The rigour and control of winemaking in France is taken to another level in Champagne. I respect the producers and like the product and I had visited Épernay a few months earlier to mark my 50th birthday. I drove the 570km from Zurich to see another centre of champagne in Reims and to photograph its magnificent Cathedral. […]
My journey from Southern Tyrol took me through the Val Müstair, over Ofenpass at an elevation of 2,149m and through the 19km Vereina Rail Tunnel on a car transporter. Thereafter, the road wound past Kueblis and down, out of the mountains to Landquart, where I joined the autobahn to Zürich. The following day as I explored […]
A circuitous route to Glorenza took me over the Julier Pass at an elevation of 2248m. As I moved above the tree line, the landscape became stark, rugged, lunar and I recalled the transition from forest to desert on the way to Zadar two weeks before. But this time it became colder. Glorenza (Glurns) is a charming and very well-preserved […]
I left Venice in the late morning and drove to Milan and then North towards the Alps, stopping for tea with a friend from school who I hadn’t seen for over thirty years. It was wonderful to meet her again and to feel the connection and ease that come with even distant shared experience. Relieved […]
I had long wanted to visit Venice and was excited as I arrived at Piazzale Roma. I parked and took the vaporetto water bus along the Grand Canal to Rialto. Although it felt cold, I stood outside the cabin to take in the canals and buildings. The sun had just set and Venice was beautiful. Deep […]
My early visits to Florence were full of wonder at its art, architecture and history. I read extensively before arriving and imagined past events being played out in the streets and squares. I sought, found and delighted in difference and maintained a state of excited otherness. Indeed, this was my approach during 15 years of extensive business travel, until my tenth trip to […]
Before working in the City, I had intended to be a historian and so I was excited to visit Pompeii. I had taken the overnight ferry from Durres to Bari and after negotiating tight immigration and customs, which at one point seemed would involve dismantling my car, I drove the width of Italy over the Campanian […]
The journey from Dubrovnik into Montenegro was breathtaking, with massive mountains, rugged and appearing recently hewn, plunging directly into the sea. I drove around the Bay of Kotor with the sunset, rather than taking the Kamenari – Lepetane ferry. Arriving in Kotor, I could see the chain of illuminated ramparts high above the Old Town. In the morning I climbed 1,200m to the […]
One of the more satisfying aspects of my transitional photographic road trip is not knowing where I am going more than a day or two in advance, but I had always intended to return to Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik has a magnetic energy and presence. A free city state for 500 years until the early C19th and an early abolisher […]
Colin Melvin 