But they have never really turned their hands to tourism, which is why even many Italians have never heard of this tiny island off the south coast of Sardinia, or its elegant, bustling port town, Carloforte, where blue-and-white ferries pull up so close to the cafes that the harbour master can direct fruit and veg trucks onto the quay with one hand and take sips of espresso with the other.
After an hour, I picked my way back down the stairs and to the quay with far less terror than expected.
He wore long hair tucked up inside his baker's cap and spent any time when he wasn't slaving for his family in the cake, bread, and pastry business at the far end of the quay with his guitar and some unlikely friends.
However, recent excavations conducted by the archaeologists of the Supreme Council of Egyptian Antiquities revealed a jetty or quay with probable direct access to the Nile.
The regeneration and gentrification of the Rocks area – the historic centre within a stroll of the harbour and Circular Quay – with high-end shops, galleries, restaurants and new residential developments, has not wiped out the past.
Despite the Yank-tank Winnebagos you sometimes see around, my default mental image today is of a compact VW retromobile, parked on a Cornish quay, with Jamie Oliver inside rustling up something cheeky from the catch of the day.
Innovative buildings specifically for this purpose were built at West Quay, with baths that were filled and emptied by the flow of the tide.
This is especially clear in his well-known paintings of a laundress struggling up the stairs of a quay with heavy bundle and young child in tow.
The chief features are a riverbank quay, with palaces nearby, and a great temple of Amon.
The report said the images showed that China appeared to have constructed a buried bunker and lighthouse on the northern portion of the feature, a helipad, communications equipment and a quay with a loading crane.
