Monthly Archives: August 2021

Travel, Videos, Views

Village Walks: Ragusa – Southeastern Sicily (4K)

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Ragusa is a hilltop city in southeast Sicily, Italy. Ragusa Ibla, the old town, is home to many baroque buildings, like the Duomo di San Giorgio, a grand church with paintings and stained-glass windows.

Video timeline: 0:00 Drone intro and Map 1:06 Percoso delle Scale 2:47 Santa Maria delle Scale 7:25 Palazzo dell’ex Cancelleria 8:57 Chiesa anime del Purgatorio 13:27 Via del Mercato 16:13 Via XI Febbraio 19:00 Via Tenente di Stefano 21:16 Salita de Gaspano 22:31 Via Dottor Solarino 24:25 Stairs down to the Cathedral 27:42 Piazza Duomo 28:28 Duomo di San Giorgio 35:57 Piazza Duomo 38:13 Palazzo Battaglia 43:14 Piazza Duomo 44:14 Circolo di Conversazione 44:26 Corso XXV Aprile 45:28 Church of Saint Joseph 49:17 Giardino Ibleo 56:39 Chiesa di San Vincenzo Ferreri 57:41 Portale di San Giorgio

There are sweeping views from the Giardino Ibleo, a public park with churches and fountains. In Ragusa Superiore, the city’s more modern part, is ornate Ragusa Cathedral, with a museum of religious art and relics.

Homes, Photography, Travel, Views

English Country Homes: The Old Watermill In Clophill, Bedfordshire

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The word ‘idyllic’ doesn’t seem quite enough for some properties — and the Old Watermill in Clophill, Bedfordshire, with water rights over the River Flit and waterfalls in the garden, is a prime example of just how magical a house can be.

Lydia Stangroom, August 6, 2021

The stunning property is thought to date from the 18th century, with many of the bricks transcribed with the date 1725. However, as expected, the bricks are just the beginning of the many period features retained in this property.

Within the house is ‘an undershot wheel which drove three pairs of stones, grinding both wheat for flour and grain for animal feed’. Although, perhaps the most obvious feature are the exposed ceiling timbers, which run throughout every room, and juxtapose effortlessly with the exposed red brick work.

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Travel, Videos, Views

Walking Tour: Caux Palace – Switzerland (4K Video)

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The Caux Palace Hotel is a former palace hotel located in Caux, above Montreux in the Vaud canton, in Switzerland. Built on the Caux Mount by the Swiss architect Eugène Jost, it was inaugurated on 7 July 1902. The building rests on a 400-meter long terrace and is decorated with an abundance of towers and turrets with coloured tiles, which make it a remarkable feature of the Montreux landscape, visible from the whole Montreux Riviera region. It soon became an international venue first in the early 20th century as a luxury hotel, then from 1946 on as an international conference centre dedicated to the rebuilding of Europe under the leadership of the Swiss Initiatives of Change team. It is now also the seat of the Swiss Hotel Management School (SHMS) which uses the premises during the school semesters while Initiatives of Change keeps organising summer conferences there each year. The Caux-Palace Hotel is listed as a cultural property of national significance in Switzerland.

Travel, Videos, Views

Walking Tour: Vrsar – Republic Of Croatia (4K)

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Vrsar is a small seaside town and a municipality in Istria, Croatia located 9 kilometers south of Poreč. The historical center is located on top of a hill, including the St. Martin parish church and the 40-meter high bell tower. In the 20th century, the town expanded down the hill, into the surrounding area. 

News, Politics, Videos

Political Analysis: Brooks & Capehart On Covid-19 & New York Gov. Cuomo

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New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week in politics, including what the results of two Ohio special congressional elections say about Republicans and Democrats, accusations against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and the ongoing politics of COVID-19.

Cycling, Travel, Videos, Views

Biking Tour: St. Peter’s Square, Villa Pamphilii & Trastevere – Rome, Italy

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A biking tour in 𝗥𝗼𝗺𝗲, from 𝗦𝘁.𝗣𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿’𝘀 𝗦𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗿𝗲, to 𝗩𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗮 𝗣𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗶 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗸, then to 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗲, Tiber Island, and ending on Circus Maximus on a chilling weekend evening.

Video timeline: 0:00 – [Brief intro] 3:00 – [Biking tour begins / Castel Sant’Angelo] 5:50 – [Via della Conciliazione] 9:00 – [St.Peter’s Square] 13:40 – [Piazza del Sant’Uffizio] 16:00 – [Viale delle Mura Aurelie] 22:11 – [Piazza Aurelio] 23:00 – [Villa Pamphilii Park – entrance] 29:20 – [Pamphilii’s Chapel] 31:30 – [Casino del Bel Respiro] 32:26 – [Cricket Park] 36:00 – [Fountain of “mascherone” and Giardino dei Cedrati] 38:50 – […biking…] 45:28 – [Exiting from southern exit] 46:00 – [Via Vitellia] 48:45 – [Re-entering Villa Pamphilii Park] 49:30 – [Crossing to the western part of the park] 1:00:00 – [small lake] 1:01:10 – […biking…] 1:06:13 – [Crossing back to Eastern Part] 1:12:00 – [Belvedere Lake] 1:14:00 – […biking toward exit…] 1:16:00 – [Via Vitellia – heading to Trastevere neighborhood…] 1:19:30 – [Via Algardi] 1:23:15 – [Entering Trastevere / Via Garibaldi] 1:24:14 – [Via della Scala] 1:24:43 – [Piazza della Scala] 1:27:10 – [Via dei Panieri] 1:29:00 – [Via della Scala] 1:30:00 – [Piazza di Sant’Egidio] 1:30:50 – [Largo Fumasoni Biondi] 1:31:30 – [Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere] 1:32:50 – [Piazza di San Callisto] 1:34:00 – [Via di S.Francesco a Ripa] 1:35:00 – [Viale di Trastevere] 1:38:44 – [Via della Lungeretta] 1:39:40 – [Piazza Giuditta Tavani Arquati] 1:40:18 – [Lungotevere degli Anguillara] 1:42:00 – [Tiber Island] 1:46:54 – [Via Luigi Petroselli] 1:47:35 – [Piazza della Bocca della Verità] 1:48:00 – [Via di S.Giovanni Decollato] 1:51:40 – [Circus Maximus]

Boats, Books, History, Photography, Style

New Photography Books: ‘Yachts – The Impossible Collection’ (Assouline)

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Yachts: The Impossible Collection is an eclectic and carefully curated anthology of ships, from the 1851 ship for which the America’s Cup was named, to J Class racing yachts of the early 1900s, to the current high-tech megayachts, from classics with timeless silhouettes, to head-turners that broke the mold with daring design and redefined their era. 

Since time immemorial, monarchs, nobility and the aristocracy have yearned to spend their leisure time on the water. From Cleopatra’s fabled luxury barge to Her Majesty’s Royal Yacht Britannia, from elegant Jazz Age vessels such as Nahlin, once chartered by King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, to the swinging ’60s Hollywood royalty invited aboard Aristotle Onassis’ Christina O, the yachting scene has always attracted celebrities, high society and the top 0.1%. But with over three thousand sizable yachts currently in the global fleet, not to mention those legendary vessels that are sadly no longer in existence, how do we distinguish the crème de la crème of this exclusive breed?

And with so much focus today on the environment and the health of the oceans, the yachting world is changing quickly, increasingly pursuing sustainability. Whether impossible in sheer size, speed, luxurious features or advanced green technology, all of the vessels in this fantasy marina have transformed the yachting seascape.

As long as there are people with means and blue oceans to explore, there will always be a demand for these beautiful and impossible creatures that break the boundaries of technology, luxury and decadence—and new yachts are still yet to be built, worthy of The Impossible Collection.

Miriam Cain is a U.K.-based luxury journalist and editor, specializing in the superyacht industry for two decades, in a variety of editorial and PR roles, including editor of Elite Traveler Superyachts and SEA+I Magazine. Cain is currently the editor for the yachting and lifestyle publication Navigator, and she also contributes to a variety of international yachting publications as a freelance journalist.

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