italy

Nothing prepared me for my first sight of Venice. I stood on the deck of the Vaporetto, the public ferry in Venice, with my luggage at my feet, mouth agog. As we puttered into the Grand Canal, the main waterway was alive with activity and I found plenty of...

Mention Lake Como and most people think of George Clooney, Mel Gibson or Madonna. For centuries, Lake Como has inspired poets, novelists, composers and movie stars with its beauty from Mark Twain to Winston Churchill, Elizabeth Taylor and Clark Gable. A picturesque region with charming villas, lovely gardens, cobblestone villages...

Exploring Grand Palaces, seeing Egyptian mummies and gazing at the Holy Shroud are some of the things to do in Turin. This majestic baroque city sits at the top of the Italian boot and is bordered by France to the west and Switzerland to the north. What's most significant about...

The last glimpse of Milan fades away in the rear vision mirror of our rented Fiat. Cars zip by and trucks hurtle past along the highway. Our destination is the relatively unknown town of Varallo drawn by the Sacred Mountain of Varallo or Sacro Monte di Varallo. Sacro Monte di...

Rocks the size of body parts fly above us in an orange fizz. The earth rumbles and a pungent mushroom of sulphur puffs up from the abyss. Hiking Stromboli may not be as difficult as climbing Kilimanjaro but there hike is quite astonishing. We are standing on the lip of...

The northern Italian city of Milan is one of the world's fashion capitals and a worthy rival to London and Paris. Partly because of that, there is a well-developed modern infrastructure to cater to both locals and visitors. The city has a population of 1.4 million, with almost another...