Italy Heaven

07/02/2025

Yesterday evening in Dorsoduro. Greetings from Venice!

19/01/2025

Planning travel for 2025? Here are my top suggestions for getting off the beaten track. Beat overtourism and make it a year of discovery!

Where to go in Italy in 2025? Beat overtourism and discover gems! My selection of the best places off the beaten track in Italy for 2025.

01/01/2025

Happy New Year to all of you, and I hope you have a 2025 filled with good things. We've all been reminded the world can be a dark place where bad things happen, but I think that travel - physical journeys, and travel in the imagination - is among the experiences that can bring light and joys, broaden our understanding and create connections between people.

My Italian travels in 2024 were on a shoestring but were filled with moments of magic and delight. I had great experiences, learned a lot of new things and met some fascinating, welcoming and kind people. Here are some of my 2024 Italy highlights - some of these destinations are already featured on the Italy Heaven website and others are being written up or updated.

I've also created a sample travel itinerary based on one of my budget trips this year, to Sicily and the Egadi islands (£420 per person for a week in June departing UK!) I'll be adding more travel suggestions for 2025 to the Italy Heaven website soon. So much Italy, so little time ...

Budget Sicily trip ideas: https://www.italyheaven.co.uk/itineraries/budget-sicily-islands-itinerary/

25/12/2024

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you are all enjoying a peaceful and festive holiday season

16/03/2024

Venice in the afternoon

26/02/2024

Sea, sun, scenery - new Puglia features on the website now! A shabby-picturesque waterfront abbey, a tourist hotspot with iconic views and a tourist-free inland idyll.
Also! Watch the Netflix Puglia-set film Jumping from High Places, then read my guide to the filming locations. Whether you like the film or not, its scenery will make you want to book your next flights to Italy, I promise.
Polignano a Mare: https://www.italyheaven.co.uk/puglia/polignano-a-mare/
Abbey of San Vito: https://www.italyheaven.co.uk/puglia/abbey-of-san-vito/
Conversano: https://www.italyheaven.co.uk/puglia/conversano/
Jumping from High Places locations: https://www.italyheaven.co.uk/puglia/jumping-from-high-places/

29/01/2024

When I visited Portogruaro this month, I wondered why I had never been there before. All this time, and it's just a short trip from Venice. There are so many handsome towns and art cities in the Veneto that some are overshadowed by more famous neighbours. Portogruaro is lovely, full of historic atmosphere and has a good archaeological museum. Read my new destination page on the new-look Italy Heaven website: https://www.italyheaven.co.uk/veneto/portogruaro/

17/01/2024

Venice yesterday: the view from the Giudecca. The colours were amazing in the winter sunshine. I was hurrying to catch a waterbus, but had to pause just long enough to sn**ch this photo from a bridge. The most beautiful city in the world

31/12/2023

Happy New Year to Italy lovers and may your 2024 be filled with joy! Here are some of my Italy highlights from 2023. If you're planning a trip to Italy in 2024, I hope you enjoy the planning and the travels. If you can't get to Italy at the moment, I hope you will still enjoy experiencing it vicariously through photos, reading, food, music, film or social media or planning for future dream travels.

I've been working to upgrade the 20-year-old Italy Heaven website and hopefully the results should be live soon, and more accessible for all. And then it will be time to add new articles about some of the fantastic places I've visited or re-visited lately, from frescoed castles in autumnal vineyards to tiny, sandy coves in the summer South (you can see some of them in these photos).
Thank you for following; I hope you've all had a great festive season. 🙂

01/05/2023

ITALY ON TV! I've been off Facebook for ages, sorry - but now I'm back with some news. BBC2 in the UK tonight is showing the first episode of Clive Myrie's Italian Road Trip, a tour through this beautiful and fascinating country. I was asked to help out in the early planning stages for this and ended up spending part of last year coming up with ideas and stories for the producers. Of course not everything got in (logistics and priorities put paid to some of the further-flung wishlist), but you can expect to see some gorgeous scenery and some less-known spots, and learn about great initiatives and inspirational people. I haven't seen the series myself yet, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what made the cut, and how it all pans out. It all begins with Puglia and Basilicata, then Sicily ...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0fdr6m1