The inspector from the Istituto Parma Qualità moves quickly amongst a selection of legs of ham. He pierces each ham in at least five spots using a special horse bone needle and sniffs the needle after each puncture. The needle is quite specialist; horse bone is porous to just the right degree that it takes in ... Read more »
Eating your way through Naples Naples (Napoli) is an exciting city with lots to see and discover, including many great historical sites. It’s also an excellent destination for lovers of art and theatre, including ballet and opera. BA, Easyjet and Ryanair all fly direct in under 3 hours from London and the city offers a lot ... Read more »
The best ways to see Venice are on foot, and from the water. But the vaporetti (waterbuses) are packed and gondola rides are extremely expensive. Instead, play at being a gondolier yourself by learning how to row standing up in a traditional Venetian rowing boat. ... Read more »
Cafe culture is quintessentially Italian, and that certainly holds true in Venice. There are a thousand cafes in Venice in which to enjoy a cappuccino, espresso or macchiato, (or tea, beer or soft drinks if you prefer) and we paused in several during our recent visit. Many Venetian cafes offer light meals and sweets, perfect ... Read more »
Although we had several fantastic meals during our week-long visit to Venice, there was one restaurant that we enjoyed so much we booked a return visit for dinner on our last night. In my previous posts, I’ve talked about how to find great food in Venice, shared our favourite places to eat cicchetti, and favourite ... Read more »
Food in Italy is very regional, and the local specialities of Venice don’t include pizza. The good news is that there are now a number of restaurants where you can find fantastic pizza if that’s what you fancy. ... Read more »
In my guide to finding great food in Venice, I talked about the tradition of cicchetti, small morsels of food served alongside drinks in the bacari (bars) of Venice. Bacari can be found throughout Venice, with a concentration in the areas where the four sestiere (districts) of San Polo, Cannaregio, Castello and San Marco come together (near ... Read more »
Venice is one of Italy’s most expensive cities in which to eat out, not least because of the added cost to restaurants of bringing in all their supplies via boat, and yet many visitors complain that they did not eat well there even when they splashed the cash. On our first two visits, in 1998 ... Read more »
I know I’m not alone in loving to shop during my travels – many travellers love to bring souvenirs back from their holidays; a little something to remember the trip. But what to buy from Italy? Here are some ideas about favourite souvenirs to buy in Italy from me and fellow travel bloggers. Souvenirs to ... Read more »
So much has been written about Venice that it’s hard to think anyone could add anything new. And yet, each of us who visit and fall in love with the serene city forge a unique relationship with it. We create our own mental image formed of our personal favourites – from the buzzing tourist hotspots ... Read more »
The Place of Onions, in old Lille. After last night’s rainstorm the intense sticky heat has broken and today is cool, breezy, fresh… I love it! A drop of… [more]
We went to Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire at The Void this morning, an amazing VR experience where we got to be Rebel Alliance members going undercover as… [more]