Written by Immersed in antiquity, near Florence, Italy Feeling the need for some brief respite from the crowds and snaking queues in Florence, an afternoon visit to the Etruscan hilltop town of Fiesole fit the bill. The settlement can be found within the archaeological area and could date back as far as the ninth century BC. The […]
We leave the Amsterdam-bound Eurostar at Rotterdam, just 3½ hours from London, and swap platforms for a 23-minute ride to The Hague. The “city of peace and justice” (who wouldn’t love that?) is home to the Dutch parliament – in the 13th-century gothic Binnenhof – two of the royal family’s three residences, and the international […]
Street lights strobed through the window, sending shadows sweeping across our faces as our train followed the River Seine through Choisy-le-Roi. Ten minutes earlier, we had pulled out of Paris’s Gare d’Austerlitz. Departing at 9.40pm, the Intercité de Nuit was due on the Spanish border just after 10am, where we would connect to a Barcelona train. It’s […]
Standing on the top of the huge fortress, looking over the rolling landscape, it’s easy to see why Nepi was a prized possession for Roman emperors, medieval popes and Renaissance dynasties. Defended on two sides by river channels and with a commanding position over rich agricultural land and abundant water springs, the town, less than […]
We could feel the carefree spirit in the crisp air the moment we stepped off the train at Zell am See. It’s in the town’s DNA. Pleasure seekers have been coming to this lake and mountain resort in search of clean air, crystal waters and Alpine adventures ever since the railway connected what was then […]
On this windless autumn Saturday, the landscape is curiously hushed. Occasionally, a tiny chorus of coal tits gathers to chat in the pines above my head, but otherwise it’s soundless, the muffled stillness willing me to slow my pace. As the track turns from soil to sand, I skitter over smooth grey rocks to reach a […]
Scorching sunlight glinted through the windows as the bartender slid a frosted glass of Cruzcampo across the aluminium bar. “Ocho meses de invierno, cuatro de infierno,” he sighed with a nod towards the heat-shimmering lane outside. “Eight months of winter, four months of hell” is how the inhabitants of Extremadura describe their climate. Your timing […]
On the terrace of a brasserie on Rue Cler, a chic Parisian market street, I’m chatting over a tongue-lubricating glass of Sancerre with Sébastien de Lavalette, 33, a French travel company head and my language exchange partner. Sébastien compliments my French accent, or at least I think he does: “You don’t have that mouth-full-of-bread accent […]
Swimming through the cool clear lake, I’m aware of the densely forested mountains behind us, with pale rocky peaks to our right. A cable car snakes up the side of one, and the sky is turning grey, hinting at an Alpine storm. A standup paddleboarder with blond hair who is wearing bright Hawaiian shorts glides […]
Ligurian charm, Italy The town of San Remo on the Ligurian coast, between Genoa and Nice, has the air of a faded grand old lady, a little bit down on her luck but with plenty of dash still on offer. Blessed with the most enticing and charming streets of a medieval old town that meanders […]