This month the Telegraph published the article “21 places in Italy you never thought to visit (but really should)”. Obviously you can never put them all in and some have to be left out but we at Tuscany Holiday Rent were very happy to notice come acquaintances of ours.
Respecting the Telegraph’s numbering, we first encounter our neighbour Porto Venere (aka Portovenere) in Liguria (our house is right on the border between Tuscany and Liguria – making the best of two worlds we say). As the Telegraph correctly writes, most tourists visiting the area only stop over at the Cinque Terre which are further north. We highly recommend to visit this lovely, colourful, seaside village, enjoy its excellent dishes at one of the seafront restaurants, stroll over to Byron’s Grotto and admire the islands of Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto from the hilltop cemetery.
We also support the Telegraph’s suggestion to also pay a visit to nearby Tellaro, just after Lerici, a favourite destination for many Italian and international artists, and the quiet fishing village of Sestri Levante, between the Cinque Terre and Portofino, with its enchanting Fairy Tales Bay, a name bestowed in honour of Hans Christian Andersen who briefly lived here in 1833.
Following Porto Venere in the Telegraph’s list is the Etruscan village of Sovana in the province of Grosseto. As many locations in southern Tuscany, this is certainly off the beaten track. A treasure trove full of surprises, here one encounters traces from many pasts, such as the Etruscan Necropolis and, clustered along the one and only main street, magnificent examples of medieval and Renaissance architecture. We also suggest you try the local Sovana DOC wine, both the red and the rosé, reminding you that this area also produces the white wine Bianco di Pitigliano and the full bodied red Morellino di Scansano DOC.
Making it to the 21 top list is also the capital city of Liguria itself, Genoa. Whilst we may have mixed feelings because after all Genoa is Italy’s 6th largest city and has been a port town for over 6 millenniums, we have to admit that recently a lot has been done down in the area of the old harbour, Porto Antico, to attract tourists and that the typical Genoese alleys, known as caruggi, and the magnificent Renaissance Palaces, of which one is included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site list, are effectively worth the visit.
Certainly, as already mentioned, there were many others to add, but that is, after all, our task. Patiently, one by one, on these pages.
