As a complete shoe obsessive I made sure that the first thing I prioritised on my first ever visit to Rome was buying some beautiful Italian leather shoes. The only problem on that particular short trip was that I had just 4 hours to spare in the Eternal City before I had to catch a […]

He’s shaken the hands of every celebrity you can think of from Quentin Tarantino, Robert De Niro and Angelica Houston to Kirk Douglas and Samuel L. Jackson – the list goes on. But unlike the average fan, Dante Mortet has gone on to make bronze sculptures of those very hands, becoming one of the Hollywood […]

When interviewing a native Roman hotelier who’d set up a boutique hotel in Cambodia I learned a little about her home city. She said in her charming Italian accent: ‘Your eyes are spoiled in Rome; living there you’re used to seeing beautiful things everywhere you look.’ Some years later when visiting Rome on a shopping trip I […]

Imagine trying to get job satisfaction when the best testament to the skill of your work is no-one having a clue you’ve done anything at all. This bizarre ideal is the ultimate goal within the intense world of fine art conservation, as I learn while meeting a husband and wife art restoration team in Rome… ‘Being a good art […]

This guest post is a real departure – I’ve let my Canadian fiancé get a word in for once – to share his experience of travelling to Europe for the first time since moving to the UK:  a weekend skiing in Cortina. He explains what skiing and snowboarding in the Dolomites feels like from the perspective […]

Weekend Shortcuts are complete guides to weekends away, written specifically to help you enjoy a perfect mini break without needing to do any additional research. This weekend shortcut tells you EVERYTHING you need to know to plan a perfect weekend in the town they call the Queen of the Dolomites; Cortina d’Ampezzo, in Northern Italy. Despite being best known as […]

It’s like a dream come true for a girl to visit not just one but 12 Italian jewellery stores and learn about gem stones, design and precious metals from classically trained Roman jewellers. It’s even more perfect when these happen to be Rome’s best hand-crafted jewellery boutiques, all on the official list of the 28 best shops in Rome. […]

Italy is of course famous for food, but its cities are also celebrated for iconic fashion, classic style and luxurious shopping. So when I was asked to spend a weekend in Italy, meet the 28 best artisans in the Eternal City, and visit the best shops in Rome, it was an invitation I was unlikely to turn down. Here’s what […]

I’ve been asked the same two questions consistently since I began travel writing. Firstly: How do you make money? Secondly: What’s your favourite country? The answer to question 2 is Italy! (question 1 would take more than a single word to answer!). It may be an utter cliche to say that the best things about Italy […]

One thing that pulls me back to Italy time and time again is its underdog cities – yes I love Rome and Florence, but give me unsung urban heroes like Genoa and Turin and I’m truly happy….

It’s been quite a year for me and my travels; I wrote about the best bits of the financial year in an earlier post: How To Do An End Of Year Tax Assessment Travel Blogger Style – so I decided to round up my top travel memories from the rest of 2013. They are…

Tiramisu is the legend of Italian deserts – everyone’s heard of it and almost everyone knows it means ‘pick me up’. So it’s surprising to learn that the dish didn’t even exist until at least the late 1960’s. As one of my favourite puddings I seek it out all over the world and I’ve had […]

This is a true slice of rural back-to-basics Italian cookery; walking through the plentiful land surrounding a quintessential Tuscan villa, down steep verdant hills and into the flourishing vegetable garden I crouch down to hand-pick huge succulent tomatoes. Together with my friends we collect the fruit in baskets and the folds of our aprons, then, glass of wine […]

Everyone who know me knows what a sweet tooth I have. So when I signed up for a residential cookery course at a secluded villa in the heart of the Tuscan countryside, plum jam making was one session I was never going to miss. It turns out that making your own jam – with a […]

If ever there was a time to call to mind a Hamlet soliloquy, I’d say mid-stargaze is that time. Which of us doesn’t seek out beautiful night skies on our trips? Man by nature is in love with ‘this most excellent canopy the air…this brave over hanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire…this congregation […]

Remember the bad old days when our idea of Parmesan was that powdery substance we’d sprinkle on spaghetti through tiny holes in the top of a cardboard shaker? Little did I know that decades later this condiment would make way for the real deal when something called a rocket and parmesan salad would become de […]

I always seek out cycling opportunities wherever I go, but rarely have I found a city as cycle-friendly and indeed as cycle-photo-friendly as Bologna. Beautiful bikes became synonymous with my time in Emilia Romagna’s university city – here are my favourite Bologna photos which showcase the beauty of the bike… 

What’s your worst culinary habit? Mine’s pouring copious amounts of balsamic vinegar over anything and everything, so I was interested to find out a bit more about the stuff I’ve been practically drinking out the bottle for most of my adult life. But despite all my conspicuous consumption of aceto balsamico I didn’t know any […]

‘It’s marvellous this tortellini with ricotta cheese’ exclaims Daniela, whose traditional family pasta shop has been here in Bologna’s Mercato della Erbe for 70 years. It’s where she and sister Monica hand make lasagna, tortellini and tortelloni for the people of  Emilia Romagna, helped by their mother Renata. ‘Is this one your favourite?’ I ask. ‘Everything here is […]

Turin might be best-known for Winter Olympics, Fiat and Lancia factories and that eponymous Shroud but it turns out that the once-industrial hub is hiding an artistic secret, for nestled in the Alps of Northern Italy is a contemporary art epicentre bursting with challenging and inspiring contemporary art. Here are the top 5 modern art galleries in […]

Paris may be known as the City of Light, but Turin is making a bid to be the City of Lights, as its avenues and squares, its Roman walls, and even its public bicycles are adorned with light installations for the Winter. But these are no mere gaudy Christmas baubles, they’re an all-encompassing city-wide endeavour to make […]

Italy obsessives seeking-out their next Mediterranean weekend away should look no further than Genoa, where the palatial Melia Genoa hotel provides the perfect refined and romantic base from which to explore this port town‘s twisting caruggi, waterside attractions and enticing culinary delights.

. Genoa, Genova, Genes  – whatever you call the city you may not realise it gave the world these 5 super-famous things. How many have you heard of?…

‘There are over 100 Ferraris parked in the underground garages of the city’ reveals Stefania, my host at the Melia Hotel in the heart of the Northern Italian city of Genoa. ‘But,’ she leans in conspiratorially to explain ‘you never see them driving through the streets. That’s because the Genoese people aren’t ostentatious, they are […]

What’s in a name? Well as it turns out rather a lot. The right name can really take you places  – and in the case of Eataly be the catalyst for a lot of income. This is a culinary example of how to turn a clever moniker into cold hard cash. It is a high-class, […]

If you’re looking for a the perfect place to stay in Perugia Hotel Gio just outside the city’s centro storico offers you two hotels rolled into one, with a choice of distinctive themes  – one will jazz up your stay and the other will have you clinking glasses and popping corks. Sound enticing?… As soon as […]

How often have you looked at places on a map and drifted off into a reverie, imagining what each destination must be like in real life? We travel lovers tend to be incorrigible cartophiles too, stroking our fingers over the exotic-sounding place-names written in a strange tongue, making our hearts beat that little bit faster, causing our minds to […]

Stick a pin in a map where you imagine the very centre of Italy to be and you’ll probably hit Lago Trasimeno – the oldest lake in Italy. Overshadowed by well-publicised show-stoppers like Lake Como nudging the Swiss border up in the North, the fourth-largest lake in the country boasts an all together more laid-back […]

A group of travel bloggers are challenged to hand-make a perfect batch of chocolates at the Perugina chocolate factory just outside Perugia in Umbria, Italy. Watch the video to see what happened next…

They said it couldn’t be done, but they hadn’t counted on my determination…or my love of Italian footwear. I had just 4 precious hours in Rome – enough time to swing by the Colosseum, snap the Spanish Steps, try out the Trevi fountain, and buy 3 pairs of shoes! Here’s how to tackle a short layover in Rome…

Can you shop ‘til you drop in the Italian fashion capital, and still come home feeling virtuous? It turns out you can thanks to the city’s amazing outlet shopping. So here’s how to shop for amazing designer bargains in Milan on a high street budget… Think of Milan and let’s face it, high fashion is what […]