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One of the best things about Trieste is the food. It’s not typically Italian, but a delicious mix of Italian, Germanic and Slavic tradition. The culinary scene in this city, perched on a hill overlooking the Adriatic ocean, is as varied and colourful as it’s past.

Spain is a gastronomic paradise and its cuisine lauded throughout the world – a fact that was recently affirmed with the naming of El Celler de Can Roca as the World’s Best Restaurant in this year’s San Pelligrino Top 50 . So even the briefest of visits to the sun-soaked southern cost, Costa del Sole, will have a lasting impression on one’s culinary knowledge.

A report to be released later this month will uncover the most visible boutique and lifestyle hotels online and the most common strategies employed by prospective globe-trotters when it comes to searching for bespoke accommodation.

The 84-year old, shrinking signora hunches over as she sets our frothy cappucini down on the Formica table. She was born in the back of this latteria, or milk store, and took over the family business years ago. It’s small, and empty, save for the refrigerated milk and Coke bottles, and a few pastries behind a glass counter.
Apr 19 2013 | Posted in
Food,
Italy,
UK/Europe |
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In the throbbing heart of Barcelona, along the trend-setting Paseo de Gracia, is Roca Moo at Hotel Omm. The Michelin star restaurant – in keeping with the city’s every-chaging urban fashion – recently underwent a make-over, with a revamped interior design and contemporary food ideas, to mark the hotel’s tenth anniversary.

In Italy, there are no Easter egg hunts, no marshmallow Peeps, and definitely no jelly beans. Instead, there are chocolate eggs…massive, elaborately decorated, beautifully wrapped chocolate eggs. Throughout Italy, in small towns, and big cities, shop windows are filled with brightly colored chocolate Easter eggs, which stand tall on small plastic cups placed inside their wrappers.

Between the rolling hills of Tuscany, the architectural wonders of Rome, and the sun-soaked beaches of Sicily; Italy remains a favourite destination for tourists, history buffs and fashionistas alike. And now Italophiles the world over can experience more of Italy’s picturesque landscape and buzzing cities for less.

An unsettling, architectural gem of a building, it is a clutter of wood paneling, pictures and paranoia. So visually overpowering that if it weren’t for the immediate mugging by fabulous Mediterranean and Cornish aromas, you could easily miss lunch, altogether.

Usually, between the two of us, either my friend or I have pretty well sussed where we’re headed, and what we might do there. Not this time. We’ve booked a night at Hipping Hall for its location. It’s a good mid-way point from Scotland back to London to break up the seven-hour drive. Except neither of us quite know where it is, exactly.

Just off Shaftsbury Avenue, in the heart of London’s Soho neighbourhood, a glut of Vietnamese restaurants is emerging. It’s a Saturday night, and, as usual, I’m in charge of the restaurant plans for a group of friends. We’ve just been to see The Gatekeepers, the Oscar-nominated documentary featuring interviews with the former directors of Shin Bet, the Israeli version of the FBI.