Finale Ligure is an Italian comune on the Gulf of Genoa in the Province of Savona in Liguria. We visited in autumn, flying from London to Turin and hired a car for the eighty mile drive south to the coast. Finale Ligure is a popular resort for Italians living in the north, but has very [...]
Category: Beyond London
Sights, attractions and places of interest beyond London
Hampton Court Palace
Hampton Court Palace was the home of England's most famous king from 1529 until his death in 1547. With sixty acres of gardens and 750 acres of parkland, it was King Henry VIII's weekend and summer retreat from London. The palace was occupied by monarch's of the Stuart and Hanoverian Royal Houses up until 1737. [...]
Medieval Fete in Vouvant
Recently returned from a summer-break in France, during which a highlight was the annual medieval fete in Vouvant, Pays de la Loire - the only fortified village of Vendee. Between 1150 and 1216, all of western France was ruled by the English kings; Henry II and Richard I - before being lost during the reign [...]
Syon House – London’s last great ducal residence
Syon House, near Brentford, is home of the Percys, Dukes of Northumberland. It sits in a 200 acre estate on the River Thames in Middlesex. The house we see today was built by Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset in 1547, refurbished and enhanced by the Scottish architect Robert Adam in the 1760's and refaced in [...]
Birthplace of the world’s most famous writer – Stratford-upon-Avon
The centre of Stratford-upon-Avon is packed with Elizabethan and Jacobean architecture and history that recall the life of the world's most famous writer, William Shakespeare. This article shows you how to spend one day in Stratford-upon-Avon, exploring the town and its connections to the bard. We start the walk in Henley Street near the [...]