Culture
In Search of Jane Loddiges’ Great, Great, Great Grand-daughter Have you ever wondered about the significance of the two exotic palm trees outside Hackney’s Town Hall on Mare Street? Or have you walked along, or crossed, Loddiges Road, just off Mare Street, without knowing that it was named after a certain ‘Conrad Loddiges’ who built…
Or, ‘What’s in a name?’ by Kate FuscoeNOVEMBER 2025 The Diavolo is in the Detail There’s a moment when you discover that details are important. In wine-making, they’re essential. But, apparently, elsewhere too. I was a guest of Etna Days – the 4th edition of an event that promotes and celebrates winemaking in the Etna…
Wine, Women, and… Willpower by Kate Fuscoe November 2025 ‘A Fimmina‘ Sicily’s Mount Etna – A Muntagna (or A Fimmina, in local dialect) – is female. Maybe it’s because ‘Mamma Etna’ provides wonderfully fertile land, thanks to her rich, volcanic soil, or maybe it’s because there’s an ever-present threat of her erupting. Wine, women… Italian…
Listed below (thanks to the Italian Tourist Board) are some of the most interesting Christmas markets in Italy. Naple’s San Gregorio Armeno is one of the best, and is open all year. Via San Gregorio Armeno is an entire street of workshops where you’ll find hand-carved nativity scenes, known as presepe. The wood-carving has been…
Tataouine, in southern Tunisia, is famous for the trogolodyte buildings of the native Berber* population. It’s so other-worldly, that director George Lucas used it as a backdrop for one of his Star Wars films. The buildings are actually ancient grain stores, or ksour, and you can read more in my Time Out article here.
24 January 2013 The craft of etching ‘What you can do with a line…’ I overheard one visitor comment to her friend. That’s quite an understatement. Morandi’s s exquisite attention to detail gives ordinary subjects a visual importance and value. Simple household items – bottles, jars and vases – seem to reverberate with life, even…
Venice hosts the oldest film festival in the world, La Biennale. She’s used to seeing stars. But the city itself has played a starring role in some of the world’s most famous films. Magnificent palazzi and churches rise up out of watery ‘streets’. Narrow alleyways echo with the city’s long history of plague, great art,…
The Faroes – a group of 18 islands located in the Norwegian Atlantic – are halfway between Scotland and Iceland. I’d heard of them, of course; I’m a Radio 4 listener, fan of the arcane Shipping Forecast