Archaeological sites
Mértola: the village-museum where the mosque became a church
On the edge of the Guadiana, Mértola harbours a parish church that was a 12th-century mosque, with the mihrab still intact.
Jul 9, 2026Travel where others don't
Little-known destinations, forgotten villages and whole regions to discover before everyone else does. The antidote to overtourism, one guide at a time.
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Hidden Europe
Marvão: the castle on top of the world at the Spanish border
At 860 metres on the Serra de São Mamede, Marvão is a medieval fortress overlooking three regions. The most isolated and most beautiful corner of Portugal.
Jul 9, 2026
Wild nature
Isola di Dino: Calabria's Grotto Without Capri Crowds
Off Praia a Mare, on the Calabrian Tyrrhenian coast, a sea cave that rivals Capri's Blue Grotto: few tourists know it. Boat trip included.
Jul 9, 2026
Wild nature
Asinara: where white donkeys run free in a former maximum-security prison
A former penal colony and then a supermax prison for terrorists and mafia bosses, Asinara is now a national park open only to guided excursions: a place of rare power.
Jul 9, 2026
Wild nature
Filicudi: the quiet side of the Aeolian Islands that few seek out
Filicudi lacks Stromboli's fame and Panarea's glamour, but it has something rarer: silence, time, and a fishing village that has remained intact.
Jul 9, 2026
Wild nature
Alicudi: the island without roads where the world stands still
No cars, no scooters, no tarmac: on Alicudi you get around on foot or by mule. It is the most isolated of the Aeolian Islands, and perhaps the most genuine.
Jul 9, 2026
Wild nature
Marettimo: the end of the world in the heart of the Mediterranean
The westernmost of the Egadi Islands is also the wildest: crystal-clear waters, sea caves, and trails where silence is still possible.
Jul 9, 2026
City corners
Matera in February: the Sassi without crowds, tufa in winter, and cave churches
Matera in peak season is packed. In February, the Sassi return to what they've always been: a city carved in tufa, silent and ancient like few places in Europe.
Jul 9, 2026
Abbeys, hermitages and sanctuaries
Greccio: The First Living Nativity Scene in History, in the Woods of the Sabine Mountains
In 1223 Francis of Assisi invented the living nativity scene here. Every December the cliff-side sanctuary of Greccio does it again, in the exact spot where it first happened.
Jul 9, 2026