Renting a motorboat for a few hours of jetting around the lake is the absolute must for any stay on Como. You simply do not get to see many of the most striking sights when you stay on shore. And even for villas that are open for public visits, you…
There are plenty of grand villas and gardens to be visited around Lake Como. Villa Carlotta is among the must-visit destinations. The mansion itself is fairly impressive and holds a reasonable collection of art, but it is the botanic garden that is the main attraction. Built into the steep mountain…
When you visit Lake Como, you would be well advised not to stay in just one place. You have to move around, to visit different lakeside villages, to take in as many breathtaking views as possible. The lake is one endless sequence of picturesque spots. Here is a small sampling.…
During our stay on Lake Como, we rented a townhouse in Sala Comacina. The tiny village squeezes itself in the space between the shore and the main road, facing off to the only island that graces the lake. Not a destination in itself, Sala Comacina is significantly quieter than nearby…
Ok, I admit, I am a bit obsessive. Now that I started to pay attention to how many World Heritage sites I’ve visited, I am looking for opportunities to increase my tally. Actually, in Tuscany, I have already been – more than once in practically all cases – to most…
Despite all of the attempts the tour-books made to convince me that there is plenty to do and see in Pisa beyond its singular top sight, it remains a one-location city for me after several visits. The fantastic Piazza del Duomo (also colloquially known as Piazza dei Miracoli), the home…
A follow-up photo-essay from more recent trip can be found here. Many tour-books call San Gimignano “Manhattan of Tuscany”, on account of a dozen or so surviving medieval towers that form a veritable skyscraper cluster. The towers attract huge crowds of tourists to the town whose ancient core remains attractive…
A follow-up photo-essay from more recent trip can be found here. It defies explanation, but on my half a dozen visits to Siena I never managed a good photographic shot of its famous main square, Piazza del Campo. I have plenty of shots taken on the square, but none that…
A follow-up photo-essay from more recent trip can be found here. Venice is among the best-photographed cities in our archives, and deservedly so. It is unique, beautiful and utterly amazing. The view from Ponte dell’Accademia towards the church of Santa Maria della Salute and the mouth of the Grand Canal…
Some people come to Rome for its millenia of history. Others may be attracted by the treasures found in the Vatican Museum as well as a number of lesser known galleries. Yet others explore architectural beauty of its many churches and palaces. Me, I come to Rome for its squares.…
The bonus side effect of my recently started new series is that perusing our photo archives I come across an occasional cool picture that I never posted anywhere. For instance, here is a shot of a pavement artist at work. It was taken in Florence, but could have been taken…
Boy, this is not a simple task, picking just a few shots of Florence. I’ve been to the city several times and I can never get enough of it, so it is no surprise that we accumulated quite a lot of photographic memories over time. The funny thing is, my…
I have been fairly brief so far in my descriptions of the places that we stayed at during the big summer holiday. A more expansive overview is likely due. So, for those interested, here is an entirely subjective comparative look at L’Estartit on Costa Brava in Catalunya, Roquebrune-sur-Argens on French…
One stat that I omitted in my previous post was the number of gelato flavors sampled by the family. The exact count, in fact, escapes me, and likely cannot be extracted from Natasha’s travel diary, since she must have omitted some of the less enthusiastically received flavors. But an intelligent…