The Curious Traveller
Albergo diffuso, Santo Stefano di Sessanio, Abruzzo
Up among the wild, forbidding peaks of the Gran Sasso National Park, in Abruzzo, stands a medieval village of cobbled lanes, sun-flooded squares and ancient stone houses.
Read MoreChochotel, Perugia
A chocolate-themed hotel, complete with chocolate shop and chocolate menu in the restaurant, is the obvious place to stay for the upcoming Eurochocolate festival 2008 in Perugia
Read MoreCloister Garden of the Santa Chiara Monastery, Naples, Campania
It is hardly what you’d expect cloistered nuns to gaze upon during the course of their silent lives. Bold scenes of boar hunting, bowling, dancing, even a Carnival revel come alive in a riot of colours on the tiled panels that decorate the cloister garden of the Santa Chiara Monastery in Naples.
Read MoreIs Cannoneris forest, Sardinia
The road twists and turns up a steep hillside behind the tiny village of Domus de Maria. At every bend, a glimmering sea, wrapped in the soft pink haze of distance, plays a game of hide and seek with the peaks, while the waterside scrubland rarefies, replaced by the round, robust solidity of chestnut trees and holm oaks.
Read MoreScilla, Calabria
Under a pale silver moon, the sea is a glossy sheet of molten obsidian. But flickering in the distance, the lights of Sicily dance on the crest of tiny breeze-stirred wavelets.
Read MoreEremo di Camaldoli, Tuscany
An intricate forest of firs and beech. A steep, forbidding road. A last bend, and then the Benedictine Eremo di Camaldoli, hidden behind thick, tall walls from which only the tip of two belltowers emerge.
Read MoreThe Rilke Path
Achingly white limestone cliffs rise sharply from a cobalt blue sea. A lone sailing boat leaves a soft wake in the water, and the silence that fills the air is barely interrupted by leaves gently murmuring in the breeze.
Read MoreFerry to Bellagio
An ordinary ferry trip - designed to simply save villagers some time from the twists and turns of the roads - can become a wonderful holiday experience with one secret ingredient... its a ferry trip between Varenna and Bellagio on Lake Como.
Read MoreLa Stalla dei Frati
The most well known type of pesto comes from Liguria and Carla Passino discovered a temple to pesto in a restaurant called "La Stalla dei Frati"
Read MoreSouthern Sardinia’s top five beaches
Find out what Carla Passino considers a "top beach" in Southern Sardinia and you will never again look at a beach in the same way - only the very best will do!
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