Italy may change but some things remain resolutely the same. The food is great, the architecture is awe-inspiring and the locals can’t resist a shiny puffer jacket. On our first evening in Verona, nursing a beer in a touristy but quiet bar in the Piazza Bra, there were plenty of puffer jackets on display. Veronese and…
Tag: UNESCO World Heritage
Italy: A weekend in Bologna
Bologna, the capital of Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region, is home to the oldest university in the Western world, incredible food and a wonderful cityscape of terracotta-roofed buildings. But there are other features of the city that don’t feature so prominently in the guidebooks, not least the amount of graffiti. Perhaps it’s something to do with Bologna’s history…
Norway: A weekend in Bergen
Our first visit to Norway ended up being part city break in Bergen, part winter sports holiday in the mountain resort of Geilo. Bergen lies on the west coast, little more than an hour away from London. We’d climbed out of Heathrow on a clear February evening, the sun setting in the west, but landed…
A day touring Athens’ historic sites
I’m not the type who returns time and again to the same holiday destination. But I have been back to Athens. Admittedly, my last visit was 34 years ago and was nothing more than a hurried day trip during a week spent by the sea on the Greek mainland with my best friend Chris. My companion…
In the heart of Tuscany – the city of Florence
It was inevitable that we’d end up in Italy’s most tourist-tastic region one day. Our excuse for the trip to Tuscany was a friend’s wedding in Pisa, but historic Florence was top of our list for a top en route. It turned out to be a city of crowds. Monumental crowds. It was a city…
The magical world of Petra
Back when we were first planning our trip to Jordan I was under the impression that Petra consisted solely of the famous Treasury. It was only when I read the Lonely Planet guide book that I realised there was an entire city awaiting us at at the country’s premier tourist attraction. The Treasury is the…
Discovering the historic village of Locronan in Brittany
A spontaneous decision can sometimes turn up a gem, as we proved with the gorgeous village of Locronan in Brittany. We were driving back from visiting Great Uncle Ray’s grave in Milizac on a gloomy June day when we decided to turn off the main road into the picturesque hills. And there it was, a…
A short break in Macau – exploring on our first full day
The Macau we discovered on our first night in the city is modern, glitzy and built for tourists. Known as the Cotai Strip, it’s a stark contrast to the historic, atmospheric old town. It has elegant and colourful Portugese influences from colonial times, while its streets are crowded with old apartment blocks, temples, shops and…
A few days in Naples, Italy
Naples is the gateway to southern Italy but my first experience of it back at the turn of the millennium had been pretty negative. It was dirty, the roads were appalling, the driving worse and there was an undercurrent of menace to the place. In some respects, it felt more like a Third World city…
Visiting the Desert Castles of Jordan
On our two-week visit to Jordan, we took a tour of the Desert Castles that lie on the arid plains to the east of the capital, Amman. The weather was bleak as we hit the highway out of the city, fresh from a night in the swanky Marriott hotel. There, I’d settled into the bar and…
Istanbul: A long weekend in Sultanahmet
Sultanahmet is the historic heart of Istanbul, the most famous of Turkey’s cities. It may not be the capital but it’s the only city in the world that sits astride Europe and Asia. Just a few months after we visited Istanbul in 2013, it was gripped by the worst riots in years. Historic Sultanahmet escaped…
The magical desert of Wadi Rum, Jordan
There are some places on our delicate planet that live long in the memory. The desert of Wadi Rum in Jordan is one. One early spring evening, perched on a rock high above the desert floor, we watched the sun go down on the horizon. We stood in awe as it slipped slowly behind the…