The beautiful Gulf of Saint-Florent this morning What a beautiful day to wake up to. No clouds in the sky, the sea totally flat, no wind....

Our first week of sailing brought us to Bastia. We are now low on sea food, fresh vegetables, dairy products, water, fuel and white wine....

The loudspeaker was squeaking and a female voice with a Parisian accent came through: “Ici Corsica VMS, Allo! Allo! AFAET! Votre...

When discussing our plans for today over dinner last night, we thought we would visit the two Spanish Fortresses, buy some white wine...

After a quiet night in Portoferraio which has far fewer visitors than in a normal year – maybe a third – we intend to sail to the south...

A long sailing day today. A good hour into the journey we passed Livorno. It is a modern harbour today that handles most of Tuscany’s...

One of the few things I could never find out was how the Doria Castle in Porto Venere was linked to the Doria family – except for the...

First full day of sailing. We got up at 7 am for some kayaking and left at 9 am for Porto Venere. There was a tiny bit of wind but our...

After months of planning and much uncertainty, the big day has arrived. We met Captain Nikos and the crew of AFAET at lunchtime in Porto...

Had to wait with writing this blog until I walked down the Strade Nuove yesterday. What an experience. There are so many beautiful 16th...

In the blog about usury, we talked about the Council of Niceae in 325 AD, which unified Christian doctrine and decided which books form...

“Your Majesty, I regret to inform you that from my books it looks like you didn’t pay for the last 247 years”. With these words, the...

Over the last few weeks we heard a lot about the role Spain played in shaping of Renaissance Europe. It was a dominant power in the...

Ever so often, tensions flare up between Morocco and Spain over a few rocks in the Mediterranean or the towns of Ceuta and Melia....

Many years ago, I travelled from Rome to Bologna to see all of Michelangelo’s master pieces. The trip started in Rome where you find most...

A few weeks ago, I wrote about local grapes in Sicily and Sardinia. Some of them have roots back to the time when Greek and Phoenician...

Wanted to write about this topic for a while. The story of the Pied-Noirs is fascinating albeit tragic. I heard it several times. The...

It never occurred to me that someone could blend bread and cheese but people in Genoa do so with their Pecorino Focaccia. There are so...

When researching the making of Focaccia yesterday, I came across three more interesting stories which will be the subjects of my next...

Writing for two days about Genoa made me thinking of Focaccia, the town’s famous flat bread. I wondered how many new bakeries had to open...