The Borromean Isles: magical gardens on Italy’s Lake Maggiore

Patricia Cleveland-Peck gazes in wonder at Isola Bella, a baroque garden shaped like a ship floating on the lake, is entranced by Isola Madre, a romantic garden full of flowers and enjoys a lunch of lake fish on Fisherman’s Island

Barcelona: where history and culture meets the Nou

Robin Nowacki combines culture and cuisine with football on a visit to Barcelona – the capital of the Catalonian region of Spain

HM Revenue and Customs

From the website:

“HMRC’s purpose is to make sure that the money is available to fund the UK’s public services. We also help families and individuals with targeted financial support”

French “Soldes ” in Paris

From today, January 11th, the annual “Soldes d’Hiver” mania hits France. The British are used to the rush for sales on Boxing Day. We French have to wait a little bit longer.

6th Liverpool Biennial Begins

This weekend sees the beginning of the two month Biennial, a string of artistic events that, when last held two years ago, encouraged nearly a million people to visit it from all parts of our countries. This is the 6th such event in Liverpool focussing on contemporary art. Whilst the first back in 1999 was quite small, Liverpool’s has now grown to cover over 40 specific events. The theme this year is “Touched” which the organisers describe as meaning that visitors should be “…touched in the head and in the gut…”

Robinson Crusoe, Tourism & a Copper Fragment

Not subscribing to “Post Medieval Archaeology,” it has taken me a little while to catch up with story of the excavations on Robinson Crusoe Island off the coast of Chile. It was the BBC website and The Times that alerted me to a story that archaeologists led by David Caldwell from National Museums Scotland had [...]

New Year, new you

Bonfire Night has been and gone and Christmas and the New Year are just around the corner. Fed up of making annual pledges to eliminate bad habits only to return to your old ways six weeks later?