Cortona – The Wild Dogs

Our taxi driver Enzo turned to me flashed a brilliant smile and says: “There is an old saying in Italy, it goes Quando la pecora muore, i cani selvaggi sono fortunati. It means when sheep die, the wild dogs are lucky”. He then proceeds to throw his back and laugh wildly while nearly swerving down...

A Venetian Tragedy

Venice is a city in peril. Slowly sinking from regular flooding, overcrowding from tourists and residents fleeing by the thousands, its popularity threatens to destroy its unique character and mother nature is determined to drown the rest. Each visit Mr 77 and I see water levels higher, steps we once sat on lay submerged, St...

Venice – A 3 day Guide

“At the bridge I stood lately in the brown night. From afar came a song: as a golden drop it welled over the quivering surface. Gondolas, lights, and music — drunken it swam out into the twilight. My soul, a stringed instrument, sang to itself, invisibly touched, a secret gondola song, quivering with iridescent happiness....

Venice – A midnight dream

"If you love someone, Venice will multiply that love" - Harry Cipriani, owner of Harry's Bar. I will begin at the end of our trip to Venice, while my memory is still fresh. It is getting late, almost 11.00pm, when we decide to indulge in a Gondola ride.  The heaving mass of day trippers that...

Selva Val Gardina

"You may have the universe if I may have Italy." - Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer. At 2,681 metres strange things can happen. While we were admiring the sun glinting off the glacier of Mt Marmolada, Mr 77 got whacked in his privates with the pointy end of a Nordic walking stick. I turned to exclaim...

The Dolomites – Bring the Cattle Down from the Mountain Pasture Festival !

Deep in the Val Gardena Valley,  the enchanting town of Selva di Val Gardena nestles amongst the towering peaks of the Sella and Sassolungo mountains in the Dolomites of northern Italy.  It is a place where tradition runs deep and cows are a big deal. The spectacular scenery and my love of quirky festivals led me...

Cortona – A Tuscan delight

“Life offers you a thousand chances... all you have to do is take one.” ― Frances Mayes, Under the Tuscan Sun If a trip to Italy is a feast for all the senses, then visitng Tuscany is sensory overload. Your tastebuds are treated to ripe figs, bold cheeses, salted meats and delicate wine.  Your eyes...

Procida – the enchanting isle!

...There are orchards and vineyards that look like imperial gardens. There are beaches of fine white sand and smaller beaches covered with pebbles and shells, hidden between great cliffs that overhang the water.  Seagulls nest in the rocks there, and wild tortoises, and in the early morning, you can hear the birds cries... On calm...

Ischia – Poetry, Passion, Pirates & Plagues

Once more, once more, Inarime*, I see thy purple hills!--once more I hear the billows of the bay Wash the white pebbles on thy shore. High o'er the sea-surge and the sands, Like a great galleon wrecked and cast ashore by storms, thy castle stands, A mouldering landmark of the Past... Birds of Passage,  Flight...

Naples – Pompeii and Herculaneum

Perhaps Mother Nature is punishing us, he thought, for our greed and selfishness. We torture her at all hours by iron and wood, fire and stone. We dig her up and dump her in the sea. We sink mineshafts into her and drag out her entrails - and all for a jewel to wear on...