Financial Times journalist Simon Greaves returns to Tuscany after thirty years — and finds a region that has lost none of its power to astonish. There is a cliche I’ve always liked: ‘That God created the world, and when he wanted to show off, he made Italy’. More than thirty years ago, I first came…
Forget pricey spas and high-end wellness retreats—this year’s most invigorating health craze is happening right on the shoreline. From the rocky beaches of Scandinavia to the urban canals of Hackney Wick, and now the rugged North Yorkshire coast, wild saunas are making a splash—with more dash than cash. Runswick Bay, with its fishing boats, cormorant-dotted…
If you visit a city well-known for making hardened-steel knives and swords make sure you don’t get stopped carrying a reproduction antique sidearm. Like most people, we do like to buy holiday souvenirs. The odd oil painting or restored cherub – and it was this which led us into a trap in Spain. The beautiful…
The weather forecast for the weekend was appalling and worrying, not least since members of the family were gathering from various points of the compass – London, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Yorkshire – at an Oxfordshire hotel for a post-Christmas get-together. The thinking was that since the hotel we had chosen in two previous years for…
The old town of Salzburg is a musical box of delights If you were to capture a winter wonderland in a snow globe it would probably look like Salzburg with its sparkling year-round attractions for weekenders and holidaymakers. The old town south of the river is full of enchantment, especially at Christmas when markets abound…
It was a visit twice delayed by COVID-19, caught by my wife working in a central London hospital, but worth the two-year wait. Cresting the last winding road across the North Yorkshire Moors, much of it through deep surface water and battered by typical blustery moorland conditions, our eventual arrival at Runswick Bay, a former…
An out-of-season visit to Tunis gives time to marvel at myths and mysticism… and challenging encounters in the souk If a man carrying a tray of mint tea follows you in the narrow souk passageways and offers you a refreshing one ‘complimentary’, be on your guard. The other stallholders looked on bemused as he then…
Every country has its monuments to conflict, but northern France is especially peppered with memorials to great generals, foot soldiers, and momentous events that have shaped the continent over centuries of warfare. Battlefield tours are as old as history but the landmarks of previous conflicts come alive for the tourist taking time to discover the…