Italy welcomes more than 185 million visitors as tourism surges 7.1% in record year 2025

Italy’s tourism industry reached another historic milestone in 2025, with more than 185 million arrivals recorded across the country as international demand for Italian culture, cities, beaches and cuisine continued to grow strongly. New figures from the Italian Interior Ministry’s ‘Alloggiati Web’ system show that total arrivals increased by 7.1% compared with 2024, rising from…

ITALY | Trains in Sicily

March 2025. We’re embarking on a train trip to Sicily. We fly from Brussels Airport to Leonardo da Vinci Rome Fiumicino Airport with ITA Airways. Then we take an Intercity Notte sleeper train by Trenitalia from Roma Termini Railway Station across Italy to Syracuse. Yes, the train is loaded on a ferry to cross the…

Orval Abbey near Florenville in Belgian Luxembourg

Oh no, I turned 40 in June. For years I escaped Belgium for my birthday. I even managed to do so last year, in between COVID-19 related leisure travel lockdowns, visiting my sister Florence in Switzerland. This year leaving the Realm proved to be very impractical. But Danny, his boyfriend Sam, Oriol and myself booked…