Author Archives: awtytravels

Beach life.

Posted on 01/11/2020 by awtytravels

A pebble beach. Cold wind, the waters of the fjord lapping the polished stones of the shore. A faint smell of trees hanging in the air. A crowd, gathered in expectation. People are waiting patiently. Some carry binoculars, some have … Continue reading →

Posted in Scotland | Tagged Ceannabeinne Beach, Chanonry Point, Dolphins, Highlands, Moray Firth, Photography, Pink sand, Sango Bay, Scotland, Sea, Shore, UK, United Kingdom | 39 Comments

Palermo Street Art.

Posted on 20/10/2020 by awtytravels

I don’t know when humanity built the first wall; what I’m certain of, however, is that it mustn’t have been long before somebody drew on it. Street art has been found everywhere, from Aya Sofia in Istanbul to Pompeii: it’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Italy, Sicilia | Tagged After Life, Art, Bacchus, Borsellino, Corleone, Cosa nostra, death, environment, Falcone, Greta, Hippo, Italia, Italy, Jesus, Kalsa, Lampedusa, Leopard, Murales, Nanni Moretti, Palermo, Racism, Reinassance, Rosk&Loste, Sicilia, Sicily, Spray art, Stickers, Street art, Thunberg, Tomasi | 19 Comments

Read Chapter 1 of “Turn Left at Lenin’s Statue” for free!

Posted on 10/10/2020 by awtytravels

Turn Left at Lenin’s Statue is my first travel book. It’s the story of a journey through Central Asia, past frontiers and across seasons; a journey whose aim was to understand this region, to go beyond the (scarce) headlines and, … Continue reading →

Posted in The Book | Tagged Almaty, Amazon, Amazon self publish, Book, Central Asia, Chapter 1, free chapter 1, Free reading, Kazakhstan, Lenin, Nur Sultan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Statue, Travel, Travel Book, Travel literature, Travel writing, Travelogue, Turn Left | 16 Comments

Ashes and blue skies: a Palermo travelogue.

Posted on 01/10/2020 by awtytravels

Warm air rushes in to fill the plane. We disembark by row, adhering scrupulously to the new socially-distant orthodoxy, ditching jumpers and jackets as we do: summer might be a distant memory where we left off, washed away in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Europe, Italy, Sicilia | Tagged Bangla, Borgo Antico, Bread, Cathedral, Church, Duomo, Europe, Granita, Immigration, India, Italia, Italy, Kalsa, Koran, Maqueda, Market, Med, Mediterranean, Mosque, Old town, Palermo, Pane, Panelle, People, People watching, Qoran, Rubbish, Sea, Sicilia, Sicily, Ucciardone | 30 Comments

Saving a corner of wilderness.

Posted on 29/09/2020 by awtytravels

Regulars of this blog will know that I originally hail from NW Italy. I was born in Piedmont but spent a lot of time in neighbouring Val d’Aosta (also known as Almost Switzerland). A region of glaciers, woods, gurgling streams, … Continue reading →

Posted in Europe, Italy, Uncategorized, Val d'Aosta | Tagged Alps, Annamaria Gremmo, Aosta, Cime Bianche, Climate change, Conservation, Francesco Sisti, Italy, Last wild valley, Marco Soggetto, Mountains, Ski, Skiing, Val d'Aosta, Vallee d'Aoste, Vallone selvaggio, Wild, Wildlife | 22 Comments

Postcards from the city at the edge of the island.

Posted on 20/09/2020 by awtytravels

This place is ancient. Countless generations lived here; even more passed through. Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans. Then Vandals, Goths, the Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, Spaniards. Germans and the Allied forces. All left a piece, a memento of their passage. This is … Continue reading →

Posted in Europe, Italy, Sicilia | Tagged Arabs, Buildings, Carthaginians, Cathedral, Europa, Europe, Goths, Greeks, hoenicians, Indulgence, Normans, Palermo, Post office, Postcards, Poste, Romans, Sicilia, Sicily, Spaniards, the Byzantines | 14 Comments

The ultimate StairMaster.

Posted on 07/09/2020 by awtytravels

From the comfortable flatness of London, Alpine trekking evokes images of paths meandering towards isolated peaks and a soft mattress of pine needles covering a path running through the woods. Not in the mountains surrounding my hometown, though. Boulders make … Continue reading →

Posted in Italy, Piemonte | Tagged Alps, Animals, Bee, Black, Bovine, Buddhism, Cable car, Clouds, Cow, Dublin, Dubliners, Flat, Flower, Hiking, Insect, Italy, Madonna, Mary, Matterhorn, Monte Rosa, Oropa, Paddy, Piedmont, Piemonte, Prealpi, Rice, Rock, Rocky road, Ropeway, Sanctuary, Shepherd, Summer, Trekking, Yellow | 28 Comments

Turn Left at Lenin’s Statue: Travels in Central Asia.

Posted on 03/08/2020 by awtytravels

It’s taken three years, five revisions and a list of rejections as long as Donald Trump’s comb over, but at long last Turn Left at Lenin’s Statue is here – or, rather, on Amazon. Here’s a little bit of a … Continue reading →

Posted in The Book | Tagged Amazon, Amazon self publish, Asia, Book, Central Asia, China, Ebook, Kazakhstan, Kindle, Kyrgyzstan, Lenin's statue, Literature, Pamir, PRC, Russia, Self Publish, Tajikistan, Travel, Travel writing, Turn Left, Uzbekistan, Xinjiang | 44 Comments

It’s (almost) Alive!

Posted on 01/08/2020 by awtytravels

…well, almost. As soon as Jeff’s industrious elves (or, rather, a server in some Amazon Web Services data centre in suburban Leighton Buzzard) check that neither the Kindle nor the paperback are hiding contents unworthy of featuring on Jeff’s Big … Continue reading →

Posted in Odd ones out | Tagged Amazon, Amazon Kindle, At Lenin's statue, Book, Publishing, Travel Book, Travel writing, Turn Left, Writer | 20 Comments

They can speak.

Posted on 21/07/2020 by awtytravels

Animals can speak. And thanks to a nifty little app I downloaded, I now speak animal! “Say what?” says the hind. – “Hey, mister Heron…” “What’s the matter, darling?” “Have you seen those two bipeds? The one with the camera … Continue reading →