Showing results for "love-" in Travel Writing & Commentary

In the summer of 1957, anxious to impress an admirer who had moved to Paris, while rebelling against her family, Gill Johnson, aged twenty-five, gave up her comfortable job at the National Gallery in London and travelled to Venice to take up a job teaching English to an aristocratic Italian family. Love from Venice is her vivid evocation of that summer, the last hurrah of the European Grand Tour, when the international jet set lit upon the city for their fun.

Join Rick as he's swept away by a fado singer in Lisbon, learns the dangers of falling in love with a gondolier in Venice, and savors a cheese course in the Loire Valley. Contemplate the mysteries of centuries-old stone circles in England, dangle from a cliff in the Swiss Alps, and hear a French farmer's defense of foie gras. With a brand-new, original introduction from Rick reflecting on his decades of travel, For the Love of Europe features 100 of the best stories published throughout his career.

It's 3 a.m. and Elizabeth Gilbert is sobbing on the bathroom floor. She's in her 30s, she has a husband, a house, they're trying for a baby - and she doesn't want any of it. A bitter divorce and a turbulent love affair later, she emerges battered and bewildered and realises it is time to pursue her own journey in search of three things she has been missing: pleasure, devotion and balance.

After the Italian Armistice of 1943, Eric Newby escaped from the prison camp in which he'd been held for a year. He evaded the German army by hiding in the caves and forests of Fontanellato, in Italy's Po Valley. Against this picturesque backdrop, he was sheltered for three months by an informal network of Italian peasants who fed, supported and nursed him before his eventual recapture. Love and War in the Apennines is Newby's tribute to the selfless and courageous people who were to be his saviours and companions during this troubled time.

In this thrilling road trip from "Peking to Paris", a woman tries to save her car, her marriage, and her confidence from breaking down. In May 2007, leaving China’s Great Wall is Car 84, one of 128 antique autos racing in the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge. It’s guided by one Dina Bennett, the world’s least likely navigator: a daydreamer prone to carsickness, riddled with self-doubt, and married to a thrill-seeking perfectionist who is half-human, half-racecar. What could possibly go wrong?

There must be easier ways to heal and grow than walking 500 miles across Spain. But it’s hard to imagine one filled with more adventure, laughter, and excitement. The author sets off armed with idealistic expectations and a backpack. But then things quickly get real on the Camino, and she soon learns a thing or two about humility, vulnerability, and letting go.

After two weeks at sea, the Oosterdam docked in Civitavecchia, Italy. Among the shipboard romantics is a not-so-young couple on their long-overdue honeymoon. Approaching their 46th wedding anniversary, they have their hearts set on an Italian adventure they would have loved to have taken earlier in their marriage - but matters of making a living and a life and raising children kept them from getting away together. The surprises begin even before departed the harbor.

In a real-life fairy tale, Sheryl Ness shares how she fell in love with Vincenzo, a chef in a quaint Tuscan kitchen, over his decadent hot chocolate cake. This enchanting memoir will transport you to the cobblestone streets, lush hillsides dotted with grapevines and olive trees, and unique characters that create the backdrop for Sheryl’s Italian love story. Love in a Tuscan Kitchen is sprinkled with traditional recipes she collected along the way and flavored with rich accounts of how her dreams were fulfilled many times over while living in a picturesque village in Chianti.

A born naturalist and a fearless traveler, Vladimir Dinets wrote travel guides, conducted field research, and lived a couple of lives before he was accepted into the PhD program in zoology at the University of Miami. He thought crocodiles were a dead-end research topic - survivors from the age of the dinosaurs but not much else - until he witnessed groups of up to seventy alligators performing mating choruses that included infrasound vibrations - a form of communication extremely rare in nature.

Escaping the rat race for a few happy weeks, Tom Chesshyre indulges in the freedom of the tracks. From France (dogged by rail worker strikes) through Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Poland he goes, travelling as far east as Odessa by the Black Sea in Ukraine. With no set plans, simply a desire to let the trains lead the way, his trip takes him onwards via Hungary, the Balkans and Austria. Along the way he enjoys many an encounter, befriending fellow travellers as well as a conductor or two. This is a love letter to Europe, written from the trackside.

As a second-generation Italian American, Margie grew up knowing her Sicilian grandparents and always felt a closeness to the Sicilian cultural traditions which were maintained by her family. Not until Margie had grandchildren of her own, did she travel to Sicily for the first time. Here, she felt at home. She fell in love with the people and the culture of Sicily and sensed a real emotional connection.

Carol Ardman traveled to Tangier in 1970 to tend her broken heart and - she hoped - find Jane Bowles, whose writing had literally saved her. Instead she found Paul Bowles at a time when he was as lonely and searching as she was. The two began an unconventional love affair that roiled Tangier's incestuous expat community and transformed Ardman's life. Her sumptuously detailed portrait of their relationship is as intimate - and as satisfying - as it gets.

Ever since Fred Sirieix boarded a P&O ferry bound for Dover with a one-way ticket and just two suitcases, he has been in love with the UK. Working as a waiter at the famous three-Michelin-starred restaurant La Tante Claire in Chelsea aged just 20, he learned English, met people from all walks of life, and went dancing until dawn. From the pastel-coloured beach huts on the Southwold Promenade to the coast of Oban; and from deciphering regional expressions to loving a woman say ‘je t’aime’ like Jane Birkin – this is Fred’s mission to debunking French myths about the Brits.

At the age of 32, on an assignment to walk the most famous pilgrimage in the world – the Camino de Santiago, in northern Spain – Phoebe Smith somehow lost her way. Having spent a lifetime exploring unfamiliar places, she quit her dream job, ended her long-term relationship and headed home to North Wales to discover the point to…everything. In her search for answers she found herself – quite by accident – walking some of Britain’s oldest pilgrim paths. And in following these old ways, she ended up confronting past traumas that she thought she had laid to rest.

Love Scotland is a podcast series from the National Trust for Scotland. Hosted by TV star, expert broadcaster and National Trust for Scotland president Jackie Bird, Love Scotland features big names, experts and enthusiasts from all walks of life. Each episode delves deep into the detail of Scotland’s history, its wildlife and its landscapes.

It started with a boy, of course. Seeking solace from the pain of heartbreak and her father's illness, Laura Coffey embarks on what was meant to be a simple holiday. But her newfound fascination with ancient Greek myths transforms her trip into a six-month odyssey, around tiny archipelagos and mystical Mediterranean islands thought to be the setting of Odysseus's epic journey. As she chases one of the most conflicted, flawed and yet beloved heroes through his fantastical sea-kingdoms, looking for the places where geography and mythology collide, she discovers the wild beauty of the islands.

Después de un divorcio traumático seguido de un desengaño amoroso y en plena crisis emocional y espiritual, Elizabeth Gilbert decide empezar de nuevo y emprende un largo viaje que la llevará sucesivamente a Italia, la India e Indonesia, tres escalas geográficas que se corresponden con otras tantas etapas de búsqueda interior.

It started with an epiphany and a desire to live life more fully. One fateful day in 2017, a thirty-something American woman—up until that point, a responsible, hard-working, tax-paying citizen—decided to leave her home and career and set off to explore the other side of the world. That choice led to a three-year journey laced with serendipity and unexpected twists of fate that would show her more than she ever could have imagined.

In the picturesque village of Guzmán, Spain, in a cave dug into a hillside on the edge of town, an ancient door leads to a cramped limestone chamber known as “the telling room”. Containing nothing but a wooden table and two benches, this is where villagers have gathered for centuries to share their stories and secrets - usually accompanied by copious amounts of wine. It was here, in the summer of 2000, that Michael Paterniti found himself listening to a larger-than-life Spanish cheesemaker named Ambrosio Molinos de las Heras as he spun an odd and compelling tale about a piece of cheese.

Filled with recipes from Mayes' Tuscan kitchen and written in the sensuous and evocative prose that has become her hallmark, Bella Tuscany is a celebration of the sweet life in Italy. Mayes writes of her continuing love affair with Italy: her deepening connection to the land, her flourishing friendships with local people, the joys of art, food, and wine, and the rewards and occasional heartbreaks of her villa's ongoing restoration.