Italy

A Morning in Venice

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En route to a wedding in Tirol, we decided to make a stopover in Venice. The Venice Marco Polo airport was a couple of hours drive from the Ötztal Alps, where the wedding would be held, and seemed like as good a way as any to reach our final destination. We’d been wanting to visit Venice for a while, although the plan was always to go in winter when it’s less crowded. Both of us had been to Venice briefly before in summer on separate occasions and remembered clearly the tremendous crush of tourists and oppressively hot weather. Continue reading →

Road Trip through Europe: Bussana Vecchia

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In summer, we did a 10 day road trip through parts of Germany, Switzerland, Italy and France. Our itinerary was: Berlin – Weimar – Heidelburg – Freiburg – Lucerne – Lake Como – La-Spezia – Cinque Terre – Bussana Vecchia – Monaco – Éze – Gorges du Verdon – Moustiers-Ste-Marie – Valensole – Chamonix – Tübingen – Swäbisch Hall – Berlin.

On day 6 of our road trip, our goal was to drive from La Spezia, in northern Italy, to Éze, a charming medieval village in France. Before stopping in Éze, we drove through Genova, made a spontaneous stop in Bussana Vecchia and took a quick walk around Monaco. That’s the great thing about a road trip – being able to stop along the way wherever you like! Continue reading →

Road Trip through Europe: Cinque Terre

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In summer, we did a 10 day road trip through parts of Germany, Switzerland, Italy and France. Our itinerary was: Berlin – Weimar – Heidelburg – Freiburg – Lucerne – Lake Como – La-Spezia – Cinque Terre – Bussana Vecchia – Monaco – Éze – Gorges du Verdon – Moustiers-Ste-Marie – Valensole – Chamonix – Tübingen – Swäbisch Hall – Berlin.

I think no stop on our itinerary was as highly anticipated as Cinque Terre. This national park is famous for colourful villages standing on rugged cliffs overlooking the sea, a thing of painter’s dreams.

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Road trip through Europe – Lake Como to La Spezia, Liguria

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In summer, we did a 10 day road trip through parts of Germany, Switzerland, Italy and France. Our itinerary was: Berlin – Weimar – Heidelburg – Freiburg – Lucerne – Lake Como – La-Spezia – Cinque Terre – Bussana Vecchia – Monaco – Éze – Gorges du Verdon – Moustiers-Ste-Marie – Valensole – Chamonix – Tübingen – Swäbisch Hall – Berlin.

On Day 4 of our trip, we spent the morning around Lake Como. After spending the morning taking a boat ride on beautiful aquamarine waters and walking around the town of Como, we had lunch and then headed off on a 3-4 hour drive to La Spezia, where we would be staying for the next two nights. La Spezia has a good rail connection to the famed Cinque Terre, a collection of five colourful villages nestled on cliffs above the sea on the Ligurian coast. As accommodation in Cinque Terre itself was relatively difficult to find, not to mention parking, we decided to stay in La Spezia and visit Cinque Terre on the train. As Cinque Terre is so scenic, it inspired more than enough photos for its own blog post, so I thought I would write a separate post about La Spezia, which was also a nice place to visit. Continue reading →

Road trip through Europe: Lake Como

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In summer, we did a 10 day road trip through parts of Germany, Switzerland, Italy and France. Our itinerary was: Berlin – Weimar – Heidelburg – Freiburg – Lucerne – Lake Como – La Spezia – Cinque Terre – Bussana Vecchia – Monaco – Éze – Gorges du Verdon – Moustiers-Ste-Marie – Valensole – Chamonix – Tübingen – Swäbisch Hall – Berlin.

After leaving Lucerne, we drove across Switzerland and through the mountains to the region o Lombardy in the north of Italy, coming to our overnight stop for Day 3: the charming town of Torno. Torno is situated right next to Lake Como, a beautiful lake in the foothills of the alps, surrounded by towns with villas and churches. It was one of the places that had made a big impression on me during a trip to Italy in 2005, and I was excited to show it to my husband. Continue reading →