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Author Archives: awtytravels
Beach life.
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
27 Comments
Palermo Street Art.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
…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.
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
Posted in London, UK
Tagged Aikido, Animal speak, Animal watching, Animals, Bambi, Binoculars, Bird, Bird watchers, Buck, Bushy, Bushy Park, Deer, Documentary, Heron, Hind, Mammals, Oak, Park, Photographer, Photography, Royal Park, Tree, Trees, Twickenham, Twickers
16 Comments
