February 2026. Turin. Two hours and two pints into Turin, with the sudden realisation we hadn’t eaten since sharing a croissant in Monaco that morning. The disappointment in finding the city’s highest rating brewery/skatepark/burger bar didn’t start flipping till 6pm on a Friday was palpable, but luckily Google...

February 2026. Turin. You’ll be wanting to see Mrs RM’s tourist map for Turin, the highlights marked with chocolate bars. Our first target after checking at I Reali guesthouse was food. What’s more authentically Torino than an artisan burger at a brew pub with cask near a skate park ? Open Baladin is the BrewDog...

February 2026. Monaco to Turin. If you’re missing the English pub reports here’s a spoiler. The first half dozen pints back in Old Blighty are….Beartown, Holt, Tiny Rebel, Harrogate, Thornbridge Jaipur and Abbeydale. And not a duffer in the six. But first, coffee and croissants in Monte Carlo station, cheaper than...

February 2026. Monaco. One night in Monaco, as Murray Head nearly sang; one day is plenty, but not more than enough. I really enjoyed the principality, but you can walk from shops to casinos to the Old Town in half an hour, though you’ll appreciate those evcr-present free elevators on the walk back. We left Hôtel de...

February 2026. Monte Carlo. Monaco. Apart from the fast cars on small roads, you’ll know Monaco best for the curry caffs casinos, where we headed now from the shops. You’ll know you’ve reached the gambling quarter when you see the posh cars on display in a big square. Sadly, my Toyota Aygo was nowhere to be seen....

February 2026. Monte Carlo. Monaco. Yes, yet another reference for Charlene’s classic, the Harlow in the lyrics sadly not the Essex town. The campaign for her to headline Glastonbury starts here. Dumping our bags at the Aparthotel on the French/Monaco border (Mrs RM is claiming it as a night in the principality), we...

February 2026. Monaco. Finally leaving Genoa after what readers of this blog will say feels like a month, we take the train to Ventimiglia and then reach a third country in 30 minutes on a colourful French train, daringly taking an earlier departure to Monte Carlo than the time we’d booked for. Does Monaco even have...

February 2026. Genoa to Monaco. Four nights in Genoa, never enough, with a final Capricossa from Bacia la Mano. 45 seconds from oven to our room on the second floor of the B & B Hotel at Principe Station. That pizza oven is a design classic, similar to the Pavoni espresso machine we brought back from Lucca 30 years...

February 2026. Genoa. Last Genoa post, I promise, but I know many of you share my evangelical zeal to see hand pumps in developing nations, so I welcome the cask in Scurerria Beer & Bagel. I love a trad pub name, me. If Public House, the other real ale outlet I found in Genoa was a simple affair, this one is a more...

February 2026. Genoa. The best way to get a sense of Genoa Old Town is from the Spianata Castelletto, reached by an attractive Art Nouveau lift, or by persuading Mrs RM to take an exhausting half hour zig zag of a walk from Via Balbi. You can see the giant cruise ships from that viewpoint, and back down via the...

February 2026. Pavia. I was going to skip the architecture of Pavia and go straight back to Italian real ale, but Lana on her Retirement Chapter blog just got a great post out of Shirley, so how could I leave out the castle, the bridge, the cobbled streets, and those beautiful shops. In truth, Pavia didn’t look its...

February 2026. Pavia. I’d booked Trenitalia tickets to Pavia, reckoning a 7pm return* would be ideal to allow us to have a quick pint before a mad 20 minute dash for the train to Genoa (though I would caution against ever making Mrs RM dash for anything). But as we stood outside the Black Bull at 18:02, with no...