Luxury Stays in Rovinj, Istria
Rovinj in high season versus shoulder season Rovinj gets sold to you as a flawless postcard: pastel houses tumbling down to turquoise water, the bell tower of St. Euphemia rising above. It really does look like that. In peak season, particularly July and August, it also gets genuinely crowded. The narrow cobblestone streets fill up, everyone trying to photograph the same sunset from the same spot. Come April through June, or September through October. The water is still swimmable and the weather warm, but you can walk the old town without feeling pressed against strangers. […]
Zermatt’s Ultimate Matterhorn View Hotels
What people get wrong about Zermatt Zermatt is often painted as a ski haven where every room frames a pristine Matterhorn. The reality is more mixed. Plenty of first-timers assume every hotel here looks straight at the peak, then find their room faces another building or sits closer to the busy Bahnhofstrasse than the mountain. Even at luxury hotels the views vary, and some are blocked by neighboring structures. Specify your room's exact orientation when you book. Marketing promises Matterhorn views. That doesn't guarantee you'll see it from your bed. The history behind Zermatt's luxury scene Zermatt sits in the [...]
Gucci: Guccio’s Leather Legacy
How it started Florence, 1921. The city was still recovering from World War I. Guccio Gucci opened a shop that year with a simple idea: make bags and luggage of real quality. He had worked at the Savoy Hotel in London before this, watching wealthy guests arrive with extraordinary luggage. Back in Florence, he opened a small shop on Via della Vigna Nuova and began crafting handmade leather suitcases, bags, and saddles. The prices were high for the time. What his customers paid for was a standard of quality they could recognize on sight. The years that followed were hard [...]
Baden bei Wien: UNESCO Spa Town Near Vienna
Baden bei Wien, the spa town most travelers skip Baden, near Vienna, tends to fly under the radar when people plan a European wellness trip. The assumption is that the best retreats sit only in the Swiss Alps or along the Mediterranean. Baden offers something else: Roman baths, a reputation as the "Spa Garden of Vienna," and a mix of cultural heritage and current wellness facilities. Its thermal waters have drawn visitors for their curative properties since ancient times. A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2021, part of the "Great Spa Towns of Europe," the town is now getting more [...]
Luxury Lodges of Lake Manyara: Unveiled
Lake Manyara: Tanzania's overlooked safari base Plan a safari in Tanzania and your mind goes straight to the Serengeti or the Ngorongoro Crater. Lake Manyara National Park gets underrated next to them. The tree-climbing lions and flocks of pink flamingos get the attention, but the luxury lodges here put you close to wildlife while keeping you comfortable, and that combination is easy to miss on Tanzania's safari circuit. Understanding the landscape Lake Manyara's story runs through Tanzania's geography and culture, tied to the Maasai and to early European explorers. The Rift Valley escarpment frames a compact area with a mix [...]
Ermenegildo Zegna: A Century of Sartorial Elegance
The legend begins Trivero sits in the Biellese Alps, up in Italy’s Piedmont. In 1910 it became the birthplace of what grew into one of the world’s leading luxury menswear brands. Ermenegildo Zegna, born in 1892, was the youngest of Angelo Zegna’s ten children. Angelo was a watchmaker who had taken up weaving wool on four looms. At 18, Ermenegildo founded the Lanificio Zegna & Giardino with two of his brothers and a partner, Costanzo Giardino Vitri. The wool mill opened with one stated ambition: to make “the most beautiful fabrics in the world.” […]
Ferrari: The Prancing Horse’s Legacy
The legend begins In Modena, Italy, Enzo Ferrari turned a lifelong obsession with engines and speed into a car company. He founded Scuderia Ferrari as a racing team in 1929, then created Auto Avio Costruzioni in 1939 after parting ways with Alfa Romeo. A non-compete agreement kept his own name off his automobiles until 1947. On 12 March 1947, Enzo Ferrari officially founded Ferrari S.p.A. in Maranello, where the company's headquarters remain today, and Ferrari marks that date as the birth of the brand. The industry at the time was focused on mass production and utility. Ferrari went the other [...]
Alpine Elegance: Lech Arlberg’s Luxury Stays
The curator’s eye Few Alpine destinations pull together heritage, luxury, and skiing terrain the way Lech am Arlberg does. This selection is about the accommodations and the experiences, not just the rooms. […]
Cortina’s Luxe Chalets: A Winter Wonderland
What sets it apart Ask anyone to name a luxury ski destination in Europe and the usual names surface: Cheval Blanc Courchevel, The Lodge Verbier, the resorts of St. Moritz. Cortina d'Ampezzo, the "Queen of the Dolomites," offers Italian warmth inside a UNESCO-protected alpine setting. With the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics approaching, new investment is flowing in. A handful of private chalets and renovated historic hotels are reshaping mountain luxury here, with standards close to the French Alps but an unmistakably Italian character. Understanding the landscape Cortina d'Ampezzo's history runs through several eras. Once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it [...]
Bulgari Hotels: Crafting Luxury Destinations
The legend begins In February 2001, at a news conference in London, Marriott International, through its Ritz-Carlton Luxury Group, joined forces with Bulgari SpA, the Roman jeweler founded in 1884 by Greek silversmith Sotirios Voulgaris. The joint venture would launch Bvlgari Hotels & Resorts, a brand meant to translate the craftsmanship and contemporary Italian style of Bulgari’s jewelry into hospitality. […]
Rovinj in high season versus shoulder season Rovinj gets sold to you as a flawless postcard: pastel houses tumbling down to turquoise water, the bell tower of St. Euphemia rising [...]
What people get wrong about Zermatt Zermatt is often painted as a ski haven where every room frames a pristine Matterhorn. The reality is more mixed. Plenty of first-timers assume [...]
How it started Florence, 1921. The city was still recovering from World War I. Guccio Gucci opened a shop that year with a simple idea: make bags and luggage of [...]
Baden bei Wien, the spa town most travelers skip Baden, near Vienna, tends to fly under the radar when people plan a European wellness trip. The assumption is that the [...]
Lake Manyara: Tanzania's overlooked safari base Plan a safari in Tanzania and your mind goes straight to the Serengeti or the Ngorongoro Crater. Lake Manyara National Park gets underrated next [...]
The legend begins Trivero sits in the Biellese Alps, up in Italy’s Piedmont. In 1910 it became the birthplace of what grew into one of the world’s leading luxury menswear [...]
The legend begins In Modena, Italy, Enzo Ferrari turned a lifelong obsession with engines and speed into a car company. He founded Scuderia Ferrari as a racing team in 1929, [...]
The curator’s eye Few Alpine destinations pull together heritage, luxury, and skiing terrain the way Lech am Arlberg does. This selection is about the accommodations and the experiences, not just [...]
What sets it apart Ask anyone to name a luxury ski destination in Europe and the usual names surface: Cheval Blanc Courchevel, The Lodge Verbier, the resorts of St. Moritz. [...]
The legend begins In February 2001, at a news conference in London, Marriott International, through its Ritz-Carlton Luxury Group, joined forces with Bulgari SpA, the Roman jeweler founded in 1884 [...]
