Arena di Verona. This has to be the most spectacular place to finish up on this wonderful trip around Europe. Another stunning Roman amphitheatre which has hosted so many spectacles in its 2,000 year history. The opera season is in full swing and a walk around the venue is a view into the world of [...]

pic - Leon Fletcher Rome has one thing in glorious abundance. History. High summer is probably not the best time to see this magnificent city as simply walking the streets becomes hugely draining and with a list of sights and historic buildings as long as any city, walking is what you need to do. For [...]

Cattolica is a small community to the South of Rimini, along the coast, that started life as a resting place for pilgrims who travelled the Bologna-Ancona-Rome route, on their way to the sanctuary of Loreto or to St. Peter's in Rome. It would have been an obvious spot for a rest, the beaches here are [...]

Power Food Beautiful venues seem to be everywhere in Italy and today’s Stupingi Park is no exception. Situated to the South West of Turin, it is a historic hunting lodge, quite the largest I’ve ever seen, not that I’m over familiar with hunting lodges. Each year, it hosts the Sonic Park festival, a feast of [...]

Around the time the Romans built this venue, Gladiatorial battles took place on a regular basis and the thought of 24,000 people in this arena, freshly built, witnessing such spectacles is awe-inspiring. Our little show seems tiny by comparison, certainly a little less gruesome, yet still as exciting in its own way. The 10,000 French [...]

Saint Julien en Genevois is a small town on the border to Switzerland that plays host to the Guitare En Scene festival each year. It’s one of the few occasions we can potentially visit 4 countries in one day as we fly into Geneva. Today however, it was  simply a hub flight from our base [...]

Current temperatures across Europe are high but not like last week so it looks like a good week to hit Italy. Saturday morning at the Sheraton, Sopot consisted of a 3:30 am wake up call, courtesy of the room below and their in house disco party. I could hardly grumble though as I’m sure I’ve [...]

watching the cricket Śliczny, the Polish word for lovely, seems an appropriate way to describe the surroundings when you walk Northwards along the shoreline from our hotel in Sopot, a town few of us had heard of before this week. The Polish Riviera at this time of year is heaving with families on vacation, enjoying [...]

Dutifully checked out of the Park Hyatt in Budapest, we climbed into our cars and vans. A logistically complex day lay ahead for our drivers. I’ll see if I can get this right… Alex’s team ‘B’ drove us to the airport in Budapest and then drove on to Krakow (5 hours). Goran’s team ‘A’ met [...]

Budapest is the capital of Hungary, one of 48 land-locked countries in the world. That means, no beaches, no surfing, no blue horizon. But there is water from under the ground, hence the Hungarian connection with bathing in spring water. The water is packed with minerals and is consequently health giving. I know that a [...]