Italy Heaven
It’s wisteria season in Venice, and over the last week in April I was on a mission to appreciate some of the city’s finest wisteria blooms. Spring is a glorious time to be in the city. Gorgeous purple and white … Read the rest
Watching a football match in Venice is a unique experience – for now, anyway. The city’s football club, Venezia FC, play their matches at the historic Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo, a stadium on an island at the eastern end of … Read the rest
Believe it or not, there are still some secrets in Venice, and these are my top Venice secrets for 2026. Nowadays almost every ‘hidden gem’ has been discovered and shared widely. Very little is truly unknown – and who would … Read the rest
It was almost by accident that I found myself attending several days of the 2026 Venice Carnival and I enjoyed it more than I expected, as you’ll probably be able to see from the photos here. Frankly, I usually avoid … Read the rest
There’s not much to Altino nowadays: a few houses scattered along a country road on the Veneto mainland, a church and a museum. If you didn’t know its backstory, this patch of flat reclaimed farmland near the Venetian lagoon would … Read the rest
Lio Piccolo in the Venetian lagoon makes an unusual and very different day out from Venice and is also an attractive destination for a bike excursion for visitors staying in local beach resorts such as Lido di Jesolo and Cavallino. … Read the rest
Last month I stayed for one night at the Residenza Veneziana in Venice, a small not-quite-hotel with elegant B&B rooms near St Mark’s. I paid €98 for a double room in February just before the Carnival; one of the cheapest … Read the rest
‘Zu’ Sarino’ (‘Uncle Sarino’ in dialect), or more properly Rosario Santamaria, was a self-taught ‘outsider’ artist who was born, lived and worked on the island of Favignana (Sicily).
Before my most recent visit to Favignana I watched an Italian TV … Read the rest
Netflix movie The Love Scam (Mica è colpa mia is the Italian title), is set and filmed in the southern Italian city of Naples (Napoli). Directed by Umberto Carteni, the Italian-language film stars Antonio Folletto, Laura Adriani and Vincenzo … Read the rest
Italy as a tourist destination excels in pretty much every area, from art cities to mountain adventure. The country’s great attractions, like Venice and the Amalfi Coast, are rightly celebrated. But with the increasingly-publicised problems of overtourism, travellers might understandably … Read the rest