What little knowledge I had of Rome before arriving can be credited to Dan Brown. And yes I know it’s fiction, but Angels and Demons was still educational. To build on that education we joined another tour. This was our third for this city, but Rome is worth…
By the time I arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, nearly three weeks after leaving Vancouver’s Pacific Station, I had spent four and a half days on a train. I’d covered more than 6000km. It wasn’t all at once: I turned it into a three-week trip. But it was certainly…
Another hot summer’s day in Rome and another day marvelling at the city’s architectural feats. Is it possible there’s too much to see here? After a bit of emailing, we’d found a spot on another Walks of Italy tour – this time an early morning visit to the Colosseum. In…
I don’t know where the saying came from, but it’s a good thing the world didn’t take it to heart. If we all did as the Romans do, well, we’d need really good health insurance. The driving here is insane. Not as bad as I’ve seen in China…
Turn any corner in Rome and you come across something impressive – either for its beauty or simply the fact it was constructed hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago. Very few man-made sights earn a “wow” from me, but this city is overloaded with incredible things to…
In building the world’s most famous bell tower, someone stuffed up royally. But if they hadn’t, would anyone bother visiting Pisa? Against all advice, after leaving the Cinque Terre, we went to Pisa for the night. From what I read, the consensus on Pisa seemed to be “by all means visit, but don’t bother staying”. After 24 hours in the city, I’d agree – almost.
Last Sunday, as we explored Monterosso after travelling along the Cinque Terre from Riomaggiore, we stumbled across a beautiful piece of flower art. I really do mean stumbled across – I very nearly trod on it. This mosaic of petals was on the footpath. The flowers continued along…
In its entirety, the walk connecting the five Cinque Terre villages would be spectacular. 12km of rugged cliffs along the coast, olive groves, over-burdened lemon trees, grape vines and beautiful Italian summer weather. It wouldn’t be an easy walk, but it would be special. Unfortunately, the trail between…
The population of Riomaggiore is about 1700, but that will swell in coming weeks. The Cinque Terre is one of Italy’s top destinations. Visiting such a place has its pros and cons. Sometime’s it’s not great to visit a place everyone else is also visiting. Any more into peak…
Gorgeous. Stunning. Spectacular. Unique. With a decent thesaurus you’ll find 15 like words to describe the Italy’s postcard: The Cinque Terre. Five little villages clinging to the coast of the Italian Riviera. Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso are so similar, yet so different. Each a wonderful town to…
