The first thing I tell anyone who arrives on this stretch of the Ligurian Riviera dreaming of golden sand is to adjust the picture in their head, gently. Portofino is one of the most photographed corners of Italy, but it…
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Bellagio – the First Day
There is a particular quiet that comes off a lake. It is not the quiet of the sea, which is really only distance. It is closer than that, held in by the mountains, the way a room holds a conversation…
The Best Photo Spots in Portofino
Portofino is tiny, and that is precisely what makes it so photogenic. The whole village folds around a single deep-green harbour, the pastel houses stacked so tightly they seem to lean on one another, and everything you might want to…
The Best Things to Do in Portofino
The trick with Portofino is that it is tiny, and knowing this changes everything about how you spend your time. The village wraps around a single small harbour, and you can walk from one end of it to the other…
How to Get to Portofino (and Get Around)
Portofino is small, so small that the question of how to reach it matters more than the map suggests. There is no motorway exit with its name on it, no airport, no train station of its own. The village sits…
Portofino – the Third Day
When I woke this morning, I decided not to chase anything. The sea would still be there tomorrow, the harbour would still be beautiful, and the paths would wait as they always have. Some places ask you to see more….
Portofino – the Second Day
Some days you give to the town, and some you give to the sea. This one belonged to the water from the moment I woke, when the light on the ceiling was already moving the way it only does when…
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…
Where to Eat in Florence
Florentine food is not delicate. It is bread and beans and dark green olive oil, offal sandwiches eaten standing up, and a steak so large and so rare it is meant for sharing. Eat well here and you eat like…
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…
How to Visit the Uffizi, the Accademia and the Duomo
Florence is where the Renaissance was born, and its three great sights, the Uffizi, the Accademia and the Duomo complex, hold the works that made it famous: Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, Michelangelo’s David, Brunelleschi’s impossible dome. They are also the…
Where to Stay in Florence
Florence is small, and that changes how you think about where to stay: almost anywhere in the historic centre puts you within a fifteen-minute walk of the Duomo, so the choice is less about distance and more about atmosphere. Do…
