Yesterday, we wondered about the marbles of the Tower of Pisa and where they were from. Today, we are going to talk about what the tower...

Less than thirty minutes after lifting anchor in La Spezia and putting the boat on a course South, the Apennine Mountains come back into...

Ever wondered why there is no big port between Genoa and Napoli when sailing down the west coast of Italy? There was one in Ostia at the...

Ten days ago, I wrote about the Phoenician traders who ventured into the Western Mediterranean in search of silver and tin. They found it...

Intended to write about the Tunisian cuisine today. But given that I have not been there for 47 years, I only have a faint recollection...

When people talk about North Africa, they mostly think of it as desert, tourist resorts with sandy beaches and decade long and never...

Ever wondered how the Phoenicians and Greeks sailed in the 8th - 6th century BC to the western Mediterranean? We will be crossing these...

When we leave Genoa on 11 July, we will sail along the Ligurian coast with its steep hills. Already on the second day they merge with the...

Another a beautiful and quiet morning today. The sea could not have been calmer - ideal for long kaiaking rides and morning swims. We...

Remember the many dolphins we saw when sailing in 2017 and 2018? Many of you asked whether we are going to see dolphins again this...

We all know the story of the Italian physicist, mathematician and engineer Galileo Galilei who was draged before the Catholic Inquisition...

Remember the trees in the Rhone Valley in Southern France which are bent due to the strong Mistral? The area around Chantrou, our house...

Remember summer 2010 when air traffic over Europe was suspended due to the outbreak of Eyjafjiaalajökull, the volcano in Iceland? I spent...

One of the two buildings on the photo below (Piazza San Marco) had an ever lasting impact on mankind. Can you guess which one? A) Is it...

When you look up the list of important cartographers in Wikipedia, there are 18 names listed for the first 2'000 years up to 1400 AD. 17...

Remember our experience in Lydia in 2017 and 2018 when we found ancient ports 4 to 5 miles inland, far away from the current shores? Even...

When sailing into the Bay of Kotor, you will be surprised by the landscape you find. All the reference reading tells us that we are...

Every summer, many Arabs from Saudi Arabia and the Golf Countries descend on London to escape the brutal heat of their home countries....

Since the industrial revolution two hundred years ago, we are surrounded by steel and got used to its ubiquitous use. This was not always...

When sailing along Venetian trading routes, our captain will use GPS and computerised maps. The Venetians however had to do with...