Manhattan is an island. Everyone knows that. Yet one small neighbourhood at its northern edge is officially part of Manhattan and stands firmly on the mainland. This page contains affiliate links, which may earn us …
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The Stone Window That Nature Carved Out of Capri’s Cliffs
by Islands AroundOn the eastern side of Capri, a huge stone arch stands on a clifftop overlooking the sea, framing a view of blue water and rock. Unlike most of the island’s famous sights, nobody built it. …
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The Forgotten Bouquet Behind Capri’s Perfume Legend
by Islands AroundAccording to a Capri legend, the island’s first perfume was a happy accident. In 1380, the prior of the Certosa di San Giacomo, a monastery on Capri, heard that Queen Joan I of Naples was …
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The Doctor Who Built a Dream Home on an Emperor’s Ruins
by Islands AroundIn the late 19th century, a Swedish physician named Axel Munthe fell in love with Anacapri. He bought a small house and vineyard, plus a ruined chapel, high above the sea, and spent years turning …
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The Salad That May Have Started as a Protest Against Pasta
by Islands AroundTomato, mozzarella and basil: the caprese salad, known in Italian as insalata caprese, has only three main ingredients, and together they show the colours of the Italian flag. This page contains affiliate links, which may …
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The Mountain That Split Capri Into Two Rival Towns
by Islands AroundCapri has two main towns, and a mountain stands between them. This page contains affiliate links, which may earn us a small commission. Monte Solaro, at almost 600 metres, is the island’s highest point. Its …
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Why a German Steel Magnate Carved a Zigzag Path Into Capri’s Cliffs
by Islands AroundVia Krupp is one of the best-known landmarks on Capri. It is a narrow path that twists down a cliff in tight hairpin bends. It exists because one wealthy visitor wanted an easier way to …
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The Blue Lizards That Live on Capri’s Most Famous Rocks
by Islands AroundThe Faraglioni are three tall rocks that rise straight out of the sea off Capri‘s coast. They appear on countless postcards. Fewer people know that the rocks are home to a lizard found nowhere else …
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The Roman Emperor Who Ran an Empire From a Cliff on Capri
by Islands AroundAround AD 27, the Roman Emperor Tiberius left Rome and moved to Capri. He stayed on the island for roughly the last ten years of his life. This page contains affiliate links, which may earn …
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The Glowing Sea Cave That Capri’s Sailors Once Avoided
by Islands AroundThe water inside the Blue Grotto on Capri looks as if it is lit from below. There are no lamps and no special effects. The glow is natural, and it comes from the shape of …
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This Tiny Bird Lives Only on Corsica, and It Needs Ancient Pine Trees
by Islands AroundThe Corsican nuthatch is a tiny bird, about 12 centimetres long. Corsica is its only home. No other nuthatch lives on the island, and this species lives nowhere else in the world. This page contains …
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This Corsican Town Sits on a Cliff That Scientists Watch Closely
by Islands AroundThe old town of Bonifacio stands at the southern tip of Corsica. It sits on top of white limestone cliffs. In places, the cliffs rise up to 100 metres above the sea. This page contains …
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While Paris Built the Eiffel Tower From Iron, Scotland Constructed This Bridge From Steel
by Islands AroundIn the late 1880s, two of Europe’s most ambitious structures rose at the same time. In Paris, workers assembled the Eiffel Tower from wrought iron, a material engineers understood well and trusted completely. In Scotland, …
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This Animal Is So Feared, an Entire Village Abandoned Its Homes
by Islands AroundResearchers visiting a remote rainforest village in northeastern Madagascar found it empty. Houses stood rotting under the forest canopy. More than a hundred people had once lived there. Locals told the scientists that the residents …
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Madagascar Is Among the Biggest Rice Eaters on Earth
by Islands AroundMost people link rice with Asia. Madagascar breaks that rule. This island off the coast of southeast Africa is one of the biggest rice eaters in the world. This page contains affiliate links, which may …
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The Westman Islands sit off the south coast of Iceland, a scattered archipelago of around 15 islands. Only one, Heimaey, has permanent residents, fewer than 4,500 of them. Every spring, more than a million Atlantic …
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Britain’s Most Common Jellyfish Can Vanish From a Beach for Years, Then Return in Thousands
by Islands AroundAsk anyone who walks the same stretch of coast in Scotland, or anywhere else in Britain, and they will tell you the same thing. Some years the shallows are completely empty. Other years the tide …
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The Palm House Built Too Small for What Grew Inside It
by Islands AroundThe Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s first Palm House opened in 1834, an eight-sided glasshouse that stood nearly 60 feet (18 metres) high. It followed the Garden’s relocation to Inverleith in the 1820s, when more space …
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In the summer of 1895, two rival groups of railway companies sent their express trains from London to Aberdeen as fast as they could. Officially, there was no race. The companies insisted they were not …
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A short walk from Edinburgh lies a small island called Cramond, reached by a narrow causeway across the Firth of Forth. At low tide, the path is dry and easy to cross. At high tide, …