Pisa and Lucca sit less than twenty miles apart in the flat green plain of the Serchio valley, and yet the two of them could hardly feel more different. One is a river city that most people arrive at in…
Venice – The Most Serene
Venice diary, entry 4 of 5 I practised early again, before the light had found its way down into the canal, playing quietly by the open window until the first delivery boats began to move below and the city cleared…
Venice – The Painted Islands
Venice diary, entry 3 of 5 I practised the violin again before the city was properly awake, this time on a small wooden altana above the rooftops, one of those improbable platforms the Venetians built centuries ago so their women…
Victoria’s Complete Guide to Bologna
Bologna is the city I keep coming back to, the one I recommend to friends who tell me they have “done” Italy and are quietly tired of queuing more than they get to look. Bologna will not make you queue….
Bologna – Under the Porticoes
I arrived in the late afternoon, when Bologna does its oldest trick and turns the colour of a blood orange. They call it the red city and you understand why the moment you step out from under the station, before…
Venice – City of Lovers
Venice diary, entry 2 of 5 I practise the violin before I do anything else, wherever I happen to wake, and this morning I played at a window thrown open over a canal so narrow I could almost have passed…
