October is a great month to go to the lake, it’s always been this way, but this year is even better. Summer seems to have come to stay and sunny days with mild temperatures are ideal for outdoor activities. Whether it’s a vacation away from the crowd or a weekend getaway Riva del Garda now it’s the place where you’d like to be. Biking, hiking, sailing or just stretching a summerish lazy feeling the Lido Palace is the ideal location for a unique experience

September is still a great month for a Mediterranean holiday and where better than Sicily? San Vito lo Capo is a tiny village on the North West coast of the island well known for its cous cous festival and it’s amazing beach: long, wide, sandy with clear light blue waters. No big hotels, only small bed and breakfast where one can actually feel how welcoming Sicilians are. Le Biciclette is one of those, only 4 rooms, each one tastefully decorated with a design furnishing. Breakfast is served on the roof top terrace and each morning there’s a new freshly baked cake, fresh bakery and a selection of juices. Life in San Vito flows at a slower pace and it’s the beauty of it. Lingering at the beach, biking on the board walk, eating out at one of the many fish restaurants.

It’s the place where to take a revenge on time and lock stress outside the door.

Flores en Menorca

Dublín

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.

Looking for a break and didn’t know where to go, I stumbled by chance in a what looked like a little charming rural hotel in Menorca. That was going to be my spot! Packed my stuff,  arranged  car rental at the airport hopped on an Easy Jet flight and off I go to my Mediterranean getaway. I already knew the island and its great beaches, the charm of Ciudadela, the dramatic cliffs of Le Coves d’en Xoroi, the astonishing fiord of Mahon but I had absolutely no clue about this little place in the countryside I picked: Sant Joan de Binissaida. The property it’s absolutely to die for, a rural hotel perfect to unplug from everyday life. Twelve rooms, a gourmet restaurant, an outdoor pool, spacious and comfortable living areas inside and outside where to linger. The house has been recently refurbished and it can be appreciated in many little details from contemporary furnishing to free wi-fi connection.

What really makes it special it’s not the rich morning breakfast they cook for you, the crispy bed sheet, the house porch overlooking the peaceful estate, a cold drink by the pool … it’s the service! Staff really  bends backward for guests and that makes the difference and are the soul of the property.

What a pity it was only a short break and I had to go home, I could definitively have stayed longer!

www.binissaida.com

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber’d here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream…

(Puck)

Great weather forecast, a long time holiday destination, a Mediterranean beach and a sister to travel with: my longed-for weekend getaway looked very promising. The plan was a trip down to Memory Lane. We stayed in a fancy B&B, La Villa Borghese, a restored  liberty style villa in Viareggio.  I have to admit that the breakfast in the patio was pretty much like my childhood’s ones.

The scent in the breeze, the burning sand, the taste of cream filled doughnuts in the afternoon, the flavor of an ice-cream in the pinewood, playing with waves… nothing had changed. It could have easily been a summer of the 70’s when my sea vacation would last over a month… a month with grandma and no rules.

My weekend had also with no rules and best of it all, no remorse over diet breaking. It was a little treat which did live up to the expectations and proved that self indulgence once in a while it’s so rewarding.

I guess I’ll have to do it again before the summer is over.

the Barchessa staircase at Villa del Quar… walking ducks :-)

Travelweek: the tourism show in Brazil. A two-day meeting event with the most important travel agents of the luxury travel market. A wide selection of hotels from all over the world were there exhibiting and the event was the perfect showcase to start developing the Latin American market for most of the properties.In addition to the scheduled meetings the organizers arranged two more days for the hotels to meet with the potential consumers of Sao Paulo. It was the first event of this kind ever to be hold in South America and hopefully it will become a fixed appointment on the tourism agenda.