Italy
Lago di Braies
Emerald water so still the Dolomite cliffs reflect in double, wooden boats drifting like toys.
The water is the colour of liquid jade, so still the Croda del Becco appears twice, once in rock and once in reflection. Wooden rowing boats knock softly at the jetty. Spruce forest rings the shore so densely the light itself turns green.
Lago di Braies fills a glacial basin at nearly 1,500 metres in the Prags Dolomites, its mineral water shading from jade to ink as the light moves. Rowing boats go out from the old boathouse between May and November, and a shore path circles the lake, broad forest track on one side, rock steps on the other. The Croda del Becco wall climbs straight off the southern shore, and long-distance walkers know the jetty as kilometre zero of the Alta Via 1.
Couple
Row out early and drift beneath the rock wall while the water is at its stillest.
Family
Rowing out together is the event itself, the forest side of the path suits shorter legs, and dumplings wait at the end.
- Wooden rowing boats go out from the historic boathouse between May and November.
- A circuit path rounds the lake, broad forest track one side, rock steps the other.
- The Alta Via 1, the Dolomites' classic high-level route, sets off from this shore.
- The Croda del Becco climbs straight from the southern shore, doubling itself in the water on calm mornings.
Canederli, bread dumplings flecked with speck, land in broth at valley tables after the shore circuit.
Apple strudel arrives warm here, the pastry giving way to sultanas, pine nuts and cinnamon.
Uvita & Marino Ballena
Costa Rica
A sandbar shaped like a whale's tail emerges where real humpbacks come to breed.
San Juan Islands
United States
An archipelago where two nations once nearly went to war over a shot pig.
Delta do Parnaíba
Brazil
Every dusk, thousands of scarlet ibis come in to sleep in the mangrove canopy.
Boca Brava
Panama
At dawn and dusk the whole island howls, a monkey chorus above the whale gulf.
Val d'Orcia
Italy
Cypress-lined roads through golden fields, the landscape Renaissance painters used as their backdrop.
Narni
Italy
A hill town hiding an underground church discovered in 1979, frescoed walls sealed for centuries.
Assisi
Italy
Pink stone streets climbing toward Giotto's frescoes, the Umbrian plain spreading gold and green below.
Verona
Italy
A Roman arena still hosting opera under summer stars, the balcony just the excuse to come.