If you want the short answer to the best time to visit Bologna, here it is: spring, from April to June, and early autumn, September into October. Those are the weeks when the light turns the porticoes honey-gold, the temperature…
Supporting Guide
The Best Photo Spots in Bologna
The best photo spots in Bologna are not the ones that shout loudest, and that is exactly why I love photographing this city. Bologna hands you red terracotta, endless arcades and a low golden light that seems made for a…
How to Get to Bologna and Get Around
Working out how to get to Bologna is one of the easiest jobs in Italian travel, because the city sits at the exact crossing point of the country’s fast-rail network. Trains from Milan, Venice, Florence and Rome all funnel through…
The Best Day Trips from Bologna
The best day trips from Bologna are the kind that ruin you a little, because they make you realise how much sits within an hour of a city most people rush through. Bologna is the rail hub of northern Italy,…
Hidden Gems in Bologna
The best hidden gems in Bologna are not really hidden at all, they are simply overlooked by people hurrying between the two famous towers and a plate of tagliatelle. This is a city that rewards the slow walker, the one…
The Best Things to Do in Milan
I have arrived in Milan more times than I can count, usually off a train from somewhere else, and for years I made the mistake of treating it as a place to change platforms rather than a place to stay….
Where to Stay in Milan: My Neighbourhood Guide
I have stayed in Milan in every season and in nearly every mood the city offers, from a frantic Fashion Week when a room felt like a small miracle to a slow, grey January when I had the Navigli towpaths…
Where to Eat in Milan: From Risotto to Aperitivo
Milan has a reputation for being all business and no soul, and I have never once found that to be true at the table. This is a city that turns saffron into gold, that breads a veal chop until it…
How to Get to Milan (and Around Once You Arrive)
I have arrived in Milan more ways than I can count: bleary off a long-haul into Malpensa, breezing in on the M4 from Linate with an hour to spare before dinner, and rolling under the great iron canopy of Centrale…
The Best Time to Visit Milan: A Month-by-Month Guide
I have arrived in Milan in every kind of weather. In a damp February when the fog sat low over the Duomo and my breath hung in the air outside a cafe on Via Montenapoleone. In a blazing July when…
The Best Photo Spots in Milan
I have photographed Milan in every season, and I still arrive with a full memory card and a longer list than I can finish. This is a city that rewards people who look up, look down at the mosaic beneath…
The Best Day Trips from Milan
I have always thought Milan is at its most generous not in what it holds, but in what it puts within reach. Give me a morning, a coffee taken standing at the bar, and a ticket bought from a machine…
