, I like to think of it as making the […]
We’ve got a four-night stay for two at the stunning Grotta Giusti Resort Golf & Spa in Tuscany to give away, thanks to our friends at Citalia. Nestled in the heart of Tuscan countryside is Grotta Giusti, a renovated 19th-century villa. Interiors are traditionally styled, with antique furnishings and paintings dotted throughout. But what makes […]
Giotto shows the representation of human emotion, injects individuality once again in the people depicted and is interested in conveying a sense of realism. Back in the very early 1300s Padua was a very wealthy merchant city and the Scrovegni family was one of the most wealthy families in the city. Reginaldo Scrovegni had made […]
For so many who arrive at Pisa airport, it is the honeypots of Siena and Florence, and the juicy vineyards of Chianti that lure them southwards Not for me though. I was heading in the opposite direction to the Val di Lima in the lesser-travelled area of northern Tuscany known as the Garfagnana. Living and […]
The black and white stonework of this Romanesque church, an offspring of the Pisan Romanesque constructions, makes an arresting sight as you approach the northwest corner of Sardinia. The striking Basilica della Santissima Trinità di Saccargia (Basilica of the Holy Trinity of Saccargia) sits on a plain at Codrongianos, south of Sassari, in the northwest […]
Looking upstream into a Florence sunrise almost the colour of the city’s beloved football club’s shirt, we are, in one very real sense, looking towards the source of the Renaissance itself… The River Arno divides Florence between the north side, where most of the famous bits are, and the Oltrarno, the ‘other side’, where most […]
From ancient to exotic, Cagliari has it all. Sardinian resident Heather Browne spends a weekend getting to grips with the island’s colourful capital In attractive centre boasting vibrant culture and history? Check. A mild climate that regularly permits shirtsleeves in January? Check. One of Europe’s longest beaches? Check. No, it’s not Barcelona but Italy’s latest […]
Italy’s Cinque Terre is the stuff of postcards, and its colourful coastal railway is as pretty as a picture. Tristan Rutherford takes a train journey of discovery along the Ligurian coast Central Italy is snowbound, so it is a shock to see La Spezia Station in radiant green. Palm trees run alongside the tracks in […]