Posts tagged: Places

It’s official: Switzerland is the world’s happiest country. Deservedly smug, the country has just topped the well-regarded World Happiness Report. I’m curious to find out why, taking a scenic rail route around some of the crassest cliches.

Lake Como has been a retreat since Roman times. If Bellagio, its loveliest resort, feels like a refuge, it’s because it is, in both peacetime and wartime. During the Second World War, Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni faced down the Italian Fascists’ wrath to offer sanctuary to Jewish families.

How Swiss is Geneva? This sophisticated, French-speaking city seems at odds with much of Swiss-German Switzerland. Geneva has French brasseries aplenty and shuns country bumpkins. Is the city too earnest for its own good or is there a subversive streak in there somewhere?

Wallowing in wintry Tallinn reveals a city on the cusp of change. Come for moody medieval battlements and Baltic charm. Stay for the contemporary buzz, the eccentric museums and Modern Estonian eateries, along with the Soviet throwbacks and hipster hangouts.

A taste of Cilento, south of Naples, Salerno and the Amalfi Coast, with a Slow Food trail centred on the sweetest figs, figs that are helping revive a sleepy region. The Unesco-listed Cilento National Park is also famed for the magnificent Greek temples of Paestum and the untarnished coast.

In Cilento, the buffaloes, the best mozzarella di bufala and fine wines are keys to unlocking the hedonistic Southern Italian character. The enigmatic Ancient Greeks have a lot to answer for.