Architecture | Contemporary
Campomarino | Stonework
From the crumbling ruins of a 17th century watchtower, a little gem of architectural reclamation. Apulian architects Gloria Valente and Vittorio Carofiglio just won a first prize at the Apulia Marble Awards 2013 for the project which lent new life to one of the region's network ... More
Trento | MUSE
Trento has a new museum as architecturally futuristic as it is conceptually innovative. Or rather, for the moment it has the magnificent structure designed by Renzo Piano, already part of a new urban landscape, while internal fixtures and fittings by the ... More
Modica | Balarte Hotel & Other
An extraordinary project inspired by Futurism, interpreted by young artists, and overseen by an architect-designer: that would be Balarte Hotel & Other, down in Sicily's south-eastern corner, about halfway between Modica and the beach at Pozzallo. Definitely other, even in the category ... More
Milan | Magna Pars Suites
Ever heard of a fragrance hotel? Probably not, as the one we're about to reveal is probably the world's first and only, for now. It's just opened in dashing Zona Tortona, brainchild of the Martone family and created on the site ... More
Pisa | Palazzo Blu
During a recent dash through Pisa, crammed with relics from just about any historical era you can think of but hardly famed as a travel-design destination, I discovered a brilliant Kandinsky exhibition and surprising Palazzo Blu which is hosting it. Part of a ... More
Cesena | Staying on the Treadmill
In a country where everyone's talking about wellness , few know that one of the top-ranking fitness-equipment manufacturers in the world is based in Emilia Romagna, in Cesena to be precise, about an hour down the road from Bologna. Technogym is the ... More
L’Aquila | Re-Construction
Renzo Piano's latest auditorium is as much a symbol of cultural resurgence as a concrete - or wooden - reality. In the regional capital of Abruzzo, the temporary structure provides a space for concerts and much more while the many ... More
Anacapri | Capri Suites
A hotel has rooms, so Caprisuite just qualifies. Two suites only, and a disarmingly eclectic patchwork of features antique, vintage and contemporary as conceived by local architects Giuliano Andrea dell’Uva and Francesca Faraone of Zetastudio. The lesser of Capri's two settlements in every sense, ... More
Trento | Monica Armani
I can’t thank Maurizio Rossini enough for taking me to dinner chez Monica Armani and her gifted architect-non-architect husband Luca Dallabetta in Trento last week. Their stunning minimalist pad overlooking the capital of the Trentino region is a dream. Crisp and contemporary ... More
Venice | View Lagoon
We've seen no end of temporary stores and pop-up galleries, but a transient floating cinema is a first for me. Archipelago Cinema is the delightfully apt name of the (hopefully) gently shifting auditorium mounted in the waters of the old harbour, the Darsena ... More
Venice | Rooms for Glass
A specialized exhibition centre for Venetian glass is about to open on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. The 650-square-metre museum has been forged from part of a former boarding school by Selldorf Architects of New York in collaboration with Venetians Fabrizio Cattaruzza ... More
Rome | Caffè Propaganda
Done up for all the world like a Parisian bistrot, the Caffè Propaganda is actually just a stone's throw from the Colosseum and makes a point of its regional cuisine. Among other points, for there's an eclectic philosophy at work here, combining ... More
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