In a country full of spectacularly picturesque places, Italy’s Cinque Terre still manages to stand out. This seaside string of five little towns is beautiful from top to bottom: rows of pastel homes cling to cliffsides, colorful umbrellas fill beaches,…
The best view in Manarola — and, perhaps, in all of Cinque Terre — can be found on a cliffside across from the heart of town. There, you can watch as the pastel-colored buildings of Manarola glow warmly in the…
On the coast of Liguria — a crescent-shaped region in the northwest of Italy — lies a string of five exceptionally charming fishing villages. This is Cinque Terre: the “Five Lands.” Many visitors to Cinque Terre travel between the towns…
It’s called an enclave: a territory that’s totally surrounded by another one. The world has lots of enclaves, but only three that are sovereign states. There’s the Vatican City, of course, which is located entirely within Rome, and there’s Lesotho,…
Bologna is a city of porticoes. They’re simply everywhere: wide, pillared, covered walkways lining the buildings of Bologna. Many are arched; others have intricately designed flat ceilings. They cast dramatic shadows and create particularly picturesque settings for al fresco dining….
I’ve only ever visited Siena spontaneously. The first time, I was a college student studying abroad. During a few days in Florence, my friends and I decided to take a day trip to somewhere else in Tuscany. Since this was…