Naples does not ease you in. I came in by train, and the city started before I had even left the platform. The carriage doors opened onto heat and noise and a river of people already moving, and I stepped…
Archives for July 2026
Victoria’s Complete Guide to Naples
I arrived in Naples on a train so red it looked like a provocation. The Frecciarossa pulled into Napoli Centrale in the middle of the afternoon, and the city hit me the way it always hits people who don’t know…
The Blue of Capri
There is a version of Capri that disappears every morning. Most people never meet her. They arrive with the first ferries carrying cameras, linen hats, reservations, and plans. They inherit an island already awake, already performing itself, already smiling for…
Under the Same Sky
The invitations arrived two days earlier. A friend of a friend had invited us onto a yacht off the Amalfi Coast. There would be dinner. Music. Fireworks after sunset. I almost declined. There is something about celebrations that can make…
The Pink Beach Club
The beach clubs in Maiori are not all the same color. This was the first thing I noticed, arriving the evening before, watching the coastline settle into dusk from the window of a taxi that had taken longer than it…
Victoria’s Complete Guide to Amalfi
What to book before you come Amalfi is the flattest town on this coast and the easiest to walk, so very little needs buying. The exception is the water, and the valley behind the town that almost nobody walks up….
Victoria’s Complete Guide to Maiori and Minori
The Eastern Shore: Where the Amalfi Coast Stops Performing The road east from Amalfi tells you immediately that something is about to change. The cliff face loosens its grip on the sea. The terraced lemon groves flatten into something more…
Positively, Positano
The boats were already out when I got down to the water. Not fishing, not yet, just sitting there in the pink light with their ropes slack, Carpielene and Coilaboha and the others, names painted on hulls that had clearly…
Victoria’s Complete Guide To Positano, Italy
What to book before you come Positano is vertical, expensive and worth it, and the two things I would spend money on both start at the jetty. Everything else here is a staircase and staircases are free. A shared boat…
Journey into the Valle Delle Ferriere
The room had a green tiled floor.
With Love, From Ravello
The piazza was empty when I arrived. A café table stood in the centre of the square, two chairs pulled slightly apart as though someone had just left. The cathedral behind it was catching the first real light of the…
Victoria’s Complete Guide To Ravello, Italy
What to book before you come Ravello sits three hundred and fifty metres above the coast and is reached by a bus up a series of hairpins, which is why it is quiet when Positano is not. Almost nothing here…
