MIX IT ALL UP WITH A BIT OF YIN AND A TOUCH OF YANG
Anumber of readers have been in touch about their summer holidays and, interestingly, some are looking for the same thing – a holiday in Europe combining a city break with easy access to a seaside town. In other words they want to swim in the sea and chill out but they also want a blast of museum/ gallery culture and all the other delights an interesting city has to offer.
Where would I recommend? Well, bearing in mind that what floats my boat might not necessarily float yours, here are three combinations that have definitely worked for me.
ITALY: FLORENCE & VIAREGGIO
I experienced this combination four years ago – more by accident than design. We were staying in Florence, in an apartment right in the heart of the city. The Duomo was around the corner and the Ponte Vecchio, spanning the River Arno, was a six or seven-minute walk.
It was perfect. We ‘did’ the Uffizi and the Strozzi, we saw Michelangelo’s David in the Accademia and we strolled in the lovely Boboli gardens. But it was July and it was scorching hot, so after a few days of sweltering afternoon heat had forced us back to our air-conditioned apartment we decided to head for the coast. Which is how we ended up in Viareggio, which, I have to confess, I had never heard of before. We took a train there, via Lucca. It was really straightforward and when we got to Viareggio we realised that we had stumbled upon a real gem of a place.
With a long, broad promenade and a lovely beach – part public, part hotel territory – Viareggio has an air of faded grandeur, a great market area with an amazing cheap and cheerful fish restaurant and a stunning array of beautiful art deco buildings throughout the town, including the threestar hotel we stayed in, right on the promenade. At the end of two days we had to drag ourselves back to Florence.
GREECE: CHANIA & STAVROS
Chania might well be enough on its own because, although a city in Crete (its former capital), it is also right on the sea.
But it gets hot and sticky in summer and also very busy with the little cobbled side streets that run up behind the Venetian harbour getting chock-a-block with people.
Less than 20km away, however, is Stavros, a spot that I stayed in 30 years ago and, again, more recently. Right on the northern tip of the Akrotiri peninsula, it’s more a smattering of houses and restaurants and apartments than a village in its own right. With a lovely beach that’s perfect for swimming (for adults and children) Stavros is dominated by its famous mountain. It’s where Zorba
The Greek was filmed back in the 1960s.
PORTUGAL: LISBON & ESTORIL/CASCAIS
Lisbon is a fantastic city with so much to see and do on the ‘culture’ front, from St George’s Castle to the Jeronimos monastery at Belem.
I have done this both ways – stayed in the city and taken day-trips to Estoril and Cascais (30 minutes by train); and stayed once in Estoril and visited the city for the day. It’s a really easy combination. If you want more of a ‘town’ vibe, then pick Cascais but both deliver the seaside experience, with all the attractions of Lisbon also close at hand.