There is a moment, usually on the vaporetto in from the airport or stepping off the train at Santa Lucia, when Venice stops being an idea and becomes a set of very specific decisions. The first of them is where…
luxury travel
Where to Stay in Verona
Where you sleep in Verona matters more than in most cities, because the whole pleasure of the place is its early mornings and late evenings, the Arena at dawn before the crowds and the squares at midnight after them. Stay…
Where to Stay on Lake Garda
Lake Garda is not one destination but four or five, and the base you choose does more to shape your holiday than almost anything else you decide. Pick the wrong shore and you spend your mornings in the car; pick…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Victoria’s Complete Guide To Capri
White cliffs. Blue water. The most photographed island in Italy and somehow still worth every photograph. What to book before you come Capri is an island whose coastline is the whole point of it, and you cannot see that coastline…
Capri Is For Lovers – A Private Boat Tour
Capri Is for Lovers The first time I came to Capri, I was small enough that my father carried me up the steps from the marina. He carried me until I asked him not to, and I remember the moment…
Victoria’s Complete Guide to Atrani, Amalfi Coast
The smallest town in Italy. The least photographed mile of the most photographed coastline in the world. A beach that still belongs to the people who live above it. What to book before you come Atrani is the smallest town…
Atrani Beach Club, Amalfi Coast
A journal entry by Victoria Van Der Berg The pebbles are dark here. That is the first thing. On the other side of the headland, they are pale grey, almost white, the kind that photograph well and end up on…
