Of all the fountains in a city full of them, the Trevi is the one everyone comes to find. It fills a small square at the end of a tangle of narrow streets, so you hear it before you see…
Archives for July 2026
The Best Photo Spots in Rome
Rome is one of the most photogenic cities in the world, but the difference between a snapshot and a beautiful photograph here is almost always the light and the hour. The great sights are mobbed by mid morning, so the…
Victoria’s Complete Guide to Florence
Florence is the city where the Renaissance was born, a compact, walkable jewel on the Arno where Michelangelo’s David, Botticelli’s Venus and Brunelleschi’s impossible dome sit within a few minutes of one another. It is a city of art and…
The Long Way Round – Tuscany Day 3
I woke before the alarm, although I suspect I would have even if I had forgotten to set one. There are some mornings when the light seems to wake you before the world has the chance. I dressed quietly in…
The Best Beaches on the Amalfi Coast
The Amalfi Coast’s beaches are small, dramatic, and mostly pebble, tucked at the foot of the cliffs and often reached down a long flight of steps or by boat. They are not the wide golden sands of a resort, but…
The City to Myself
I woke early in the villa, before the house had quite decided to be awake, and lay for a while watching the light come up green through the shutters, listening to the particular silence that belongs to places built high…
How to Get Around the Amalfi Coast
The Amalfi Coast is strung along one narrow, spectacular, endlessly winding road, and how you move along it will shape your whole trip. The short version: take the ferry when you can, the bus when you must, and think very…
The Best Amalfi Coast Itinerary: 5 to 7 Days
The mistake most people make on the Amalfi Coast is trying to sleep somewhere new every night and spending half the trip dragging luggage up and down the coast road. Do the opposite. Pick a base, unpack once, and let…
Fields of Gold
I woke early, which almost never happens to me, and I think it was the hills that did it. They had spent all of yesterday resting on their ridges in the distance, patient as cats, and sometime during the night…
Where to Stay on the Amalfi Coast
Choosing where to sleep on the Amalfi Coast matters more than almost anywhere, because the town you pick sets the price, the pace and how easily you can move. The trick is to base yourself in one place that fits…
Where the Hills Begin
I left the city in the morning, and for the first hour the road still seemed to have somewhere important to be. Then, without my quite noticing when, it forgot its hurry. The lanes narrowed and began to climb, the…
Hiking on the Amalfi Coast
Behind the beaches and the boutiques, the Amalfi Coast is walking country. Old mule tracks and stone stairways climb between the villages, through lemon groves and along cliffs that fall straight to the sea, and a day on foot up…
