Category: Uncategorized
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Sardinia – Nuoro to Cala Gonone
There’s nothing better than reading a book set where you’re travelling. We love Grazia Deledda’s autobiography, Cosima. It paints a wonderful picture of growing up in Ogliastra’s inland town of Nuoro at the turn of the 20th Century. In it the life of shepherds and farmers, mountains, myths and women come alive. The first woman…
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Sardinia – Nuoro to Cala Gonone
There’s nothing better than reading a book set where you’re travelling. We love Grazia Deledda’s autobiography, Cosima. It paints a wonderful picture of growing up in Ogliastra’s inland town of Nuoro at the turn of the 20th Century. In it the mountains, the people, the flora and the environment come vividly alive. The first woman…
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Sardinia’s Santa Lucia
Santa Lucia, an unassuming village on the east coast of Sardinia, is a feast for the senses. Again, it’s a place that we say we’ll stay a night and end up staying five. Sand and surf The beach stretches five kilometres north to Posada, the neighbouring town. Each morning we join the locals who exercise…
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Sardinia – Sta. Teresa de Gallura to Arzachena
Sta. Teresa de Gallura La Liccia Campsite, outside Sta.Teresa de Gallura, the northern tip of Sardinia, is a lotus-eater sort of place. You enter, you think you’ll stay one night, you end up staying five. From the perfect fritto misto, where the batter is crisp and the fish succulent, to the giant butterflies that…
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Farewell Corsica, Hello Sardinia
Bonifacio Port As we arrive at the Port for the hour crossing to Sardinia’s St. Teresa Gallura, a man in an orange jumpsuit indicates vaguely towards the sea. At this point I decide that he’s not a port worker at all, but an imposter, but he’s pretty insistent so we find ourselves precariously perched on…
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St. Florent to Galéria
St. Florent’s Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta We love the blue bay and rugged headland from St. Florent’s 15th Century Citadel, built by the Genoese and bombarded by Nelson. The Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta is a kilometre walk east. A simple, limestone building, it’s surrounded by meadows on the site of Roman Nebbium. Even…
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Corsica’s St. Florent
Biguglia – Dian’Arte On our way to St. Florent, we detour – just because we can – to the Dian’Arte sculpture museum, showcasing the work of Gabriel Diana. We stroll around bronzes of Corsica’s emblematic moor’s head, men and women, stretched as if elastic, a rusting globe topped with a tree of human figures, a…
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Full-steam ahead to Corsica
We struggle to find a campsite with an available pitch near Genoa where we’re getting the ferry to Corsica’s Bastia – it’s August after all. La Vesima Campsite, Arenzano This ramshackle campsite is sandwiched between Liguria’s SS1 coast road and the railway line. Rugged cliffs hem in the small shingle beach, making it claustrophobic. The…
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Aosta Valley Feasting
Local Producers – Valsar Butchers MAPS.ME tells us there’s a walking trail opposite the campsite, running parallel with Sarre’s hectic SS26. Here there’s no sirens, no beeping cars, no speeding motorbikes, but a peaceful path by flower filled gardens, vines, orchards and vegetable gardens. And so we find Valsar, butchers. We load up with spicy…
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Sarre and Cogne – The Aosta Valley
The Piccolo San Bernardo Pass Fran the Van climbs up to the Alpine pass, the Col Petit St. Bernard, on the French side, and the Piccolo San Bernardo on the Italian. Jagged mountains, heathland and indigo lake leaves me silent – and, for those who know me, that is a rare occurrence. It’s only 14…
Campervan Therapy 