It is a cliché: Tuscany is the most beautiful region of Italy, the one that everyone falls in love with, goes home and writes about – telling the world how marvelous Italy is and forgetting the difficulties of daily life in Italy in their portrayal of the beauty they found there. Italians hate this side … Continue reading
Filed under Europe …
Milan – The “Non-Italian” Italian City
Italians love to hate Milan. Before we got there, they said “Oh no, don’t go to Milan, it’s not really like Italy.” “It’s definitely not Italian.” Once we had arrived there, the locals asked us “Why did you come here?” informing us where we could go to escape the city on weekends. And finally when … Continue reading
Permesso di Soggiorno – Working Holiday visas
This post is to help any New Zealander, Australian, or Candian who comes to Italy on a Working Holiday visa, because when I arrived in Italy it was impossible to find any information on the internet regarding our kind of visa and Permesso di Soggiorno requirements. I hope it helps! When we got our visas … Continue reading
The Lakes of Lombardy
Ask any Milanese person what the best thing about living in Milan is, and they’ll say, “leaving on the weekend.” So that’s exactly what we did. Words do no justice to the beauty of the magificent Lago Maggiore and Lago di Como, so here are some photos. Add exquisite Italian food and wine with good … Continue reading
Tali vs Rome – Round 1
Round one got off to a good start for Tali. Armed with a one year working-holiday visa and sauntering through customs with a smile on her face, things were looking good. Somewhat nervous about going to a country she’d never visited before but had decided to live in for a year, and a bit sad … Continue reading
An English Excursion
You can’t drive within 100km of Stonehenge and not make a detour to visit it, can you? Of course not! It’s like going to Rome and not visiting the Colosseum. That’s how we convinced Wendy on a sunny Saturday morning, along with hundreds of other tourists, to stop for a look at these famous stones. … Continue reading
Magical Edinburgh
I knew I was going to like Edinburgh before we even got out of the airport. Not only were we greeted to Scotland by happy, smiling, laughing locals, but also by stunning weather, a crisp blue sky day with not a cloud to be seen. One plus of not flying Ryanair (there are also many … Continue reading
A Coruña – A Taste of Home
Our welcoming committee to A Coruña consisted of beautiful squares, a warm sea breeze and a smiling Friday afternoon lunch crowd. We felt at home as soon as we got out of the bus station. This Galician city has a very Spanish flavour to it, mixed in with the local tastes. Famous for the pulpo … Continue reading
The End of the Earth
Fisterra as it is called in the local language (Finisterre in Spanish), translates directly as the End of the Earth. It is found on the Costa da Morte – the Coast of Death. Doesn’t really sound like a very promising tourist destination, huh? Fortunately for us that meant that one of the most beautiful ocean … Continue reading
The Final Stretch – Sarria to Santiago
Galicia reminded me a lot of New Zealand, apart from the slate and stone houses of course. It was so green (Galicia is well known in Spain for it’s rain which we were fortunate enough to avoid), there were lots of ferns in the bush and it was never ever flat, we had ventured far … Continue reading