Ortigia, Sicily
On our travels through Italy last year, we made the decision to explore the eastern coast of Sicily and having done some online research, decided that Ortigia (in the region of Syracuse), sounded like our kind of place. We took the car ferry from Reggio Calabria to Messina (about 45 mins) – tickets are bought […]
Rocca della Sena
When we were in Italy, last year, we had an awful experience with a hotel in the beautiful Calabrian town of Tropea. We’d booked into Hotel Valemare for four nights, but it was so terrible, we left the next morning, not knowing if we’d get a refund*. We’d heard of Hotel Rocca della Sena and […]
Costa Smeralda
Having heard lots of people rave about this north eastern Sardinian coastline, we thought that a slight detour was definitely in order. We’d been staying at an agriturismo in the Saltara region and were heading to a second, a little further south (but still deep in northern hills) & the coastline to the east was […]
Booking Hotels…
Sometimes, if you’re travelling, you just have to do it onine, and you have to go with your gut instinct. Sometimes you get it spot on – just as we did in Matera and Rimini. But sometimes it doesn’t quite work out, and all we can do is share our experience so that you can […]
Favignana
Trapani (or Birgi Airport, located about 19 km south of the city) is easily accessible by Ryanair from the UK. Once in Trapani, the Egadi Islands – Favignana, Marettimo and Levanzo – to the west, are as easily accessible by ferry. We chose to spend six days on Favignana – the butterfly shaped island. Were […]
A Night in Trapani
Thanks to Ruth, who works in Volta in West Didsbury, for alerting us to Trapani and to the fact that you can now fly directly from Manchester. I don’t particularly want to promote the low-cost Irish airline we flew with, as they do tend to screw every last penny out of you, but it was […]
Marrakech Express
For anyone who’s not been to Marrakech, you need to know that everything you’ve probably ever heard is true. It is hot (even in early Janaury when we were there). It’s dusty and dirty. It’s a city of vibrant colours, aromatic aromas, constant hustle and bustle. There’s incredible wealth and the most appalling poverty. In […]
Manchester.
“Certainly Manchester is the most wonderful city of modem times.“ From “Coningsby” by Benjamin Disraeli, 1844. And how very, very true. A city which never stops changing and growing and developing, but always beautiful. A city which easily mixes different architectural styles, with crumbling remnants of the past, still sitting alongside brand new glass structures. […]
A Calabrian Jewel
On our travels in Italy last year, we were so lucky to find some real off-the-beaten-track places. We’d hired a car and had no real plan, apart from having a couple of weeks to get from Rome to Ortigia in Sicily on the first part of the trip. So, with trusty road map – I […]
Dreaming of Sardinia…
…and a hotel situated in the south west corner of the island. Hotel le Dune, in Piscinas. As the “Hip Hotels Italy” says, “Officially, Sardinia is a part of Italy; culturally, it’s another world…” And, this is what Hotel le Dune seems to be. Part of another world. Located in an area that was once […]
Happy Valley…
We’ve just been catching up on Happy Valley, the acclaimed BBC drama with Sarah Lancashire, Siobhan Finneran and Steve Pemberton, set in West Yorkshire. It is brilliant drama (although said with fingers crossed, as it’s the last episode tonight & sometimes final episodes are the weakest), but what I’ve loved about it are the locations. […]
Day Trippers
Short blog about a short day trip to Wales at the weekend. Over at We Are Life, we’re doing a website for Bryn Evans, who’s just taken over The Nag’s Head Inn, in Garthmyl, and we thought it was a good excuse to do a bit of a recce and get away from our building […]
