Terms such as ‘best-kept secret’ or ‘hidden gem’ in tourism seem somewhat ironic, as the very fact that someone has elected to write about such a place indicates either that it has garnered enough plaudits to be written or talked about before, or at the very least that they are about to let the cat out of the bag.
Once a powerful city-state grown wealthy on its trade with east and west, Venice is an utterly unique city of outstanding architecture, great art, exciting cuisine, amazing views and the worst case of rising-damp anywhere (!). Here is our way to live the dolce vita in Venice.
Tripadvisor just published their list of top city destinations in the world, and it was gratifying to see a lot of Little Hotels' destinations featuring highly. This is what they said about our favourite cities.
Five new hotels that have recently caught our eye and been added to Little Hotels. Choose England, Wales, Scotland or Italy. Portmeirion is possibly the most famous village in Wales. You may know it as the Italianate village created by by architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis. Or you may know it as the location for the 1960s cult TV series The Prisoner starring Patrick McGoohan.
Big cities can feature some pretty impressive landmarks, but for the most spellbinding beauty we must turn to the small towns and villages that abound throughout the world. Here is our pick of some of the most delightful locations that should be on everyone's bucket list. The great English designer William Morris once declared Bibury to be the most beautiful village in England.
I'm not good with heights, and that's something which rather annoys me. So whenever I'm presented with something high, steep or precipitous I'm determined to face down my fears. As soon as I read about it, I was fascinated by the Caminito del Rey in Andalucia.
I have a confession to make: until I visited Venice I had no idea it was so special! That probably makes me incredibly naive, a philistine even. But once I saw it, I was completely bowled over. From the tiny "Don't Look Now" alleyways to the magnificence of the Rialto Bridge, Venice is utterly amazing.
'Riviera' seems to convey so much more sophistication and glamour than just 'the seaside'. But where does the word come from? Surprisingly perhaps, it's not French. The origin of the word is in fact Italian, so it would seem that the original riviera was the Italian Riviera.
