It’s almost impossible to summarise Europe as a whole. The highlights reel would run into hours. Europe is the traveller’s lolly jar: lots of epic, distinct destinations and experiences packed into a relatively small space.
Road tripper? Beach lover? Island hopper? Alpine adventurer? Maybe you’re happy wandering ancient towns for hours on end? Perhaps, like us, you’d go to extreme lengths to hunt down an original Caravaggio or search out the remnants of an ancient Roman road. Or maybe you like nothing better than sipping a sunset vino sourced from nearby vines, while watching the world go by in a local town square. Europe offers a little bit of travel Nirvana for everyone. The history, culture, food, people, tradition, architecture and, of course, the nature will always keep us coming back for more.
Posts from Europe
The Heavenly Highlights Of Assisi
We’re standing in the arched doorway of the Porziuncola, a tiny stone chapel said to have been restored by a young man named Francis, shortly after he renounced his wealth for a life of poverty in the early 13th century. Around and above us, enclosing the small church completely, soar the vast …
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A Nice Chianti Classico – Road Tripping In Tuscany
If two wine apprecionados were ever going to officially start their latest grown-up long-haul adventure somewhere, what better place to ease into it than among the awesome architecture, heavenly frescoes, tasty fare and, of course, the divine vines of Italy’s romantic Tuscany? Having traversed historic Florence and bustling Bologna, along with the vertigo-inducing heights of …
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Hill Town Hopping Through Central Italy
It’s a beautiful, sun-drenched morning and we’re driving through tranquil rolling hills, past the occasional vineyard and olive grove, and tiny picture-perfect rural villages. We’re so distracted by the scenery that it’s a while before we realise the roads are getting narrower, and we haven’t seen another car for about half …
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The Marvellous Mosaics Of Ravenna
We’re sipping frothy cappuccino in a café on a charming cobbled street while I run a crash course on the small town we’ve just arrived in. It’s a little over an hour since we decided to day trip here from our base in Bologna.
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Shifting Views Of Most Serene San Marino
San where? Few people have heard of the tiny landlocked microstate of San Marino, even though it’s been clinging precariously to the hills and high places of the Appenine Mountains in north-east Italy for more than 1,700 years. But staying below the parapet seems to have been a tactic that’s …
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Eat, Drink, Marvel, Repeat: A Wander Around Bologna
We had one major objective for our trip to Bologna: Eat ragu. Everything else would be a bonus. Having grown up on Spaghetti Bolognese, this was – for me – effectively a pasta pilgrimage. I’d done my research though and I was under no illusions that there might be any similarity …
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A 36-Hour Flirtation With Florence
We were definitely easing into our travels when we picked Florence as our launch pad for a stint in Italy. With 36 hours in the Renaissance city followed by two weeks in the region, drinking all the wine, eating all the food, drinking all the wine (did I say that already?), if there was going …
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Diving into the past in the Bay of Naples
We’re staring down a wide, stone-paved roadway that winds off into the distance. Nearby, low walls of crumbling brick trace out the arcades, rooms and courtyards of seaside villas in what was once the summer playground of Ancient Rome’s rich and famous. It’s a scene reminiscent of many historic sites of this large …
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Road to ruin in Turkey – Part II
With three incredible weeks on the road behind us, we didn’t think Turkey could get any better. For our final week though, we risked further car-itation to hire another little runabout, and in one day alone, achieved a trifecta of superb ancient sites.
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