The Amalfi Coast is one of the most photogenic places in Italy, but its best pictures come from a handful of specific vantage points, and knowing exactly where to stand and when is the whole game. These are the spots…
Archives for July 2026
When to Visit the Amalfi Coast: A Month-by-Month Guide
The Amalfi Coast has a short, glorious season and a long, sleepy off-season, and picking the right window changes everything, the weather, the crowds, the prices, even whether the ferries are running. The short answer is late May to June…
Under the Roman Sun
I woke before the heat had settled over the city and went out to meet its oldest streets while they were still half asleep. Rome in the early morning feels like another place entirely. The shutters remained mostly closed, cafés…
The House Above Florence
I came to Florence the slow way, as I always seem to, and I came to a house rather than a hotel. My aunt takes a villa in the hills above the city most summers, an old place with faded…
The Best Things to Do in Rome
No city on earth has more unmissable sights crammed into a walkable centre than Rome. That is a blessing and a small danger, because it is easy to spend your visit sprinting from one monument to the next and never…
Where to Stay in Rome: The Best Neighbourhoods
In Rome, the neighbourhood you choose matters more than the hotel itself, because each district gives you a completely different city to wake up in. The good news is that the historic centre is compact and walkable, so almost any…
The Sacred and the Ordinary: A Day Across Rome’s River
On the third morning, I crossed the river before the heat. Rome was not awake yet, or not entirely. The shutters were still closed along the streets, and the light on the Tiber was pale, almost without colour. A few…
Visiting the Vatican: A Complete Guide to St Peter’s and the Museums
There are places in Rome you visit, and then there is the Vatican, which you are briefly allowed inside. The smallest country in the world sits on a hill across the Tiber, barely a hundred acres of it, and yet…
3 Days in Rome: A Perfect Itinerary
Three days is the sweet spot for a first visit to Rome. It is long enough to stand inside the ancient city, cross the river to the Vatican, and still leave an afternoon for gardens and quiet corners, without the…
Victoria’s Complete Guide to Rome
Rome is not a city you see so much as one you step into. Almost three thousand years of it are stacked one layer on the next, a temple beneath a church beneath an apartment block, an emperor’s racetrack that…
Rome – The Long Way In
The train ran north out of Naples through the middle of the afternoon, and I watched the coast give way to hills, and the hills flatten into the long, golden plain that finally becomes Rome. I had just spent days…
Naples – The City That Lets You Stay
I woke in Naples before I meant to. The shutters were still open from the night before. I had left them that way on purpose, too greedy for the city to close it out, and so the morning came in…
