{"id":49363,"date":"2026-11-06T08:34:57","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T07:34:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/06\/even-in-autumn-this-uk-island-town-could-be-mistaken-for-the-italian-riviera\/"},"modified":"2026-11-06T08:34:57","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T07:34:57","slug":"even-in-autumn-this-uk-island-town-could-be-mistaken-for-the-italian-riviera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/06\/even-in-autumn-this-uk-island-town-could-be-mistaken-for-the-italian-riviera\/","title":{"rendered":"Even in autumn, this UK island town could be mistaken for the Italian Riviera"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lying on a lounger, watching the early morning rays dance hazily on the calm turquoise sea, I couldn\u2019t believe how warm the autumn sun felt on my skin. The rain had been coming in sideways when I\u2019d left <a href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/travel\/uk\/england\/london\">London<\/a>, and just a few hours later, after navigating a couple of final hairpin roads, I\u2019d checked into my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/travel\/hotels?CMP=ILC-refresh\">home for the night<\/a> \u2013 a hillside, pitched-roof villa with a perfect vantage over the golden beach below \u2013 and had barely seen a cloud in the sky since.<\/p>\n<p>No, I hadn\u2019t caught a quick flight to the Italian Riviera; I was less than 100 miles from home on the south-east coast of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/isle-of-wight\">Isle of Wight<\/a>, in the town of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/ventnor\">Ventnor<\/a>, which boasts a mild microclimate that usually makes it a few degrees warmer than the mainland. The isle as a whole gets more hours of sun than anywhere else in the UK.<\/p>\n<p>Ventnor\u2019s seafront also has a distinctly Mediterranean look, with palm trees dotting the cliff and a colourful Cascade Garden tumbling down towards the bay below. It\u2019s also home to several Italianate buildings, including my hotel,<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"echo_read_more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/travel\/uk\/ventnor-isle-of-white-guide-b3078988.html\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0\u00bb\u00a0More Info >>><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lying on a lounger, watching the early morning rays dance hazily on the calm turquoise sea, I couldn\u2019t believe how warm the autumn sun felt on my skin. The rain had been coming in sideways when I\u2019d left London, and just a few hours later, after navigating a couple of final hairpin roads, I\u2019d checked<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":49364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpai_generated_summary":"","wpai_meta_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[36,42,884],"class_list":["post-49363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-travel","tag-mixtv","tag-travel","tag-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}