Italy

Ok, Mrs L said. Here’s a place we must visit. It’s not too far away, has an outstanding and unusual nine sided shape in the landscape. The walls are more or less complete and are comparative with Lucca for accessibility. There’s an amazing nine sided piazza in the centre of the city with a shimmering […]

Lunigiana is littered with impressive castle-like towers which rear out of the mountainous landscape, clinging on in the most precarious positions. The example shown here is at Massa, not too far from the very famous fortified town of Lucca. They are collectively known as Malaspina Towers. They were built by the Malaspina family. This dynasty

We like modern art. We’ve been known to swoon at the sight of a Pollock or a Kadinsky. Really. So on the way back up north we decided to visit the MART Gallery in Rovereto. Mart is very much their “branding”. The full name is the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and

We had one of our best ever few days in Italy staying at Camping E-Maieu close to the small village of Garbagna, a comune (municipality) in the Province of Alessandria in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 110 kilometres (68 mi) southeast of Turin and about 35 kilometres (22 mi) southeast of Alessandria. It has

This post is written with apologies to Mrs Admin, who is gluten intolerant. But it needed to be done. Eating is a very important part of our travels. Sampling the local fare. A big part of savouring the local atmosphere. Never mind the main course, in Italy the bread is quite capable of stealing the

Parma is a university city in Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region, famed for Parmesan cheese and Parma ham. Romanesque buildings, including the frescoed Parma Cathedral and the pink marble Baptistery, grace the city centre. Classical concerts take place at the Teatro Regio, a 19th-century opera house. The Galleria Nazionale, inside the imposing Palazzo della Pilotta, displays works

Not really sure why, but this year I’ve been noticing that Bathrobes are the thing on some campsites. At certain times of day they emerge and process across to the facilities block like a procession of monks on their way to matins or whatever happens in monasteries in the afternoon. A casual statistical survey reveals

A stunning drive through the French Alps up to the Frejus tunnel. Very little traffic around so we made good progress. The mountains are fabulous. We noted that all of the passes across were closed, so there was no option but to take the very expensive tunnel. There has been a lot of snow this

To be continued. No wifi Enough of this we said. Time we were getting home. So we thought we’d have a look at the Italian Lakes on the way. Rather than going to the most crowded and popular we plumped for Lake Iseo.    

I don’t do this very often: but let me quote the words of a local guide to Udine which captures the characteristics of the city. “Reserved and elegant but also cheerful and friendly: this is Udine, the city that is tinged with the colours of Giambattista Tiepolo (1696-1770), the famous Venetian painter who left works