Easter saw us heading to the beautiful southern Italian region of Puglia (via intoxicating Naples), to walk another section of the Via Francigena del sud (south). There were highs and lows aplenty. Lessons learned (!) and vows about future endeavours made.... Things felt a little different, as for the first time we didn’t plan our route sections rigidly. We also decided not to book our accommodation in advance this time to allow for flexibility and “living in the moment" a bi

I remember reading a BBC article a few years ago calling Livorno Tuscany's “unattractive, unmissable town”. Words are important and these stuck with me, making me curious to visit.... As luck would have it, the weather turned stormy in Puglia with a front that would have us lay low for a few days. We were not up for that, so consulted the weather map only to see that the sun was shining on Tuscany. Not only was Livorno top of my wishlist, we knew that Livorno lies just 20km

It was a joy to revisit Naples for a couple of days en route to Puglia. This time it was around 6 weeks later in the year, with finer weather and the scent of Spring in the air.... An early morning flight from Luton was straightforward. The €10 euro per head (30 minute) Alibus journey from outside the airport to the port – not only had us feeling like old hands, it saved us the extra €30 euros we had spent on a taxi last time. We decided against the more upmarket neighbourhoo

We'd never given much thought to the saying "See Naples and die", until we headed on our much anticipated weekend there. People we knew...

We recently spent just over a week in what is a veritable paradise for pizza and pasta lovers such as ourselves. We trekked from Lucca to...

Variously referred to as; “the fat one”, or “the belly of Italy” – Bologna has been firmly on our radar for a while… Events over the...

This is a post about our Via Francigena; why and how we did it. Of course, everyone has different reasons for embarking on such an...