Travels Abroad
Travels Abroad to some of my favourite places
I have decided to offer a new project that might be of interest to the seeker in you.
Over the next few months I will start planning excursions for groups of friends with me as a guide and companion. The idea is that rather than my endlessly go on about the fantastic places that I have visited, with tempting Instagram posts I will set out with anyone who fancies a short trip.
As travellers, you will buy your flights, pay for car hire, hotels, meals etc and pay me enough to cover my expenses (flights, car hire, hotel and meals) so you will pay hardly anything on top of what the entire trip will cost. ( I reckon on my ‘services’ working out at about £50 -£100 per person per day, of about 3 or 4 days per trip)
There will be wonderful dinners at some of my favourite restaurants, visits to extraordinary villas, castles, gardens and places in cities and the countryside that I think are worth viewing and all of this will be in great company and at a pace that we are all happy with.
I imagine that we will travel in groups of about ten people (or less). If you are all friends of mine then even if you haven’t met one another (unlikely) you will rapidly become friends.
Here are some ideas….and plainly there’s a LOT more than I’ve listed below!
Around Rome and the Lazio Hills
Incredible gardens and wonderful fountains
Hadrian’s Villa and Villa d’Este at Tivoli (with luch at the Ristorante Sibilla)
Caprarola and Villa Farnese
Sutri and the spellbinding Etruscan amphitheatre
Bagnaia and Villa Lante
Cerveteri and the Etruscan necropolis
The Villa Giustiani at Bassano Romano
The Venice Biennale
Walks around the Arsenale and Giardini
Visit the Punta della Dogana and Palazzo Grassi, Francois Pinault’s trophy houses of contemporary art
Some of the hard-to-find ‘off-site’ pavilions
…and perhaps a bit of the Venetian Renaissance thrown in too!
The Eternal City
A gentle tour of a few of the incredible places in Rome
San Clemente, two thousand years of history in four layers, as one descends through Baroque, Renaissance, Medieval and Roman Mithraic buildings all contructed on the foundations of each other.
Galleria Doria Pamhilji
Villa Giulia
Palazzo Colonna
Santa Costanza
Galleria Borghese
Casino Ludovisi
The immense Pantheon and remains of Pompey’s Theatre (site of Caesar’s assassination)
Trastevere
…and much more