Casa dei Poeti

Nothing short of dreamy. On the Island of Stromboli, just north of Sicily. Indeed, un viaggio poetico...

Via here (Photographer: Sergio Ghetti)

Sumptuous

The Aman Canale Grande Hotel, Venice, Italy...

See much more at Yatzer

Neglected

Via here (photo by Andre Govia)

L’Hotel Des Tailles

Utter sublimity. Photographed by Nicolas Buisson...

Via here

Ett Hem Hotel

British interior designer, Ilse Crawford of Studioilse, and Swedish owner, Jeanette Mix, have recently renovated a former 1910 Swedish residence (originally designed by architect Fredrik Dahlberg), converting it into a beautiful hotel, (which feels more like a private luxury home than a place of public perambulation)...

 Via Yatzer. All photos by Magnus Mårding. © Courtesy of Ett Hem

2013

The Mayans were wrong. (Thankfully). A number of bonus days since the miscalculated apocalypse, meant that we were able to realise our (albeit too short) holiday. I have so many photographs to sort through for a posting, but here is one as a placeholder in the meantime. More tomorrow...

Babylonstoren

Wythe on the Waterfront...

Fancy some home-made ice-cream in your hotel room bar fridge? No problem for the Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg. In fact add Marlow & Sons granola to that. There is even a house butcher. Sound amazing enough? Just another major dosage of cool in the borough. Additionally, the farm-to-table restaurant Reynards, has an open-air kitchen centered around a wood-fired oven and grill. And naturally, say-no-more with regard to that floor...

Read more at TheNYTimes

Babylonstoren, South Africa (Encore)

Ever-evolving, this marvelous escape-from-reality in the Cape has added more sensory and culinary experiences and even managed to eclipse its previous perfection....

Greenhouse/conservatory that doubles as a teahouse

The Wine Tasting Space

Cheese Shop

Charcuterie Shop

Via Yatzer

5 Beekman

Apparently, the collective hearts of those in-the-know broke a little bit when hotelier Andre Balazs' deal to purchase decayed urban treasure 5 Beekman Street (just a block from City Hall) fell through early this year. But all are a twitter that a new joint venture partnership has purchased the building at a whopper of a price, and one of the partners is the owner of the Ace Hotel. Looks like all the finger crossing paid off...

 All photographs via here and ScoutingNY

Babylonstoren, South Africa

Sigh. This sounds like my kind of holiday. 'Intentionally unscripted' is the mantra for time spent at Babylonstoren in the Cape. One can lounge and truly wind-down on one of the hammocks attached to giant trees, or pick one's own salad on a stroll through the remarkable fruit and vegetable garden, and enjoy it for lunch. Sounds rather blissful, doesn't it? Karen Roos, one of my all-time style icons, is responsible for creating this heavenly 200-hectare farm hotel dating back to 1692. A disused kraal was converted into the restaurant Babel (see below), and renowned South African food fundi, Maranda Engelbrecht describes the fare as "Not looking for different things, but simply looking at things differently". The menu is ever-changing as plat de jour, or rather jardin is the order of the day. Pick-clean-serve is the approach with practically zero carbon footprint. Kind-of reminds me a bit of Villa Augustus in the Netherlands...

The Library is vintage Karen Roos - filled with curiousity cabinets and carefully chosen books, antique botanical prints all bathed in an almost Deyroll-eqsue green.

Images from here and Elle