Valentinas Travels

"Italy is always a good idea" . That's what me and my friend thought when we were thinking about where to spend a long weekend in May. The choice fell on Bergamo, a city in the Lombardy region, about a 1-hour train journey from Milan.  And the choice was a good one: Bergamo is a great city. Compared to its sister city Milan, it is small and cosy, less crowded and ideal for simply strolling around and going from aperitivo to aperitivo. The famous Dolce Vita.  And the fact that Bergamo actually consists of two towns (an upper and a lower town) makes it even more special. Bergamo is certainly one of the most beautiful cities in Italy and a trip there is definitely worthwhile!  Here are a few tips for a city trip to Bergamo before I let the photos talk: Getting there: It takes around 4 hours by train from Zurich to Milan and a another hour to Bergamo. A flight would therefore not be worthwhile. The train ride was easy and without any problems.  Duration: Bergamo is smal...

  This is just a very short blog post - about an almost as short but great weekend in Italy, more precisely the region of Piedmont in the northwest of Italy. I love this region, known for its wine, truffles, green hills and humidity that bathes the landscape in mist. I already wrote about it once (link here ) and I think you could feel my enthusiasm there too. This time we had a little less time to explore the landscape, but the trip is still worth a little report. A friend and I spent a great weekend at an agriturismo called " Ca'Colomba " near the town of San Damiano d'Asti. It was wonderful - the view over the hills of Piedmont, the hospitable hosts, the cool swimming pool, the delicious breakfast... Highly recommendable! And best of all: the family owns the Franco Giacinto winery and we had the opportunity to learn all about it during a guided tour - and of course to taste the wine afterwards. It was wonderful - and delicious, too!  We also explored the village of...

"And we're supposed to stay here for a whole week?!" was one of the first thoughts we had when we arrived at our B&B in the sleepy town of Novello, Piedmont, Italy. Not because we didn't like the area. On the contrary! It is surrounded by vineyards, green and beautiful, nothing to complain there!  But as we are a traveling couple who loves to hop from place to place and the action while traveling, we were a bit scared that we could get bored very fast and that we are 30 years too young for these kind of holidays. Fortunately, we were proven wrong, because this region in Italy has much more to offer than wine and truffles: exciting mountain landscapes, mountain passes and little rivers to jump in, for example!  Here is a little report about our week in the Piedmont region (with a little side trip to Liguria), which was not at all as boring as we feared.  How to get to Piedmont and how to get around The Piedmont region is situated in the northwest of Italy, squeezed...