Like most big Italian cities, Milan is a ghost town in August. The locals have de-camped to the beach for the month and any decent restaurants, bars, and clubs have closed. Weekends from June through September are the same. Only tourists and travel writers stick around the city on Saturday and Sunday. Come Saturday morning, from the stylish little apartment we rented on the Navigli, we’d see the Milanese wheeling their chic luggage over the bridges to their cars (no doubt parked miles away) to...

Much to the consternation of our dear friends, Charles and Marie, we’ve been on the road in Northern Italy for the last month. Indeed, we’ve been travelling through the whole of Italy for 3 months now! Ssshhh… We've been researching travel guides and we haven’t been very good at staying in touch. Much to their pleasure, however, we have made some fabulous new discoveries, from chic new design hotels in surprising places to elegant established eateries now garnering Michelin stars. The hottest...

Dominating Rome’s Via Veneto, the leafy boulevard made famous in Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, the grand Westin Excelsior is (rather aptly) one of those elegant old-world hotels you see in old black and white movies – linger in the lobby to take it all in and you’ll be expecting to see Audrey Hepburn or Grace Kelly enter at any moment. With its grand rooms, polished marble floors, colossal floral arrangements, and chandeliers dripping from the ceilings, it’s certainly palatial, and it’s...

The most memorable meal of our Roman holiday was the thoroughly modern, Michelin-starred Ristorante Il Pagliaccio (the weeping clown). We’d noticed that this elegant space was very busy at night while we were wine tasting across the road at Il Goccetto. But when we arrived for our lunch reservation, we were the only patrons there. Sometimes this can lead to a very dull meal where we have to whisper comments about the cuisine and feel as if the kitchen is on autopilot because there’s no...

One of our best meals in Rome was one of the most humble. No, we’re not talking about the bewilderingly overrated pizzas of Da Baffetto, where patrons line up for hours and are then packed like sardines in a tin can to eat sloppy production line pizzas and tell themselves ‘it’s the best in Rome!’, just like the guidebook says. We’re talking about a place recommended in passing by the good folks at Context. And by ‘in passing’, we mean as we passed this unassuming trattoria on the way to visit a...

One of our first stops in Rome was the elegant, wood-panelled restaurant L'Arcangelo. While it only opened in 2005, its timelessness gives it the feel of a restaurant that’s an old classic rather than a new one. And a classic it is. The cuisine is exemplary and the wines outstanding. Once you’ve made your selection from the menu, it’s best to just let owner-sommelier Arcangelo Dandini do his thing. Arcangelo has some superb wines that you won’t find in other restaurants in Rome and the lovely...

Stretching from the busy transport hub of Taksim Square, through Beyoglu and all the way down to the increasingly hip area Tünel, Istakal Cadessi is Istanbul’s busiest and liveliest shopping street. Once you’ve done the historic sights at Sultanahment – Topkaki Palace, the Blue Mosque, Aya Sofia, and of course, the Grand Bazaar – this is where you want to be! Shopping (and eating and drinking!) your way along this fabulous bustling pedestrian street, the elegant old arcades and many fascinating...

Lush Hip Hotel may not be as hip as it likes to think, yet this lovely boutique hotel is a much-needed addition to Taksim’s hotel scene, currently dominated by big bland four and five stars and dreary budget hotels. The biggest asset the hotel has going for it is its fabulous location, just a few minutes walk from Istakal Cadessi, Istanbul’s bustling shopping street and the hip neighbourhoods of Cihangir and Cukurcuma (see next post). And while it might not be the coolest hotel we’ve ever...

While in Istanbul, we interviewed, photographed and ate the food of the lovely and very talented young surfer chef Mehmet Gürs of acclaimed Mikla, which could well be Istanbul’s best restaurant (well, we’ve by no means eaten at them all – yet!). Mehmet is half Finnish and half Turkish. Born in Finland to a Turkish father and Finnish mother, he spent his childhood holidays with grandparents in both countries, lived in Stockholm for 15 years, and is married to a Turkish woman. Mehmet grew up...

While it has a long way to go before it catches up to Istanbul’s chicest shopping neighbourhood, Nisantasi, the tiny upmarket enclave of Akaretler looks set to provide some stiff competition in the future. For now, the elegant area comprises little more than a dozen or so exclusive designer stores – Jimmy Choo, Marc Jacobs and Marni to name a few – situated in three sets of recently renovated Ottoman-era row houses, lining two cobblestone streets which form a V. Istanbul’s newly opened W Hotel...