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Cook, taste Catalonia

Barcelona is one of those amazing cities that can easily whisk you off your feet, enthrall you and before you know it, you’re on your way home, breathless and consumed by a whirlwind of impressions and vague memories. There’s so much to see and do in the city that you’ll soon find yourself zooming from [...]

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Impressions of Abruzzo

I knew very little about Abruzzo other than that it’s a region to the east of Rome, on the other side of the Apennine mountains, and that it’s home to Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, a sublime red wine that instantly makes you daydream of rolling hills bathed in sunshine and fragrant herbs – well, that’s the effect [...]

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Tango in the sky

I’ve always wanted to see the northern lights or the aurora borealis. I was about eight when I first saw a picture of it in a geographic encyclopedia. I stared at the image for ages, in total awe of the colours and how they seemingly dance in the sky. Thirty-odd years later, my wish to [...]

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A Finnish sauna like no other

The sauna is an integral part of daily life in Finland. It’s much more than just a place to sit, sweat and relax; it’s woven into the social fabric, a place where families and friends gather for a chat or the latest gossip. There’s an average of one sauna per household in Finland! I’ve been [...]

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delft-antique-market-photo

Velvet moments: travel photo – antique market in Delft

If you love antique markets, you’ll love the open-air Antique Market in Delft, an historic town situated between The Hague and Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Held every Saturday between mid-April and mid-September along the canals of Delft, the Antique Market has hundreds of stalls selling all sorts of antiques (Delft Blue porcelain is popular), jewellery, [...]

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Inside the Snow Village

Each year in late-November, a thousand truck-loads of snow and massive blocks of ice carved out of a nearby river are used to create a winter wonderland like no other: the Snow Village in Finnish Lapland. Situated deep in the forests near the ski resorts of Ylläs and Levi, the Snow Village is a place [...]

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The majestic Wadi Rum

Wadi Rum, also known as the Valley of the Moon, is a desert region in southern Jordan that consists of a broad valley with extensive dunes and impressive rocky outcrops, some as high as 1,500m (or close to 5,000ft), carved out over time by the eroding effects of water, wind and frost. These days, Wadi [...]

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Ice-floating in Lapland

I closed my eyes. Tiny snowflakes drifted onto my face. I tried to register a sound but there were none. Just silence. My body felt weightless, like I was hovering in mid-air, yet I knew I wasn’t. It was a strangely soothing feeling as I felt my muscles quite literally unwind, from my fingers right [...]

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spires-duomo-milan-photo

The spires of the Duomo

Milan is famous as one of the world’s most dynamic fashion and design capitals but there’s one monument whose design will never run out of fashion: the Duomo. The Duomo is the largest cathedral in Italy and one of the largest in the world. Work on the current structure began in the 14th century and [...]

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mushroom-cannelloni-cal-sastre-photo

Culinary Journey: Cal Sastre in Santa Pau

What: Fine-dining at a small medieval village in the Garrotxa region of Catalonia. Where: Cal Sastre restaurant, Santa Pau. Notes: Santa Pau is a sleepy medieval village in the Garrotxa Volcanic region of Catalonia, north of Barcelona. The village is tiny but there are a variety of reasons that make a visit absolutely worthwhile: its [...]

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