In Casino Royale, Daniel Craig, as James Bond, races around Venice. In the film the city looks so gorgeous. (As does Daniel Craig) Lovely old buildings, the weaving canals – a-one-of-a-kind city. What those scenes don’t show are all the tourists. So many tourists. I can’t be too critical. I was one…
“WELCOME to the most beautiful bookshop in the world” reads the sign. In the maze of streets and canals that is Venice we have stumbled across Libreria Acqua Alta. From the street it looks no different to any other: cluttered tables spilling with dusty, second-hand books, masses of…
It had been sold to me as “the best Tuscan meal of your life”. And judging by the line-up we faced on our first attempt to eat at il Latini, I reckon that wasn’t an overstatement. After our rookie mistake the night before, I arrived at il Latini,…
Michelangelo’s David. The world’s second most famous David. I’d be a lot more excited about seeing the first one naked, but I’ll leave that for Victoria Beckham. So why all the fuss over this naked statue? I honestly have no idea. I call it the Mona Lisa effect.…
I’m a fan of exploring outside the major cities. I find big cities to be more or less the same. There are exceptions and Italy is one of them. But I always viewed our visit to Florence as eating into the time we could have spent in the…
Ah Tuscany. Beautiful, hot, scenic, hot, lovely, hot Tuscany. Yes, Italy is experiencing its first heat wave of summer. A sticky, sweaty, police-patrolling-the-fountains-in-case-people-jump-in kind of heat wave. Yay. I’m not a summer person. Give me a rainy, cold day and I’ll make the most of it. Give me…
How to guarantee strange looks from every person standing near you: Take a flowery, china teacup, set it down on a 2000-year old ruin, and proceed to take a picture. Then be prepared to explain yourself. The choices for a Teacup Tale shot in Rome were endless. There…
A few of the places I’ve taken my teacup may have not been recognisable to some of you. But this one will be. After all, how can you not recognise the greatest architectural stuff-ups of all time? The Leaning Tower of Pisa is one of Italy’s most iconic landmarks, for all…
While Tuscany and Umbria are the go-to regions when touring Italy, Le Marche is touted as an equally beautiful but less populated alternative. With rich farmland and twisting mountain roads inland and the Adriatic Sea on the coast, it’s the best of both worlds as far as a…
Italy isn’t a big country. You can drive from one side to the other in about two and a half hours. So it didn’t take us long to trade Rome’s crazy, narrow, city streets for countryside. Aside from our brief taxi trips, our experience on the Roman roads has been…
