Brenta river

discovering unexpected delights in Vicenza and beyond

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I may have fallen asleep at double geography before, but I never thought I would sleep in a school on purpose. La Scuola, in Lusiana, in the foothills of the Dolomites, is very different from an English school. The former village school, closed in the 1960s, has been converted by Valeria Carfora and her husband … Read more

The Renaissance of Venice’s Favourite Retreat

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My first impressions of Venice as I leave the Ponte della Libertà, the bridge spanning the lagoon from La Serenissima to the Domini di Terraferma, are not very promising, as I drive past the giant refineries of the mainland’s petrochemical industry, then the immense skeleton of a mega-cruise ship under construction in vast maritime shipyards. … Read more