Me and My World of Travel

Cinque Terre  The five villages of Cinque Terre are stunning, they're truly a little piece of heaven. Beautiful, quaint and dating back to the medieval ages these perfect coastal fishing villages are the ideal spot for a bit of much needed TLC. Although they are now a hugely popular tourist spot with approximately 2.5 million visitors a year, this doesn't take away from they're tranquil atmosphere and authentic charm. Here are my top tips to help you plan your getaway to some of Italy's most serene coastal fishing villages.  1. Stay outside Cinque Terre  Seafood Platter at Ristorante Clipper in Deiva Marina.  Although the villages themselves are stunning, there are a lot more affordable and equally beautiful places to stay in the nearby area. With the high footfall of tourists now visiting the five villages, especially throughout the summer months, we opted to stay outside the five villages  to save on accommodation. We stayed in Deiva Marina, anoth

Florence is an amazing city. We visited in high season though, so the streets were jam packed with fellow tourists. It was also extremely warm and there weren't a huge amount of places offering shade. We also only had 3 days in Florence which was ample enough to see all the main sites, however, I could have done with another day or two to really just relax and explore the not so touristy side of Florence. Anyway, here are my top tips for what to do whilst visiting Florence. 1. Pre-Book Tickets  The Uffizi Gallery and Gallery Academia were heaving with people when we visited. I am, luckily in this case, a bit of a control freak and so had pre-booked tickets for both. Thank goodness I did. The queues were well over an hour long to buy tickets. We still had to queue a bit to collect our pre-paid tickets, however, it took no more than 10 minutes. Tickets can be purchased at   http://www.uffizi.org/buy-tickets/ and  http://www.accademia.org/buy-tickets/. 2. Visit the Art Ga

We arrived in Bologna at night, in the pouring rain with no idea where we were going. I had come to this city with a lot of preconceived notions and ideas based on what I'd read and what others had told me. This was not a safe city! That's what I'd been lead to believe. This is why you should never make assumptions based on other's experiences. Yes, be cautious but make up your own mind. Anyone who knows me will know what kind of state I was in not knowing where I was going at night in a strange and apparently dangerous city. However, the people here soon made me change my mind. It reminded me of home in a weird way. (Glasgow!) People could tell we were lost and were more than willing to help. Everyone from labour workers, servers in cafes to just randomers on the street stopped to help us find our hostel. I very quickly realised that this city was actually extremely welcoming and friendly. I'm not doubting it has its dodgy side but like Glasgow it was a remarkabl

Due to time constraints we were only able to spend one full day in Verona during our travels around Italy. However I feel that this was adequate enough time to see everything important and still enjoy the city without feeling too rushed. Here are my top tips to fully enjoy all the city has to offer. Verona is a very clean and beautiful city but like Venice it relies on the tourist industry and is therefore quite expensive. There is an admittance fee for almost every attraction even churches so be prepared and take these into consideration when you're planning your budget. Aside from this though the city has a lot to offer and is well worth a visit! It's easily accessible by train from Florence, Bologna and Venice so if you can't manage a whole weekend here definitely try a day trip from one of the other major cities. Roman Arena in Verona 1. Arena di Verona!  The arena as the most prominent feature of Verona captures the focus of every visitor. When we visited

I recently spent almost a month backpacking around major Italian cities before which I had done an extensive amount of research on each place. I now want to share my top tips for future visitors to Italy and highlight some of the amazing hidden gems I wished I'd known about before we went. The first Italian City we visited was Venice and so I will start there. St Mark's Square, Venezia Venice is beautiful. It is expensive and it is touristy but it is beautiful. I spent three days in Venice which was long enough to see all the major sites but I would go back in a heartbeat to just spend days wandering aimlessly around the narrow streets and canals. Out of the ten Italian destinations we visited,  I would definitely put Venice in my top 3.   1. Walk Everywhere!  All the main tourist sites are within walking distance and you never know what you'll find up the many side streets. As I said before Venice is touristy so the further away from the major attracti