I woke before the alarm, although I suspect I would have even if I had forgotten to set one. There are some mornings when the light seems to wake you before the world has the chance. I dressed quietly in…
italy
Fields of Gold
I woke early, which almost never happens to me, and I think it was the hills that did it. They had spent all of yesterday resting on their ridges in the distance, patient as cats, and sometime during the night…
Where the Hills Begin
I left the city in the morning, and for the first hour the road still seemed to have somewhere important to be. Then, without my quite noticing when, it forgot its hurry. The lanes narrowed and began to climb, the…
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…
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…
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
Amalfi There is a particular confusion that afflicts most visitors to this part of Italy. They say they are going to the Amalfi Coast. They book a hotel in Positano, take photographs from a terrace above the sea, eat a…
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
A Guide to the Vertical Town The road from Sorrento gives no warning. You round a curve above the sea, the hillside terraced with lemon groves, and then the town simply appears below you, stacked up the cliff in shades…
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…
