Archive for 'On the Coast'

Italy is famous for a great many different things - culture, art, history, architecture, food, wine, cinema, fashion, a slower pace of life – but it is particularly blessed with natural beauty, especially lovely beaches.

You can find beaches taken out of your wildest dreams in abundance, all over the country, from dramatic cliffs to sleepy fishing towns and glamorous celebrity hotspots to almost tropical beauties, you'll find the kind of beach you're looking for whether you want to lie around and relax, have kids to entertain or a craving for adrenaline to cater to.

Discover Italy's perfect beaches and sunbathe, swim, surf, explore, stroll, have adventures, try the freshest seafood and make memories to last a lifetime.     Read More

The Via Dell'Amore is the most famous walk in the beautiful Cinque Terre area – a string of five centuries-old seaside villages on the rugged Italian Riviera coastline, which is linked by the Sentiero Azzurro cliffside hiking trail.

This stretch is the easiest section of the Sentiero Azzurro (Blue Trail) which takes walkers from Riomaggiore to Monterosso and is known for being particularly romantic and offering especially beautiful views across the ocean and surrounding landscape.

In the high season it can be incredibly busy and the ambience can be completely ruined but if you time it right and catch the walk at a peaceful time of year and the right time of the day, you will find few spots that are as spectacularly romantic around the world. Just find a holiday rental in Liguria, explore the stunning region and stop by the Via Dell'Amore with a special someone for a stroll.     Read More

Sicily is an exceptionally beautiful place, this is a well-known fact. The pace of life, blue skies, charming villages, rich historical sites, rugged coast and crystal clear seas are all celebrated features of the island and its natural beauty is well-regarded. However, the most stunning scenery on the island is found in the Lo Zingaro Nature Reserve. Created in 1981 as the first nature reserve on the island, it is located West of Palermo, just after Castellammare del Golfo.

Here the rugged coastline is at its most spectacular and has been shaped by the sea, creating coves, grottos and sculptures in the hard limestone cliffs. Stretching 7km along the coast between the lovely little village of Scopello in the east to near San Vito Lo Capo in the west, it covers more than 1600 hectares and is an unspoiled, natural stunner with plenty to see and do and beaches plucked right from your dreams.     Read More

The Church of San Pietro is a stunning little church, exceptionally popular for weddings, that is perched picturesquely on the tip of the promontory of Portovenere, surrounded by craggy rocks and cliffs and blue seas.

Once the site of a Temple to Venus (Venere in Italian), after whom the town of Portovenere was named, an early Christian building made of black marble was then built there in the 6th century.

In the 13th century a campanile and Gothic extension clad in bands of black and white stone were added to the earlier structure.

Small and a little rugged but very striking and framed by perfect scenery, it is a building that has captured imaginations for centuries and which continues to do so.     Read More