The Navigli: Milan's hippest neighbourhood

You may not read about it in travel magazines or newspapers yet The Navigli has long been Milan’s hippest and most happening neighbourhood. It was when we wrote Lonely Planet’s Best of Milan four years ago and having just spent a month there again renting an apartment on Ripa di Porta Ticinese overlooking the liveliest part of the canal (navigli means canals, and there are in fact two), we can say with some authority that it still is the place to go for aperitivi (early evening drinks and snacks) and, boasting some of Milan’s best ristorantes, trattorias and enotecas, it’s also the neighbourhood to head for dinner. Curiously, however, most of the major guidebooks leave it out or give it little coverage, and very few review its restaurants. Yet the streets are buzzy every night of the week. While mid-week sees local art students, aspiring models and bohemian types filling the tables at the pavement bars and eateries, on the weekends the streets heave with Italians from other parts of the city, along with foreigners (expats and travellers), although very few compared to the Brera. There’s no other area in Milan that has an atmosphere as buzzy as the Navigli nor has the density of excellent eateries and bars. And it’s not only an after-dark destination. The canals are lined with myriad bookshops, art galleries, antique shops, and vintage clothes stores (pictured). In a sprawling car park at the end of the main drag there’s a grungy clothes market every Saturday that sees the city’s Goths trekking here, while on the last Sunday of the month there’s an antiques fair that lines both sides of the canal. Save a visit until late afternoon when you can browse the shops, have an aperitivo overlooking the water, listen to some jazz, and then stay on for dinner.

Random musings from the road: Italy

Some random thoughts and observations after a couple of weeks on the road in Northern Italy (and two and a half months in Italy in total) from my traveller's notebook:
* Italians are the most cultured people in the world - barely a conversation passes with the Italians we meet without mention of a great composer or musician, of an art movement or artist, of architecture and photography, of food and wine. Caravaggio is much more likely to to come up in conversation with an Italian than Kate Moss, grapes more than gossip. The only celebrity name to cross any lips has been George Clooney, but then he's an honorary Italian anyway.
* Italians are the most civilized people in the world - the more we observe and compare the everyday life of the locals with the behavior of tourists on holidays, we're convinced of this. While the Italians drink wine with meals, including lunch, tourists sip cans of Coke. While the Italians order several courses and savour a meal slowly, tourists stick to one dish or settle for a slab of pizza. While the tourists wander the streets at night in Birkenstocks and shorts, the Italians dress up or, even when they're dressed casually, look as if they've dressed up. While the Italians sit on a park bench and read a book, the tourists text messages home on their CrackBerries.
* Nobody knows how to live like the Italians - they start work late (compared to most Western countries), they take several hours off in the afternoon for a long lunch and siesta, they return to work in the evening for a couple of hours, then they head out to meet friends or family to socialize over dinner or drinks. They work to live rather than live to work. What's not to love about that?

Inspiring Italy and The Grand Tour

We've been on the road in Northern Italy for a couple of weeks doing guidebook research and we're both utterly exhausted and yet completely stimulated. How can we not be inspired in a country like Italy where we're surrounded with such history and culture, art and architecture? Wherever we drive, it's not long before we come across a Medieval tower, a Renaissance palazzo, or a Gothic church. Poppies and ruins may have moved the 19th century travellers, but for me it's lakeside geraniums and leaning towers. As I write, the bells are ringing in the 12th century tower of a church I can see out our window. It's easy to understand why The Grand Tour-ists treated the country as their finishing school. There's no better place to be stirred by the beauty of the surroundings and be motivated to learn. And that was what The Grand Tour was about after all - just take a look at this wonderful Getty exhibition on The Grand Tour. While the term may be hip once again (and perhaps we played some tiny part in that when we started writing our travel blog Grantourismo two years ago for Charles and Marie?), these days it seems to be thrown about and attached to any extended sojourn or backpacking trip without any real understanding of what it means. The New York Times' Frugal Traveller, Matt Gross, claims his current 12 week jaunt across Europe is some kind of reimagining of the classic Grand Tour, and as interesting as Matt's posts can be, his main concern seems to be staying within his €100 budget each day. His trip's link to The Grand Tour is tenuous and he seems to be coming away from his experiences of destinations having learned little more than how to hitchhike or find the best budget eatery or pensione. The Grand Tour was about so much more. It was about being inspired by history, beauty, art and literature, but most of all it was about learning, about becoming cultured, civilized, cosmopolitan, about getting to know the world.

On the road again... in Northern Italy

After a few days regrouping (oh, and researching of course) in Turin, we're hitting the road again this week in Northern Italy, to explore the country's beautiful lakes, mountains, valleys, and vineyards, as part of our guidebook research. While we're staying in some exquisite hotels, unfortunately they don't always have great internet access - even when their websites say they do! - so if you don't hear from me, you know where I am. I'll get back to you with some more tales from the road and give you more of a taste of our experience of Italy as soon as I can.

Hotels or apartments: what you'll be choosing when you next travel

Last month I posted on hotels and apartments in Are hotels going out of fashion? My question came about from my experiences on the road these last couple of years and my observations on how people are travelling: what I'm seeing is that travellers are increasingly choosing apartment rentals over hotels, generally with a view to staying longer in one destination and experiencing the place like a local, or simply because they want some of the comfort, conveniences and space that apartments offer over hotels. The subsequent discussions that saw a number of big players in the boutique hotels and apartment rental business responding were fascinating, as were travellers comments. See these blogs. I posted a survey to ask you where you planned to stay when you next traveled and here are the results: 30% of you said you'll check in to a small boutique or design hotel while a close 25% said you'd rent an apartment or villa; another 19% of readers said they'll be staying in a B&B while 13% said they'd bunk down at a hostel or backpackers; 11% were in favour of agritourismo or a farm-stay, while an equal number said they were going to pitch a tent or head for a caravan park, and another 11% said they'd be checking in to a large hotel or resort. Just 8% of you said you'd be staying at a friend's house, 5% were opting for the homeliness of a pensione, while 2% were planning to a stay at a palazzo or locanda. But, despite the rise in couchsurfing, not a single one said they'd be sleeping on a stranger's sofa.

Pictured? The boutique beauty of Beit Al Mamlouka where we stayed in Damascus last April.

5 reasons to love Italy

For all my complaining about getting things done here, I still love Italy and after countless trips, it remains one of my most favorite countries in the world. Here are a handful of reasons why:
1. Italian cuisine: it's hard to get a bad meal in Italy. You can get some very average meals, but if you know where to go you can get truly great food - and at low prices. It's hard to say that about many country's cuisine. And then there's the regional variation, and the variety within regions! Deserving of a post on its own.
2. Italian people: passionate, philosophical and polite sums them up in our experience over the years. They're endlessly enthusiastic and animated, thoughtful about every tiny matter, and incredibly courteous. There's nothing like walking out your door only to have the person who meets you in the corridor say buonjourno! How can you not have a good day?
3. History is everywhere: it's not only in the (very fine) museums, but there are very few places in the country you can go without stumbling across medieval castle ruins or a baroque church or a Roman temple, or more recent remnants of history, such as an elegant Fascist era office block. People who are reminded of such a long history each day, live life with a certain pride.
4. Beauty surrounds you: whether it's the fresh produce at a daily market, the idyllic landscapes of the countryside or coast, or beautifully cut fashion in a store window, Italy is both blessed by beauty and the masters of producing beauty.
5. The Italian lust for life: Italy inspires a lust for life in the way few countries do and its people respond with an appropriate way. They may operate at slower pace than the rest of the EU, start work later and take longer lunch hours, and leave as early as they can on a Friday so they can get away for the weekend. But who wouldn't when there's such great food to eat, such fascinating people to meet, such an engaging life to lead, and such beauty everywhere?

Life of a Travel Writer: Italy and the angels who make life easier than it's meant to be

Our guidebook work in Italy has been continually frustrated by archaic bureau- cracy, old fashioned formality and an insistence on following protocols. Much more so than any other country we've worked in. Sure, we could visit attractions as travellers might and buy a full-price ticket, but we'd need to be discreet about taking notes and would have to sneak photos. But journalists are entitled to discounts and to take photos to be published we need permission. Once we announce ourselves, however, we inevitably waste time in an office describing the books, explaining our intentions, showing business cards, collecting passes, etc. Having said that, it's rare to get permission on the spot. Here, things have to be organized in advance - well in advance - and it's a nightmare. Phone somewhere and you'll be connected to an extension that never gets answered. Call the switchboard and ask for the direct name and number and you'll be told Italian privacy law prevents them from giving it out. Once you reach the right person you'll be told to put the request in writing and fax (rather than email) it. Once faxed, you'll be told it will take two weeks to process. It doesn't matter that it's already taken days if not weeks to get this far and your research is almost over. At a museum in a regional capital recently it took a day to cut through the red tape (with the help of influential locals), including hours waiting to see the museum director. Then, we were informed we could shoot just three photos (at €50 each upon publication) and we had to identify the subjects to be photographed and make a formal request in a letter. As we hadn't visited the museum yet, we chose the most famous sculptures. Once inside the museum, several hours later, Terry became friendly with the guard allocated to watch over us. Discovering we were Australian, he told us he had a relative in Melbourne and loved the place. After ten minutes of small talk and friendly banter Terry was shooting as many photos as he wanted. Half an hour later and he could have walked out of the museum with the sculptures. One hour later and the guy would have carried them out to the car for us! And waved us goodbye. With a message for his family. Which we would have happily taken back for him!

Life of a Travel Writer: Italy and the tediousness of red tape

We've been on the road in Northern Italy since Tuesday when we picked up our Fiat Bravo from the car rental company in Milan. I'm not telling you which company because I don't want to give them coverage. After several problematic rentals with them in Cyprus, Crete and Rome, we gave them another chance after they reimbursed us for the expenses incurred from the last mess-up and assured us this would be a perfect hire. No such luck. Despite the UK customer relations guy re-confirming the booking with the Italy office, we had problems yet again, wasting hours in the Milan office because our voucher looked different to the normal vouchers according to the woman behind the desk. No matter that it was the only voucher that we were emailed, the wording was the same as her voucher, and it said "this is your car rental voucher". Yet still she wouldn't believe it was a voucher and we argued black and blue, wasted over an hour in the office, and we had to call the UK head office to get them to fax our voucher before she'd let us take the car. Italy isn't easy. Italians may have an easygoing nature socially, but when it comes to their professional life, they're sticklers for protocol and processes, and there's more bureaucracy and red-tape here than I've seen anywhere before. The delay at the rental office meant a delay checking out of our apartment which meant it was lunch time when were leaving and we were stuck in Milano traffic for an hour trying to get out of the city. Oddly enough our sense of humor returned and we began to joke about how these people got their jobs. We imagined their interviews: "Any IT skills?" "No." "Interpersonal skills?" "No." "Are you inflexible and a stickler for the rules, even when they make no sense?" "Yes." "Any kind of problem-solving skills or lateral thinking abilities?" "Of course not!" "Do you find that dealing with the public gets in the way of a good coffee break and gossip with your co-workers?" "Absolutely!" "Then you've got the job!"