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Vienna does not live up to expectations , it far exceeds them. I expect a city that is formal, reserved, serious. I find one that is accessible, amusing, friendly and…

It is a perilous drive from Puigpuyent through rising corkscrew passes and hairpin bends, past layered terraces and walled estates that hang from the spine of the Tramuntana to the…

It is a Saturday evening in Milan. The air is dry under a silver sky. Despite a busy morning at the fair in Grazie and a 2 hour train journey…

Fiera Delle Grazie is a four day festival, held in mid August, in the village of Grazie outside Mantova. It is rooted in the old Christian celebration of the Feast…

It is just before 9 a.m. in Milan. I have walked in warm sunshine down the Via Manzoni, past a silent La Scala and into the morning quiet of the…

Down a narrow country lane, between cornfields, outside Modena lies an understated but elegant house. A manicured driveway is barely noticed as the car negotiates a sweeping turn to the…

There still seems to be some confusion between real estate development and retail. Retail is a complicated holistic operation. Once it was about the right product, in the right place,…

Craftsmanship and imagination have always been the trademarks of our Irish knitters and weavers. When I was growing up I was fascinated by the ability of my mother’s generation to…

Just out of Leenane is a bend in the road. Here a small bridge crosses the Erriff River where it twists and swells into Killary Harbour. In the fields on…

The Leenane Hotel sits shyly in a nook by the road that winds circumspectly along the edge of Killary harbour. I passed it with an unsatisfied curiosity for decades. Finally…