Some questions announce themselves the moment you ask them, and “when should I go to Lake Maggiore?” is one. The honest answer is late April to early October, with the gardens quietly deciding the calendar for everyone else. This is…
Supporting Guide
Where to Eat on Lake Maggiore
A morning on Lake Maggiore has a rhythm, and much of it is decided at the table. The water here has fed the villages for centuries, and you can still taste that history in a plate of perch or a…
Where to Stay on Lake Maggiore
Choosing where to sleep on Lake Maggiore is really a question of what you want to wake up to. The lake stretches for some sixty-five kilometres between Piedmont and Ticino, and each town along its shore keeps its own particular…
The Perfect Lake Maggiore Itinerary
There is a particular light on Lake Maggiore in the hour after breakfast, when the mist lifts off the water and the Borromean Islands seem to float rather than sit on the surface. I have come back to this corner…
The Best Things to Do on Lake Maggiore
Lake Maggiore has a way of rearranging your priorities. You arrive with a list and a schedule, and within a day the lake has quietly persuaded you that the only sensible plan is to follow the ferries, chase the light…
The Borromean Islands: A Complete Guide
Some places hold their reputation lightly, and then there are the Borromean Islands, three small scraps of land in the Borromean Gulf that have been drawing travellers across the water for centuries and have never once disappointed me. I have…
The Best Day Trips from Amalfi
The best day trips from Amalfi are the ones you can begin without a plan and without a car, because the town hands you two departure points and asks nothing else of you. There is the harbour, where the ferries…
The Beaches of Amalfi
The beaches of Amalfi are not the reason most people fall in love with the town, and I think it is only fair to say so at the start. The town beach is functional, a working strip of sand between…
How to Get to Amalfi
Everyone who asks me how to get to Amalfi is quietly hoping the answer is simple, and it is, once you accept the first truth of this coast: Amalfi has no airport and no railway station. You cannot land here…
Where to Stay in Amalfi
The question of where to stay in Amalfi is really a question about how you want to spend your days, and my answer, after many returns, is that Amalfi is the most rational base on this coast. It sits in…
Where to Eat in Amalfi
The question of where to eat in Amalfi has a short answer and a long one, and the short answer is that you should walk away from the cathedral before you sit down anywhere. The town is small, folded into…
The Duomo di Amalfi: Visiting the Cathedral of Sant’Andrea
There is a moment, when you first look up at the Duomo di Amalfi from the piazza below, when the town seems to hold its breath. The Cathedral of Sant’Andrea rises above the square on its long flight of steps,…
