Trastevere: Rome's Sun-Soaked Secret That Everyone Knows About There are two types of Rome. There's the Rome of Instagram queues outside the Vatican and gladiator-costumed men adjusting their fake muscles by the Colosseum. And then there's the Rome of Trastevere It's not a secret. It never was. Even before the Airbnb brigade moved in and the Aperol Spritz was canonized as the local baptism, Trastevere has always been that place—just over the river, just u...

This is the final email I'll send from India in all probability, as we're flying back from Delhi to Poland tomorrow. We're in a place called Mcleod Ganj now, which is rather appropriately named because it seems to be permanently cloudy here. When the veil of mist does lift, which is occasional, you are treated to spectacular views though. It's got a very laid back vibe here, which is mainly due to the fact that it has a massive Buddhist community here - this is t...

Sorry, first of all, to have been out of touch for so long. Since I last wrote, we've covered quite a lot of ground - most of it in the Himalayas where internet cafes are unsurprisingly few and far between, and when they do appear they are painfully slow. It would probably have taken the last three weeks to write one email and send it! I have to admit that the last time I wrote I wasn't in the best of spirits - Rajasthan was trying, mentally and physically. Th...

Having recuperated from a combined bout of altitude sickness andfood poisoning for a few days in the relative civilisation of Khorog and its stunning environs, and having had the luxury of a hot shower and a couple of decent meals, it was time to leave the Pamir Mountains. If getting into the Pamir had been a difficult job, getting out of them again was to prove equally, if not more, problematic. Khorog lies some 300km to the south-east of Dushanbe a...

Ask where Tajikistan is to the average member of the public and they will give you a blank look or bewildered shrug of the shoulders; even to Russians, for whom it was once a member of their empire, it is very little-known. Tajikistan was the poorest republic of the old Soviet Union, and today it is the poorest republic to have emerged from its break-up; so in that respect very little has changed. A savage civil war followed independence and raged on through most...