Blogs from Italy, Europe - page 5

After an appx 2 hour train ride from Florence, we arrive in Cinque Terre (pronounced Chink weh Tay reh). The name refers to 5 Villages that hug the rugged coast line as part of the Italian Riviera. Up until about 1990, the area was a relatively obscure tourist destination with a few visitors mainly from France, Germany and other European countries. When Rick Steves, the American travel writer, discovered it, the area became the 4th most popular travel destinations in Italy, behind Rome, Florence and Venice. In the early days prior to the “tourism takeover”, the main attraction in Cinque Terre was the Via Delle Amore, or ”walk of love”. The trail connected two of the villages, Manarola and Riomaggiore and when opened, it dramatically improved relationships between these once isolated communities. Young people, who rarely ... read more

Our friends arrived around the same time at Villa Ivana on Saturday to begin our 7 day stay in the Cortona area. The 9 bedroom Villa is an historical property that is nestled on a hillside within minutes of the old town. It is very spacious and reasonably comfortable with outdoor pool and a large pergola covered patio. It was fortunate that the large facility allowed some space for isolation, although 3 out of the 5 couples ended up positive with Covid, some showing mild to no symptoms. For the first few days, our plans were somewhat restricted but eventually we were able to get out and enjoy some of the attractions in the area. Cortona is on the south east portion on Tuscany, close to the Umbria border. The old town’s origins can be traced ... read more

Our 3 week Italy trip actually started with a Toronto-Zurich overnight AC flight. From the airport we took the train to Chur, a small town about 1 1/2 outside of Zurich, for an over night stay and to catch the Bernina Express the next day. This 4 hour rail passage through the Swiss Alps was an excellent way to shake off the jet lag and enjoy some striking scenery on the way to northern Italy. We rented an apartment in the small town of Varenna for the 3 days we were in Lake Como area. Varenna is one several small cobblestoned towns along the shores of the lake that are connected with frequent ferry service. Lake Como is one of Italy’s largest fresh water lake (Lake Garda is the largest). It sits at the base of ... read more

Leaving the Rifugio Nuvolau on my fifth day on the Alta Via 1, there was a choice of onward route - either backtracking downhill to the Rifugio Averau and contouring around the base of the mountain, or dropping straight down the southern face of the mountain on a Via Ferrata route. With a full pack on my back the former seemed to be the only smart choice. With the cable cars having not yet started running for the day, the walk down was both scenic and peaceful... until I reached the road crossing at Passo Giau to be confronted by hordes of day-trippers starting out on their own hikes. But the scrum was soon left behind as I continued on the south side of the road (which seemed to attract only a fraction of the people ... read more

The plan for today is to take a trip to the town of Matera which is around 80 kms inland from Monopoli. It seems to come up pretty regularly on lists of must-see places in Italy, so why then do they seem to have made it so hard to get to? Maybe the plan is to stop it getting overrun with tourists? If that’s the case why haven’t they tried something similar in places that are already overrun, like say Venice - surely it wouldn’t be that hard to blow up the only bridge and make people swim there. Anyway, back to the real world … My ever-reliable app that shows us how we can get from anywhere to anywhere else in the world tells me that I can get there on a bus …. in ... read more