Food & drink
The exquisite UNESCO World Heritage site, once home to the d’Este family, is rich with Renaissance art and architecture. Ferrara is also very easy to walk/cycle around, and there’s plenty more to capture the imagination: ‘In Italy in the 16th century, food was considered as much an art form as music or theatre’. So writes…
This is my first hive and it’s been a real roller-coaster of a year. On the first decent day we’ve had in months, the bees came out to collect pollen. Following a terrible winter, then a cold and wet spring, I wasn’t sure they’d survived. I’ve had a few bee ‘anxiety’ dreams since I got…
UPDATE: UNPACKAGED CLOSED ITS HACKNEY BRANCH IN 2013, BUT OTHER PREMISES CAN BE FOUND IS ISLINGON AND MUSWELL HILL. FIND OUT MORE HERE Saturday, December 15, 2012 It was a shame that Unpackaged had to leave its little premises in the Old Dairy in Islington, but here in Hackney, we’re delighted – on so many…
Capri is a mere half-hour’s ferry or hydrofoil ride away from Naples. The island is synonymous with stars, style, and impossible glamour but, away from the Piazzetta, it’s also a place of stunning natural beauty and calm. Charles Dickens once wrote ‘In no place on earth are there so many opportunities for delicious peace and…
Portugal’s second city offers endless possibilities. Here for a weekend break? Check out my top ten things to do in Porto. 1. Hostel or hotel? Budget usually dictates whether you choose a hotel or a hostel, but if you’d never considered ‘roughing it’, you might think about it in Porto. Some of the hostels here…
On 31 October 2013, Rimini celebrated the anniversary of the death of one of its most famous sons, Federico Fellini. Film director Fellini created such masterpieces as La Dolce Vita (winner of the Palme d’Or in 1960), and 8½ (listed by Sight & Sound as the 10th-greatest film of all time). In 2012 I visited Rimini…
TeaSmith’s trip around the world… UPDATE: Sadly, TeaSmith has now closed. Book afternoon tea at Spitalfields’ TeaSmith in London and you’re in for a brisk trip around the world – or at least the tea world. As well as a quick lesson in the art of tea-making, you’ll taste teas from a host of Asian…
August 2012 Gore Vidal died on Tuesday at the grand old age of 86. And what a life he lived. Author, screenwriter, and sometime actor, Vidal never shied away from a hot topic – homosexuality, mental illness, transgender politics, all made it into his books and plays – and he wasn’t short of a good…
In 2012 I visited Bologna as part of the Blogville Project. The idea, developed by the Tourist Board, was to give bloggers a base from which to explore Emilia Romagna. I visited the Ducati Museum, made pasta with the Casa Artusi mariette in Forlimpopoli. I even took part in the world-famous Mille Miglia vintage car race. My…
Cool hotels, stylish bars and endless beaches, Rimini just got its mojo back. Film director, Federico Fellini, and his iconic films, such as Amarcord, La Strada, 8 ½ and La Dolce Vita, are shorthand for cool and sexy, but his birthplace of Rimini was once considered a little down-at-heel; harsher critics described it as the ‘Southend…