The Gardens of Ninfa (Giardino di Ninfa) are widely considered the most romantic garden in the world, a hauntingly beautiful English-style landscape garden created among the atmospheric ruins of a medieval ghost town in the Lazio countryside, just south of Rome. Declared a Natural Monument of the Italian Republic and described by The New York […]
Categories: Gardens, Italy, Nature, Nature, Virtual Travel
The Ponte Vecchio is the only Florentine bridge to survive the Second World War intact. On August 4, 1944, as the German army retreated across the Arno, they dynamited every bridge in the city. Ponte Vecchio was spared. Instead, the mines blew up the buildings at both ends, blocking access, but the bridge itself stood. […]
The Colosseum is 1,935 years old and it is still the largest amphitheatre ever built. The outer wall originally rose 48 metres, the height of a modern 16-storey building, and the arena floor covered 3,357 square metres. It held 50,000 spectators who entered through 80 numbered arches. The building was completed in 80 AD under […]
Categories: Cities, Italy, Rome, Sights, Sights, Virtual Travel
A thousand years of rain and frost, and the glacier that once covered the Ritten plateau melted 10,000 years ago. What it left behind is a forest of earth pillars capped by boulders that look as though a giant dropped them from a great height. The pillars cluster in a ravine above the village of […]
Filicudi is the third smallest of the seven Aeolian Islands and the least visited after Alicudi. The permanent population hovers around 250 people. There is one bank, one pharmacy, one school with a single teacher, and a handful of restaurants that close for lunch. The island has no airport, no ferry from the mainland, and […]
Mount Etna is the largest active volcano in Europe and the most frequently erupting volcano on Earth. It has been erupting for at least 500,000 years. In 2021 alone it erupted more than 50 times. The locals call it Mungibeddu in Sicilian, and they have learned to live with a mountain that could, at any […]
Categories: Islands, Italy, Nature, Nature, Sicily, Volcanoes
The Cascate del Serio is the tallest waterfall in Italy at 315 metres, and it is only visible for a few hours each week. The water is regulated by a hydroelectric dam upstream, and the valve that releases the water into the natural falls is opened on a fixed schedule. The rest of the time […]
Categories: Italy, Nature, Nature, Waterfalls
Deep in the southeastern corner of Sicily, a hidden world of limestone cliffs and emerald pools awaits your discovery. Cava Grande del Cassibile is not just a canyon. It is a natural cathedral carved by water over millennia. The hiking trail winds down into the gorge, passing ancient rock shelters and wild olive trees. At […]
Five fishing villages cling to the rugged Ligurian coast, their pastel houses stacked like children’s blocks against the steep cliffs. The trails that connect them wind through terraced vineyards and fragrant lemon groves. Monterosso has the beach. Vernazza has the harbour. Corniglia sits highest, reached by a long staircase. Manarola and Riomaggiore face the sunset […]
Categories: Italy, National Parks, Nature, Nature, Virtual Travel
The scent of espresso and fresh pastries drifts from a doorway as the morning sun warms centuries of travertine and cobblestone. In Rome, history does not sit quietly in museums. It rises from the pavements, arches overhead in ancient aqueducts, and peeks through cracks in medieval walls. The rumble of Vespas mingles with church bells […]