Travel

Not Porto. But then, nothing is Porto. 37 Days Across Europe · Days 30–33 of 37 · Lisbon, Portugal There is a particular quality to arriving in a city knowing it is the last one. You are still looking, still noticing, still lifting the camera, but there is something underneath it all that is already turning toward home. Lisbon, as a final chapter, turns out to be exactly the right city for that feeling. It is grand enough to hold your attention, lived-in enough to let you

37 Days Across Europe · Days 19–21 · Porto, Portugal After Rome and Paris, cities that spend considerable energy being exactly what they've promised to be, Porto came as something of a relief. Nobody here is performing. The streets are steep, the azulejos are chipping, the signs advertise barbershops and cheap lottery tickets. And somewhere in among all of that unrehearsed, slightly crumbling everydayness, Porto turns out to be one of the most immediately loveable cities

Seven nights in Paris. Montmartre as base. One day trip to Normandy and a painter's garden. And the slow, dawning realisation that Paris is the kind of city that makes you feel you've done it no matter how little of it you've actually seen, and then quietly makes you wish you'd stayed longer. 37 Days Across Europe · Days 18–24 of 37 · Paris, France Sacré-Cœur from the base of the Butte, black and white. The carousel in the foreground — all gilded horses and faded paint — the

37 Days Across Europe · Days 16–19 of 37 · Rome, Italy Six days in Rome. Three guided day tours. One Pompeii. One Sorrento. One Colosseum. And the quiet, accumulating realisation that Rome is a city you cannot finish, not in a week, not in a month, possibly not in a lifetime. Rome from the rooftops. Terracotta tiles, rooftop gardens, domes stacked behind domes. St Peter's visible in the middle distance. The orange pennant cuts through the grey sky. This is the Rome that exist

37 Days Across Europe · Day 15 of 37 · Vatican City & Rome Easter weekend. The world's smallest country, the world's greatest museum, and the mild chaos of arriving at precisely the wrong time. Still completely worth it. Cortile della Pigna, Vatican Museums. The giant first-century bronze pine cone — Pigna — in the courtyard of the Vatican Museums, housed in a Renaissance hemispherical niche. A lion at the base of the stairs. A completely improbable sky. This is Rome est

37 Days Across Europe · Day 14 of 37 · Rome, Italy A city where you turn a corner and find two thousand years of history stacked on top of each other — and the Spanish Steps are somehow still full of people checking their phones. Rome, from the rooftops. The view from the upper levels of the city's centre — terracotta tiles, rooftop gardens, scaffolding, domes. Michelangelo's St Peter's visible in the distance. The Rome that exists above street level is a different city

37 Days Across Europe · Day 13 of 37 · Florence, Last Day No agenda, no museums, no reservations. Just Florence doing what Florence does best — being completely itself, to anyone willing to walk slowly enough to notice. Acoustic Sound Unit, Piazza della Repubblica. A band setting up under the triumphal arch — djembe, guitar, the whole production laid out on the flagstones. The Pensione Pendini visible above, the Apple Store to the left. Florence, 9am. There is something

37 Days Across Europe · Days 11–13 of 37 · Siena · San Gimignano · Pisa A day out of Florence. Siena's medieval gravity, San Gimignano's towers, a wine lunch somewhere in between — and the obligatory lean. SIENNA Piazza del Campo, Siena. The Torre del Mangia at 87 metres against a moving Tuscan sky. Two figures cross the brickwork far below — everything in the right proportion. There is a version of the Tuscany day trip that a lot of travellers do from Florence. They book

Three nights in the cradle of the Renaissance. A detour to Pisa. And the greatest steak of the journey. A man on a bicycle cuts through Piazza San Lorenzo — five centuries of stone and a single moment of ordinary life. Milan talks loudly. It announces itself in tram bells and Aperol spritzes and the audacious marble of the Duomo. It wants to be seen, and it earns that. Florence does not announce itself. Florence waits. It lets you walk the first hour convinced you understand

When the Trip Finally Finds Its Heartbeat 37 Days Across Europe | A 55+ Bucket List Journey 📍 Lucerne → Milan, Italy | Days 8–10 of 37 Milan's Duomo at the end of Via Agnello, the moment the city stopped being a destination and became an experience. Let me be honest with you about something. The first week of this trip was beautiful. Switzerland delivered on its postcard promise at every turn, the Chapel Bridge at night, the Märlitram rattling through Zurich's old town, the

Day 3: When Monday Becomes a Four-Country Accidental Adventure Zurich → Rapperswil → Heididorf → Liechtenstein 37 Days Across Europe | A 55+ Bucket List Journey 📍 Start: Zurich, Switzerland | Day 3 of 37 Zurich on a quiet Monday morning — still, beautiful, and ready to send us somewhere new. There's a particular kind of Monday that doesn't feel like a Monday at all. The kind where you wake up, look out the window at a European city you've dreamed about visiting, and think ri

Day 1 Zurich Day 1: Zurich Didn't Let Me Sleep — And I'm So Glad 37 Days Across Europe | A 55+ Bucket List Journey I've been awake for somewhere close to 20 hours. My back has opinions about economy seating. My internal clock has completely given up and filed for early retirement. And yet — here I am, sitting at the end of Day 1, looking at photos on my camera and genuinely unable to stop smiling. Zurich, you absolute charmer. The Arrival After 13 hours in the air and the qui