Skip to content

Italy / France

2017 · Italy · France

CountriesItaly, France
Stages7

Route

Photographs (193)

A jagged snow-streaked mountain ridge rises above a wide green valley in warm afternoon light.A cluster of old stone houses with tiled roofs clings to a steep green hillside above the valley.A green meadow with tall grasses stretches toward a rugged rocky peak in the distance.A small mountain village sits in a green basin enclosed by steep forested slopes and rocky peaks.A road curves through green fields and scattered trees beneath a bright, cloud-streaked sky.Colourful houses stacked on a rocky cliff overlook a small harbour and turquoise water.Weathered cottages in shades of red and cream cling to a steep terraced slope above the shore.A vivid turquoise bay stretches beneath a hillside covered with closely packed colourful buildings.Tall narrow houses in pastel colours line the edge of a rocky headland above the Mediterranean.A narrow stone stairway climbs between closely set village houses painted in warm colours.Houses with shuttered windows overlook a calm expanse of blue sea from a high vantage point.Dramatic pale limestone cliffs drop steeply into deep blue sea under a wide sky.Sharp craggy ridges tower over a small cove where the water glows turquoise near the base.A vast calm sea spreads out beneath a horizon of pale eroded limestone cliffs.People sit and lie on the rocks along the shore, enjoying the sun beside clear shallow water.A sheltered inlet of bright turquoise water is enclosed by pale limestone rock on both sides.A narrow path follows a grassy ridge with the sea and cliffs visible on either side.The pale pink of sunlit limestone glows beside a quiet blue bay with a sandy shoreline.Dark green pines grow along the top edge of a pale cliff, dropping away to the sea below.Evening light softens the coastal crags and water, painting them in warm orange and deep blue tones.A hiker in a green jacket sits on a rock in deep snow, a backpack beside him.High snowy peaks and a skiers' track across a bright sunlit snowfield.A small frozen pond sits among a bare larch forest on a snowy hillside.A hiker sits on a rock under bare larch trees on a snow slope.

Journal Notes (7)
Day 1 - Aosta Valley

General The first day of a spring journey to the Alps began in a valley that runs from the plains of Piedmont up into the highest mountains of western Europe. The Aosta Valley is a corridor, a deep trench between two walls of rock that widens at the bottom into meadows and narrow …

Day 2 - Aosta Valley

General The second day went up. The road from the valley floor climbs through the villages and the forest to a pass at around two thousand metres, and in April the world at the top of that road is still winter: deep snow in the open, larches without leaves, the mountainsides whit …

Day 3 - Aosta Valley / Cinque Terre

General The third day was the day the journey changed its character. The morning was still alpine: the snowcapped peak above the town, the last of the winter in the forest, the chapels and the meadows of the valley. By the evening the car was on the Ligurian coast with the Medite …

Day 4 - Cinque Terre

General The fourth day was the walking day, and in the Cinque Terre that means the coastal path. The route between the villages is a chain of steps, terraces and mule tracks that has been in use for as long as the villages have existed, and walking it is the only way to understan …

Day 5 - Cinque Terre

General The fifth day was the one without a plan. The villages had been walked and the museums had been seen, and the day was given to the water and to the slow business of staying in one place: a swim in the morning, a boat in the middle of the day, a long lunch, and the evening …

Day 6 - Cinque Terre / Calanques (France)

General The sixth day was the day the journey crossed a border. The morning was Italian and the evening was French, and the change between them was more than a matter of language: the coast, the light, the food and the architecture all shifted as the road went west along the Rivi …

Day 7 - Calanques (France)

General The seventh day was spent inside the calanques, on foot and on the water. The massif is a plateau of limestone cut by inlets, and the paths that cross it run from the edge of Marseille to the town of Cassis along the cliffs, dropping into one cove after another in a seque …