When it comes to Easter breaks many travellers decide in favour of long haul destinations like the Middle East or the Caribbean. The Canaries are also a firm favourite, but other parts of Europe often get overlooked, as many assume it won’t be warm enough. Well…. I beg to differ having just come back from the famed Amalfi coast.

I have spent two very special days in Ravello, and think that April is a fantastic time to travel – the rates are not as inflated as in the summer, the streets are free and everything is in bloom of fragrant wisterias. We were fortunate to have a perfect t-shirt weather and some of us even needed sunscreen to keep them from burning in the sun.

I can’t recommend Ravello enough – its cobbled streets are incredibly charming and the views are spectacular. Not to mention that it is also ideal for those looking for a bit of culture, as there is a number of events held throughout the year and Pompeii is only a short drive away. No wonder that this medieval hilltop village remains one of the top wedding destinations. It is just impossible to take a bad picture there!

I had Palazzo Avino as my base – what a lucky girl I am! It is a stunning five-star deluxe hotel built in what was once a 12th century private villa for an Italian noble family and opened as a hotel in 1997. Palazzo Avino has been landed as one of the world’s finest hotels and boasts one-star Michelin dining. The views from my room were to die for and made my prosecco taste even better! Everything in the hotel is of the highest standard imaginable, starting with the impeccable service and luxurious furnishings and finishing with fine cuisine.

Talking of fine cuisine, taking a cooking lesson at the famous Nonna Orsola cook school is a great activity for the whole family, that can be arranged privately as well as a part of a group. Your lesson starts with a visit to their organic garden where seasonal vegetables get picked and then transformed into mouth-watering dishes under the supervision of Vincenzo, their charming and highly entertaining chef.

I learned a tremendous amount about Mediterranean cooking and how to cook very light and simple but tasty. Or how does making your own mozzarella sound? The whole process is a really good fun, not to mention that you will be acquiring a life-long skill.

No trip to the Amalfi coast or Naples is complete without going to Pompeii, a vast archaeological site that once was a thriving Roman city and got buried in meters of ash and pumice after the catastrophic eruption of Vesuvius. The site really is impressive as some parts are very well preserved and give a valuable insight into what the city’s everyday life looked like. I didn’t expect Pompeii to be quite so large with numerous streets and a huge main square.

Visitors can explore the excavated ruins freely but I highly recommend hiring a guide. How else would I found out which buildings were shops or fast food stores, bakeries or laundry rooms? Or a very interesting fact that they used fresh urine for doing laundry and there was a special person collecting it around the city. No wonder that the laundry service was quite pricy!

Maryna travelled to the Amalfi coast with Highlife Marketing in April 2017. Call us on Tel 0208 675 7878 or email info@travelmatters.co.uk for prices and availability to the Amalfi coast.  

Also known by it's Roman name Apulia, the 'heel' of Italy is currently one of those hot destinations that's on a roll. No longer such a well kept secret, I recently visited to see what all the fuss is about and check out two equally stunning but very contrasting properties. A Masseria is a renovated Puglian farmhouse and a visit to Puglia wouldn't be complete without a stay in one of these. For a one of a kind spoiling mini break, perhaps to celebrate a special birthday or anniversary, I can highly recommend Masseria Torre Coccaro. It's one of the most luxurious Masseria's around and opened as a resort hotel in 2002. The one hour drive from Bari airport (just under a 2 1/2 hour flight from the UK) is nothing to write home about, a rather dull flat landscape of endless olive trees. However, any sense of disappointment is quickly dispelled on arrival at the Masseria, a brilliant white building with lush pink bougainvillea rising high above the olive groves.  Instant smiles all round which only got bigger once we saw our room. To say that the ceilings were high and the bathroom big would be an understatement, the room complete with antique furnishings (and a welcome bottle of Limoncello) oozed character and charm.  Luxury hotel rooms, although faultless with their Egyptian cotton sheets and flat screen TVs do tend to be all rather similar, if you're looking for something a little different but still with all the mod cons, then this is the place for you. We didn't want to leave the pretty balcony overlooking the surrounding countryside and out to sea but having forsaken Easyjet's sandwich options (not too much of a hardship!) and with stomachs rumbling it was time to try out the Masseria's restaurant. Now, I'll be honest, I'll eat anything, my nephews and nieces have taken to calling me "the human dustbin" but the friend I was traveling with is much more discerning. Nicky along with her husband, has travelled the world, staying at a fair number of leading and small luxury hotels.  Her judgement  is impeccable and the restaurant at Masseria Torre Coccaro got the big thumbs up. The menu is original with many locally sourced products and being so close to the sea, fish is a must, even the names sound like some dramatic opera "Polpo e Patate con Salsa di Capperi e Sedano Croccante" octopus with potatoes and capers cream with crispy celery. We opted for seared sword fish steak on olive pate and summer salad, exquisite and worth the trip alone.

The Great British Bake Off, it would appear isn't just a phenomenon in the UK. Nicky and I were blown away by the amount of cakes on offer at breakfast, deep breath " lemon cake, strawberry jam pie, apple pie, pound cake, apricot jam pie, pasticciotto, muffins, bakewell tart, chocolate pie, ciambella, pistachio pie and not forgetting that old faithful madeira cake. Mary and Paul would be in "bake of heaven" and not a soggy bottom or collapsed gateau in sight! Cakes at breakfast might not be everybody's thing or piling your plate high with mozarella, stracciatella, burrata and ricotta but as a cheese freak I was more than happy to do the latter, accompanied by a generous portion of prosciutto.

Masseria Torre Coccaro is the antithesis of a big resort hotel with a multitude of swimming pools, they've just the one but it's gentle sloping nature, reminiscent of a beach makes it perfect for children whilst it soon gets deep enough for doing lengths. There were a few beautifully dressed and beautifully behaved Italian children staying on our visit and the hotel is that odd combination that somehow works, that you could visit for a romantic break (the hotel has been voted as one of the 100 most romantic hotels in the world by The Times), a honeymoon, babymoon with a new born or with children.  There's a children's club for 3 - 12 year olds.

Masseria Torre Coccaro is so relaxing, so aesthetically beautiful, that Nicky and I didn't really want or need to leave. We were more than happy to enjoy our room in the watch tower, sitting chatting on the balcony looking out over the courtyard and 18th century chapel before indulging ourselves in the cave like Aveda spa or falling into a carb coma (see breakfast cakes above) on the comfortable sunbeds by the pool.

Just a ten minute taxi ride away from Masseria Torre Coccaro, our second hotel Canne Bianche Hotel and Spa boasts an idyllic sea front location. It's one of the few hotels in Puglia with direct access to a sandy beach. However, this is not the hotel's only USP. It's the interiors that we both loved here. The tasteful lobby has a number of china pomos, something that you can also buy and take home with you. A pomo, which represents a "flower bud"" is a wonderful symbol of tradition, art and poetry and is also a lucky charm against magic spells.

In London, along with Karen I daily head to Tooting Bec Lido to swim an hours worth of lengths. However, with the heat wave this summer the lido has begun to resemble human soup, so you imagine my joy at having the large crystal clear salt water swimming pool at Canne Biance more or less to myself.  The saltwater giving you extra buoyancy in which to swim and I loved the fact that inflatables were banned from the pool. On our mini break we were content to swim, read, unwind and enjoy the facilities that both hotels had in spades. However, they were both well placed for exploring this fascinating corner or Italy. You will need a car but the 'White City' of Ostuni is just 20 minutes drive away whilst Alberobello, famous for its Truilli houses can be reached in 30 minutes or for a longer full day excursion, there's Leece, known as the Florence of the south, without the crowds. Again, Southern Italy is having a bit of a moment with neighbouring Matera used as the back drop for the new Ben-Hur and Wonder Women movies.

Canne Bianche also has a spa and like Masseria Torre Coccaro a cooking school, where you can try your hand at Apulia regional cooking learning how to make the traditional ear like Orecchiette pasta. Other lessons on offer include golf, tennis, sailing, horse riding, snorkling, even piano. However, Nicky and I went with the "let's just chill" option and with the busy lives we all now lead, this is often the best. Canne Bianche has been billed as the ultimate Puglian pamper getaway for those wishing to simply unwind. Again, we didn't leave the hotel but returned to London mellower and heavier - I blame all those cakes!

Travel Matters can arrange a stay at Masseria Torre Coccaro http://www.masseriatorrecoccaro.com/en/home/ and Canne Bianche http://www.cannebianche.com/?lang=en

Easyjet http://www.easyjet.com/en/ has flights all year round directly to Bari from London, Gatwick

When thinking of a long weekend away in Italy the city of Genoa doesn't immediately spring to mind, which is one of the many good things about a visit to this historical city : fewer tourists than Florence, Venice or Rome, and a shorter flight time to get there too. I went there almost by chance, having been invited to a special birthday party, and just marvelled in delighted surprise at the magnificent buildings : old palaces dating from the 15th and 16th centuries, whose walls are hung with  paintings by Tintoretto and Van Dyke; and cathedrals oozing with gold and beautiful marble statues.

Originally founded by the Phoenicians, this port in the northernmost gulf of the Western Mediterranean is described as a "vertical" city, stretching way up from the bustling port to the surrounding verdant hills. Entrance doors to houses are often on the balcony, and cars are sometimes parked on the roof.  To get a magnificent view of the city and the harbour you can either take a gentle hike up through the narrow streets or take a local bus (not forgetting to buy your ticket from a "tabac" kiosk beforehand - either a 100 minute ticket or for a couple of euros more, one that gives you the option to take as many bus rides as you like over two days), or-  even more fun - take one of several old  funiculars. I took a funicular from Staz Zecca ( right in the centre of the old city)  right to the last stop, turned left and found the most wonderful restaurant serving excellent food and offering a magnificent view of the city and harbour.

The old city centre is easy to navigate and small enough to wander around on foot. You might get a little lost at first in the many little alleys full of spice shops and fresh fish or meat kiosks, but "down" always leads to the sea, and no matter which corner you turn there is another fabulous  building to be investigated. Of course these palaces were mostly built at vast expense with the enormous amount of money made in the days when Genoa was a huge commercial trading centre. Never a great political power, Genoa however played a vital role in the European financial affairs in the 16th and 17th centuries. The influential Banco di San Giorgio that helped finance the doge's palace actually dates from 1407.

Apart from palaces and cathedrals, in a totally pedestrian area in the port there is a splendid Aquarium, where you can find sharks, penguins, dolphins, rays, alligators and hummingbirds. In contrast, a short bus-ride away there is the cemetery, with row upon row of funerary monuments, plus hundreds of well tended gravestones covered with fresh flowers - the many flower stalls by the entrance to this huge cemetery do a great trade. Among the tombs, there is that of Mazzini, one of the main heroes of the Risorgimento and a founding father of United Italy.

No holiday in Italy is complete without a certain amount of indulgence in  food and drink, and there is no shortage of cafes and restaurants where you can find whatever you want at whatever price. Pesto is one of the most traditional "tastes" of the area, and basil is considered to be the "King" of Ligurian cuisine, and both meat and seafood is plentiful. For breakfast "focaccia" (a tasty oven baked bread similar in style to pizza dough) is favourite along with a cappuccino, then topped with onions, olives and filled like a sandwich it makes an ideal afternoon snack. In my experience local wines were all good, certainly very drinkable, along with - of course - Prosecco, which I was lucky enough to be able to indulge in on the terrace of the beautiful Gran Hotel  Savoia. So, why not give Genoa a go for a long weekend? Like me you will probably decide you absolutely  must return and explore more.

Our guest blog is by Pat Pearson who travelled to Italy with Travel Matters in April 2016.