Over the last ten years I’ve met more and more people making a ‘tree change’, swapping the stress of the concrete jungle for the tranquillity of the country. They plan a garden to please the eye and stock the table, and a comfortable house with space for pursuits they’ve neglected...
Perched precariously on rugged hilltops and cliff faces, Italy’s remote medieval towns often sit in splendid isolation, boasting extraordinary views of the pristine surrounding landscape. Generally built for defensive purposes, the stone and masonry walls, sturdy gates and watch towers which typify these towns have survived virtually unchanged since the...
Down the lonely country roads of rural New Hampshire, Massachusetts or Maine are the quaint remnants of a simpler past immortalised in American imagery for generations. Gambrel roofed red barns, simple white-steepled churches, white picket fences, and classically unornamented colonial houses. Though few realise it today, much of this iconic...
I’ll never forget the first time I saw the Isles of Scilly, early one misty, summer’s morning more years ago than I care to remember – from a helicopter. On what promised to be a glorious day we took off from Penzance for the 15-minute flight. As we rose into...
Academy Travel tour leader Robert Veel takes you on a virtual tour of one of the world’s great art sites. New Zealand entrepreneur Alan Gibbs has always thought big. After an early career in diplomacy and banking he made his first fortune in the 1980s in the nascent telecommunications sector,...