Italy

The first time I rounded the headland and saw the water around Spargi, I genuinely thought…

Halfway down a stairway carved into the rock, my legs gave a small wobble. Two Vespa-riders…

The first thing that hits you is the temperature drop. You walk in from the warm…

The wind picks up. Our guide stops mid-stride, tilts his head toward the rim, and listens….

The Verona Arena is older than the Colosseum. Built around 30 AD, it has stayed in…

The first time I rounded the headland past Capo di Sorrento and saw Positano stacked up…

Rome is a city you slow down for. Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast are places you…

You round the last cliff, the engine drops to an idle, and there they are: three…

The minibus has just rounded another impossible bend on the SS163, my coffee is sloshing dangerously,…

My friend Carmen swears the moment she got Naples was watching a guy fold a pizza…

Flour on the counter, a pinch of salt, brewer’s yeast crumbled between two fingers, and a…

Our guide stopped under a stone arch and pointed at a smudge of ochre paint on…

The first thing you notice is the temperature drop. You step off Via dei Tribunali, push…

You are halfway up the cone, and the sea wind is suddenly gone, replaced by the…

Pompeii isn’t fully excavated. Roughly a third of the 160-acre city is still buried under volcanic…

You smell the canal before you see it. Garlic from a kitchen vent, river water still…

Milan looks like a small city when you study the map. The historic core fits inside…

Have you ever walked into a building thinking you were going to see one thing, and…

Here’s the surprising part: the Bernina line is the highest transalpine railway in Europe that doesn’t…

The ferry pulled away from Varenna and the captain didn’t even look at the lake. He…

You walk past a humming air filtration door, the clang of the metal latch behind you,…

You climb the last narrow flight of stairs, push out through a small marble doorway, and…

The first time I queued for St Mark’s Basilica I made a stupid mistake. I showed…

Here’s a fact that surprises most visitors: La Fenice has burned to the ground three times…