As we drove away from Beirut via Saida, on our way to the port city of Sour (pronounced ‘soor’ and confusingly also known as Tyre) huge flags of Hezbollah and its rival Amal (or Hope) party suddenly sprang up along the sides of the highway, like psychedelic mushrooms competing for real estate. The ratio of…

We were very fortunate to spend our first few nights in Beirut in the warm embrace of my friend’s family home. Our days were filled with laughter which snuck through the language barrier, and with delectable food infused with love. Dreamy platters of fresh fruit – prickly pears, bright red watermelon triangles, white fleshed peaches, little…

If you land at night, as we did, the first thing you notice stepping off the plane at Hariri International Airport are the glittering jewels of light studding the surrounding hills. It was as if the starry skies were lowered to earth for the famously bon vivant people of Beirut to better enjoy. We Iater…

I had no plans, honest to God, to shop in Venice. But lord are the Venetian women well dressed and I came away with a bank balance to be ashamed of, yet full of pride in my upgraded sense of style. Here are the golden nuggets I found. Mori & Bozzi: It was love at…

Twice the beauty. Veneto, Venezia, Venice, affords you twice the beauty thanks to its canals brimming with turtle green lagoon waters which mirror the city in real time. Everywhere you go the vibrant buildings reach down below the surface and somersault into the water. Venice is seductive, and was a fitting breeding ground for hedonism….

Venice will always remind me of those tiny, heavenly morsels known as Cicchetti (Chi – keh – tee). Much like the Spanish Montaditos, these are small bits of bread topped with anything from the more mundane mozzarella and tomatoes, to the more exotic like truffles and pepperoncino jam. But that is not all, Venice offers…

I had just spent two nights nestled in Munnar’s tea plantations, where little parcels of caffeinated chlorophyll filled the rolling hills, and non-committal clouds flitted from peak to peak. Though easily the most beautiful place I have seen so far, I was ready to move on to Kochi which held great promise – a reunion…

I’ve long had an obsession with light, and Malta’s was a particularly warm one, accentuated no doubt by the scores of beautiful honey coloured limestone buildings, which draw you in and bathe you in this warmth. We rode on the bus into town from the airport, domes of churches in the distance made themselves known,…

A few weeks ago I entered a room at the Tate Modern which housed reliefs (3D paintings if you will) from the 1950s from across the world. While one wasn’t allowed to touch, these reliefs oozed texture, you could feel them just by looking at them, a thrill for the senses. There were a few…

I was speaking, not too long ago, to a lady at work. She said to me “I don’t get it, I prefer history museums”, after I had rambled on about the Space Shifters exhibition I had recently been to at the Hayward Gallery. There was awkward silence. I tried to explain why understanding modern art…