Where you sleep in Tuscany shapes the whole trip, more than almost anywhere I know. Base yourself well and the region unfolds around you in easy day trips, with long golden evenings on a terrace; base yourself badly and you…
The Best Time to Visit Tuscany
Tuscany changes its whole character with the seasons, more than most places, because the landscape itself is the attraction and the landscape is never the same twice. The green, poppy-scattered hills of May are a different world from the gold,…
The Perfect Tuscany Itinerary
Tuscany does not want to be rushed. The temptation, with so many famous towns so close together, is to tick them off one after another until they blur into a single golden smear of stone and vines. Do not do…
The Complete Guide to Portofino
There is a moment, coming around the last curve of the coast road, when Portofino simply appears. One second there is only sea and green hillside, and the next there it is, that impossible little stack of ochre and rose…
Portofino – the First Day
You arrive in Portofino, and it is smaller than you imagined, and then, almost immediately, it feels exactly the right size. The road ends because there is nowhere left for it to go. The hills fold themselves gently into the…
The Best Things to Do in Florence
There is a version of Florence you can see in a rushed day, ticking off the David and the dome and calling it done, and there is the Florence I love, which reveals itself slowly across churches and gardens and…
