The ferry from Bastia crossed the Mediterranean night. I stood on the deck until the lights of Corsica became uncertain and then became nothing, and the sea was dark in every direction. Somewhere behind me, the island was still releasing the smell of its hills into the water — myrtle, rosemary, thyme, the dense wild […]
What the Mediterranean Light Does Read More »
Around the World with Beyondia 🧵 Mediterranean Region 🪡 Journal 10 Bolzano. Lago di Garda. Sanremo. The part of Italy that makes you question everything you thought Italy was. Bolzano — The Alps I took a train north from Verona and watched Italy dissolve out the window. The vineyards stayed but the language on the
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🌐 Around the World with Beyondia 🧵 Mediterranean Region 🪡 Episode 30: Sanremo A flower town with a casino. A casino with a singing competition. A singing competition that, by 1956, the entire continent had agreed to copy. Sanremo — Riviera dei Fiori In the late nineteenth century, on a small stretch of the western
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France Route: Corsica (Bastia → Calanques de Piana → Bonifacio) → overnight ferry → Nice (Vieux Nice, Grande Corniche) → Provence (Luberon Valley — Gordes, Roussillon) Total distance: approximately 600 km (driving sections combined, plus ferry crossing) Recommended duration: 7–10 days Best months: June (lavender bloom in Provence), September (warm Corsican waters, thinner crowds) Currency:
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🌐 Around the World with Beyondia 🧵 Mediterranean Region 🪡 Episode 29: Lago di Garda At the foot of mountains where snow still falls in winter, the same lake grows lemons. Geography this stubborn deserves an explanation. Lago di Garda — A tongue of the Adige Glacier Lago di Garda was carved out of solid
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🌐 Around the World with Beyondia 🧵 Mediterranean Region 🪡 Episode 28: Bolzano The waiter took my order in German. The receipt was in Italian. The sign on the bakery across the street was in both. None of this is unusual here. Bolzano did not become Italy when Italy arrived. Bolzano: The Italian City That
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It was a Saturday afternoon. Mediterranean Colors Behind Me I was on a rooftop terrace — I no longer remember which island, which hotel, which stretch of the western Mediterranean had delivered me here — and I had closed my eyes. The sun was on my face. Not hot enough to move away from. Warm
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Around the World with Beyondia 🧵 Mediterranean Region 🪡 Journal 9 Everyone has an opinion about Naples and nobody has the right words for it. Naples I almost didn’t come. Every person I told said the same thing — be careful, watch your bag, it’s chaotic. Naples has a reputation problem and it knows, and
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🌐 Around the World with Beyondia 🧵 Mediterranean Region 🪡 Episode 27: Venice The city was put here on purpose. The lagoon did not want it. The Venetians, for eleven hundred years, did not care. Republic of Venice — La Serenissima Sometime in the fifth and sixth centuries AD, while the western Roman Empire was
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🌐 Around the World with Beyondia 🧵 Mediterranean Region 🪡 Episode 26 In the year Brunelleschi finished his dome, the entire population of Florence was about forty thousand. That is fewer people than will read this article in its first week. Florence Produced the Renaissance In the early fifteenth century, the small Tuscan city of
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