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Wandering the World

Stories and tips from around the world.

Italy

The March of Tuscany

“In Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, they had 500 years of democracy and peace – and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”

-- Orson Welles

In 2009 as part of a short trip around Europe, I'd visited Italy and had seen the likes of Naples, Pompeii, Rome, and Venice. Thirteen years later I was now returning, this time with my sister in tow, to see some of the places I'd not seen. My sister's last overseas trip had been Croatia and Slovenia where she'd seen a lot of Venetian influence, now she'd get to see a more modern view of Italy.

What had started off as an idea for seeing Milan soon expanded into a week long trip around the Lombardy and Tuscany regions of Italy.

Florence

Contents

Recent Trips

Cyprus
I didn't expect to be going back to Cyprus for a third time; though the timing of the marathon there, and knowing the conditions for it there would be warmer than in the UK made it a good choice. Carm…

Denmark
At the start of our Super Halfs journey, we set off for Copenhagen to do the first in this six race series that spans Europe. It was a chance for us both to explore a city neither of us had been to be…

Vienna
> “And I’ll dance with you in Vienna, I’ll be wearing a river’s disguise. The hyacinth wild on my shoulder my mouth on the dew of your thighs. And I’ll bury my soul in a scrapbook, with the photograph…

Hungary
Budapest is a city my sister has wanted to visit for several years as she thought "the buildings look cool". Having changed my mind about returning to Greece just yet, I decided this would be a good o…

Cyprus
My first trip to Cyprus had been for a half marathon race that never took place. It'd been postponed until 2022, but due to timings I decided to defer until the 2023 event as it'd work better that way…

More Trips…

Recent Races

Northolt 10K

Leicester Half Marathon
Another week, another half marathon. Could I edge closer to being a sub-90 runner again, and beat Copenhagen and Cardiff? I certainly wasn't sure, but I was going to give it a go.…

Principality Cardiff Half Marathon
The second of the Super Half series, and one as close to home as we'd get. Though maybe races being closer to home don't always mean they're going to be easier to get to...…

The Big Half

Rutland 10K

More Running…


© David G. Paul