We bade farewell to Stephanie, the cats and the Trullo early. Joe drove us across the 'heel' to Taranto from where our train for Milano...

It is Sunday in southern Italy. The town is quiet. The beaches not far from here will already be crammed (even this early in summer)....

Today we visited the Trulli town of Alberobello, about an hour's drive north of Francavilla Fontana. The town is a UNESCO World Heritage...

The chirping of cicadas in 70 year old olive trees is the only sound to disturb the peace. Do cicadas chirp? I am too hot to care. The...

You get up early on a day when the breeze has dropped and it's twenty-seven or twenty-eight degrees by breakfast. And your brother asks...

We drove from coast to coast across the 'heel' of the 'boot' that is mainland Italy. From the Adriatic Sea to the Ionian Sea. From...

The English writer Horace Walpole (1717 - 1797) is often credited with writing the first ever Gothic novel. His story, The Castle of...

My brother warned me that life in the Trullo would be rustic ... that's the word he used. Rustic. Did he mention it would be rustic and...

I sat in the shade of a Trullo. A kitten came calling for breakfast. Then mum came. Then they came. Then later we wandered down long...

My younger brother provides my verifiable first memory. In a taxi. In the rain. In Aberdeen. I was -- what? -- three and a half years old...