Sicily hot list: the super-8

Lusso | 10 Oct 2014

There’s something extra fab about Sicily. Everything is just that bit hotter (or cooler), more beautiful, and more intense. As Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman has written, ‘Oranges are more orange in Sicily.’ Whichever way you look at it, this once-prosperous island, the biggest in the Med and the meeting point between East and West, Africa and Europe, is magical. Go for its global class gastronomy that knocks the socks off almost anything you’ve eaten before. Tip up for its beautiful beaches. Go to marvel at its Byzantine, Baroque and Corinthian architecture and cliff-top villages. And to chill in stylish and super romantic hotels and villas.

• Travel: Europe/ Africa

Short cuts

London Review of Books | 9 Oct 2014

As we stepped off the ferry onto the Aegean island of Symi in late August, our thoughts were on sunbathing and sailing. But the first thing we saw was a group of what we soon discovered were Syrians carrying small backpacks holding those few possessions they hadn’t lost during the crossing from Turkey. A week later, the number of frightened, hungry and exhausted refugees had grown substantially; when we arrived there were about fifty, now there were around two hundred. An old man with gashes on his face sat bleeding in 30° heat for ten hours waiting for a doctor. He slumped forward, seemingly drunk from dehydration. He’d hit his face against the rocks when the Greek port police fired a shot in the air. Symi is the island closest to the Turkish mainland; the same thing is happening on many other outlying islands.

• Current Affairs

Eco-chic Monaci Delle Terre Nere, Italy

Adelto | 28 Sep 2014

It’s a Sicilian paradise. He was, he says, instantly besotted and decided to dedicate his life to its restoration. That was in 2007 when Guido Coffa – a former automotive engineer – chanced upon La Monaci, a 19th-century villa in the foothills of Mt Etna, Sicily. It was then a working farm. Five years later, writes Caroline Phillips, it’s a very different story. It’s a chic, stylish boutique hotel with 15 bedrooms/suites in the villa and others dotted on the 40- acre organic estate. Welcome to Monaci delle Terre Nere.

• Travel: Europe/ Africa

Welcome to my bed spa

Queen of Retreats | 15 Sep 2014

I’m on a retreat in my bedroom. Call it Bed Spa. This because I’ve broken my ankle and had an op. My life is normally crazily busy, but now I’ve been forced to stop. Suddenly I realise how much of my running around is unnecessary. And what’s important in life. The chance to be unfettered by the outside world is rare, especially at home. My bedroom has monastic white polished plasterwork, a Moroccan bedcover twinkling with sequins and a view of trees. Anyone would want to spa here!

• Health, Beauty & Spa

Sun, sea, sand and a spell of humanitarian intervention

The Sunday Times | 7 Sep 2014

As we stepped off the Dodekanisos Pride ferry onto the Greek island of Symi for our late August beach holiday, our thoughts were on sunbathing and sailing. But our first sight was of 48 dispossessed Syrians carrying backpacks containing their worldly possessions. Within a week their numbers had grown to more than 200 and we could ignore their misery no longer.

Spending our last four days among them, we came across a septuagenarian with facial gashes who sat bleeding in 30C heat waiting for a doctor, as he had for 10 hours. He had hit his face against rocks when the Greek port police fired a shot in the air.

• Current Affairs

Pizza and piazzas: Palermo street food tour

High50 | 3 Sep 2014

It’s hard to explain how enticing Sicilian street food is. Grilled cow’s bowel appetisers don’t sound too, well, appetising. How about spicy spleen sandwiches or griddled horsemeat? They don’t immediately appeal. So, on a trip to Il Vignale, a rural villa near S. Stefano di Camastra on the north coast of Sicily, I don’t go straight to these hardcore culinary experiences. Maria, the chef, breaks me in slowly.

• Food,
• Travel: Europe/ Africa

Sizzling in Sicily

Lusso | 28 Aug 2014

If you want a laid-back week, search no further. Alternatively if you’re keen to go with a group of friends to party and chill somewhere rural, simple and charming, this is it. Or if you simply hanker after a beach-and-countryside holiday, book this now. Welcome to Il Vignale, a traditional 1860s villa near S. Stefano di Camastra on the north coast of Sicily. It sleeps 15 in seven bedrooms, big enough to get lost in happily for days – and is one of many fantastic villas offered by soloSicily.

• Travel: Europe/ Africa

Spa Guide 2014 – Uma Punakha, Bhutan

Country & Town House | 24 Aug 2014

This is the spa with the best and most healing view in the world. No treatment or activity – anywhere – could beat the ‘om’ effect of just gazing through its floor-to-ceiling windows at the snow-peaked Himalayas and glacial river.

• Health, Beauty & Spa

The Potting Shed

Our Man on the Ground | 18 Aug 2014

The Royal Triangle is like a sort of reverse Bermuda Triangle – so instead of aircraft and ships disappearing under suspicious circumstances, tasteful Highgrove daisy grubbers, maple-handled planting trowels, traditional Sussex trugs in which to collect your earthy organic carrots and wooden apple crates simply appear. Just like that. And everything is painted that sautéed sage colour. It’s like living in the brain of Lady Bamford of Daylesford fame, the high priestess of this sort of aesthetic.

• Food

Therapist watch: movement therapist Ivana Daniell on Wimpole Street

Queen of Retreats | 14 Aug 2014

Ivana offers Life In Movement therapy, a brilliant combo of postural movement analysis, aerobics, Pilates, Alexander Technique, Ayurveda, Feldenkrais Method and Gyrontonics. Perfect for those who have injuries or sedentary lifestyles, it features bespoke exercises – mostly on pilates machines – tailored to your postural misalignments, muscular needs, lifestyle and ayurvedic body type. The aim is to help you attain a fully functioning body that operates at its optimum. As well as working out of her own clinic at 61 Wimpole Street, she is much sought after by private clients globally and works for retreats run by Aman Resorts on a consultancy basis.

• Health, Beauty & Spa

Medicine man

Condé Nast Traveller | 19 Jul 2014

A rarity: an amazing man who looks like a gap-year student, used to be a zookeeper (he loves gorillas) and is now a healer. Paul Lennard has an uncanny ability to read people’s energy and highlight any issues. Then he addresses them through an eclectic mix of sports massage, Chi Nei Tsang (Chinese tummy massage) and craniosacral therapy.

• Health, Beauty & Spa

The Restaurant at Cowley Manor

Our Man on the Ground | 18 Jul 2014

The Elder Daughter and I arrive an hour late – after driving into several hedges. The satnav doesn’t like the idea of going there and keeps ordering us imperiously to “perform a U-turn when possible” on roads the size of my little finger. When we get mobile reception – which isn’t often – we call to say we’re running late. Which might be as good a way as any to alert the staff to our table reservation. Wrong.

• Food