At the end of the 12th century, the Republic of Genoa was flourishing. Trade routes the city-state built during the early crusades kept money flowing in, and an ambitious building project beautified and fortified the city. (Click here to read about the rise of the Genoese Republic.) But things were about to take a downward…
This was a day that wasn’t supposed to happen. Today, I was meant to take the train from my base in Genoa to the town of Santa Margharita Ligure, a coastal city best known as the place one catches the bus to the luxury mecca of Portofino. I was going to remain in Santa Margharita…
Wandering the narrow alleys (called caruggi in Italian) of Genoa’s old city is magical. Tiny corridors open to small piazzas. Wider streets (though barely enough to fit a car, even if such things were allowed, which they are largely not) lined with shops, restaurants, and cafes host magnificent architecture, buildings with carved stone facades that…
While for some people, cemeteries evoke the macabre, for me they are a truly wonderful cultural experience. It isn’t to say I’d gladly stroll these paths at night - and indeed I am grateful most cemeteries aren’t even open after dark - but even on a gloomy January morning, a walk through an old cemetery…
Welcome to the first installment of the day to day itineraries of my 2026 Europe trip! For this chapter, we are based in Genoa, but exploring the northwest of Italy. Why Genoa? Why not? It’s a large city (Italy’s sixth largest), but not so big as to have too much to try to see in…
For the first time since resuming travel coming out of the Covid shutdown, I didn’t make it to Europe in 2025. And while I had an amazing travel year, that absence was felt, both in that I missed my favorite place in the world and that I didn’t have my “normal” (I’ve only done it…
Editor’s note: I spent ten days in Milan back in 2023, and I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed my time and all the city had to offer. It is wonderful to read that our writer Sam Spector also enjoyed his time in Milan, even though he had only a single day.…
In recent decades, Sicily has become a top tourist destination. And really, why not? Mediterranean coastline, mild winters and hot summers, good food and wine, fascinating ancient history and some reasonably exciting more modern stories as well… what else could a traveler want? Add to that reasonable prices in comparison to most of Western Europe,…
It is impossible to speak of one without speaking of the other: Catania, Sicily’s second largest city with a metro population around a million, and Etna - called Mama Etna by the locals - the mighty volcano towering over it. For as long as there have been humans present in eastern Sicily, Mt. Etna has…
I wasn’t planning to write about this. When I travel, I tend to outline what I feel my articles will be. So when my Sicily tour scheduled a morning to visit a Roman villa, I thought, ‘I’ve seen Roman villas before. This won’t be exciting enough to write about. I’ll focus on Greek and Phoenician…