The ferry cuts through the Tyrrhenian Sea toward a cluster of volcanic islands that rise from the water like black jewels. The Aeolian Islands smell of salt and sulphur and wild Mediterranean herbs. Each island has its own personality. Stromboli glows orange at night as lava tumbles down its slope. Lipari offers white pumice beaches […]
Categories: Islands, Italy, Nature, Nature, Sicily, Volcanoes
The Peñón de Ifach rises straight out of the Mediterranean like a giant limestone fist. Calpe sits at its base, a resort town where the prices match the dramatic views. Sun loungers line the beaches in neat rows, and the smell of grilled sardines drifts from waterfront restaurants charging premium rates. The old town offers […]
Categories: Nature, Sights, Spain, Wellness, Relax & Sports
Menorca has escaped the mass tourism that transformed its larger sister Mallorca into a strip of concrete hotel blocks. The second largest of the Balearic Islands has strict building regulations that have preserved its coastline as it was fifty years ago. The Cami de Cavalls, a 185-kilometre coastal path, circles the entire island, passing through […]
Categories: Islands, Nature, Nature, Spain, Wellness, Relax & Sports
Ostuni is la Città Bianca, the White City, one of the most spectacular hill towns in southern Italy, a dazzling cascade of whitewashed houses, staircases, and alleyways rising from the olive groves of Puglia’s Valle d’Itria whose uniformly white-painted architecture (originally a medieval sanitary measure using lime wash to disinfect the streets, now a beloved […]
Aveiro is known as the Venice of Portugal, a charming city on the country’s central coast, south of Porto, whose network of picturesque canals, colourful moliceiro boats (traditional flat-bottomed vessels once used for harvesting seaweed, now converted to gondola-like tourist boats), and elegant Art Nouveau architecture make it one of the most photogenic small cities […]
