Perfect Boutique Hotel

I have to shamelessly admit that before my trip to Copenhagen, I had never visited any of the Scandinavian countries.  So when a Danish friend of mine invited me to her hen weekend in Copenhagen I was there like a shot.

Before the hen festivities began, I thought I would browse around the city by myself and with the recommendation of Visit Denmark, I decided to check out the newest boutique hotel in town. 

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Photo credit: Cheryl Howard

One of the most amazing things about living in Italy is one’s infinite learning journey of the country’s food culture and cuisine. My most recent trip to Umbria opened up another door of culinary creativity that blew my taste buds into galactic paradise. The foundation of any Italian recipe is the same but it’s the ingredients and how they are magically combined together that provides you, without fail, with that element of astonishing surprise.

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Once upon time…

It all began in 2004 with a passing glance of a shop window of an estate agent.  Silvio spotted something for sale that resembled that of an old flour mill in the area of San Bartolomeo di Breda di Piave near Treviso, Italy.  Although it seemed to be in a complete ruin, there was something that made Silvio want to go and see the place for himself.   He took his wife Elisabetta with him and what they saw was beyond ruins.  The roof was completely open, the ceilings had fallen through and there were even trees inside that had begun to make a home for themselves. Yet, within the trees, foliage and rubble, there was something intriguing about the place that didn’t make them walk away.  Silvio isn’t short of experience when it comes to discovering potential.  As an architect himself, he knew that he could restore this mill back to its former glory days.  Dating back to 16^th century, the place had a great history and was used as a flour mill up until the late 1970s.

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Venice seems to be my favourite topic of conversation these days.  Every time I go to visit this enchanting city, I make a point to do something a little different and unique by finding ways to see Venice from a different perspective.  

Back in October 2012, I was a panelist on a debate, organised by the Battle of Ideas,called ‘Death in Venice: is tourism killing or saving the city?’ I argued that although tourism for Venice was good thing, tourists needed to be less passive and be better educated about how to experience the city.   So rather than the stereotypical scenario of “having” a holiday through “doing” the sights, visitors to should be encouraged to experience and see the real everyday life of Venice instead.  So what better way than to do it in a kayak!

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