Two days in Pisa and Lucca is, to my mind, the most quietly rewarding pairing in this corner of Tuscany, and the itinerary below is the one I keep returning to. Pisa gives you the marble and the myth, the…
Supporting Guide
The Best Things to Do in Bologna
The best things to do in Bologna are the sort you stumble into rather than queue for: a red portico that carries you dry through a rain shower, a market lane thick with the smell of mortadella, a whispering arch…
Bologna Itinerary: 2 Perfect Days (and How to Add a Third)
This Bologna itinerary is the one I actually use when friends land at Bologna Centrale and ask me how to spend a couple of days without exhausting themselves. The good news is that the centre is small, walkable, and roofed…
Where to Stay in Bologna: The Best Areas and Hotels
Working out where to stay in Bologna is easier than it looks, because the city is small, walkable, and wrapped almost end to end in porticoes that make the day’s weather somebody else’s concern. The historic centre is compact enough…
Where to Eat in Bologna: The Food Capital of Italy
Working out where to eat in Bologna is the happiest homework a traveller can be set, because this is the city Italians themselves call la Grassa, the Fat One, and it earns the nickname at every table. Emilia-Romagna is the…
The Best Time to Visit Bologna
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…
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…
