An unexpected pleasure of river cruising is stepping ashore in the centre of things, rather than a port some distance from town. In media res, as Tolstoy advised aspiring writers. In Vienna, I alighted by the Church of St Francis. This distinctive church, covered with towers and red tiles, was…

I thought I new Florence. Well enough, at least, to know the bus routes. Until in between visits someone changed the stops. Once upon a time when I stayed a while in Fiesole, I’d catch the bus down to Florence and alight near the Duomo. Now, after dutifully buying my…

What started with a boat rapidly became a surreal experience. Indeed, most of my trip to Halong Bay bordered on surreal. The place was crowded when we docked mid-morning. Bewildered and sunburnt tourists milled around looking for boats to take them out into the bay while vendors verged on blows…

I found Japan a juxtaposition of old and new which somehow blended seamlessly. Everywhere I went proved such a contrast to all I thought I knew about the country. Here are some of my favourite signs I found along the way.

A poem — It came to me last Tuesday Somewhere around two in the afternoon, I think, As I cursed and threatened an impassive computer How my life was not a novel With a defined arc of beginning, middle and end. It lacks resolution, with a denouement to follow Neither punctuation nor spelling await correction A…

As we drove through the forest, the road began to sing to us. The sound changed with the speed of the minibus, but it was unmistakable. We were driving on a singing road. That morning, after a few days of exploring Tokyo in the rain, I woke to clear skies…

While I struggled with braces on my teeth and conjugating the past tense in French and German, Michelangelo was carving his first works. The braces were not a pretty sight. The Madonna della Scala is. At the age of thirteen, Michelangelo was apprenticed by his father to Ghirlandaio’s studios. Two…