Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples

Filled with art-slung palaces, castles and churches, Naples has enough culture to satiate the most ravenous vulture. And it doesn’t end with frescoed domes and Caravaggios either. Other claims to fame include pizza, buffalo mozzarella, San Marzano tomatoes, and Kimbo coffee. Just watch your waistline – a key concern if you want to look in on some of Europe’s finest bespoke tailors, who have dressed everyone from King Vittorio Emanuele to Aristotle Onassis.

Artful slumber: In a city bloated with chintzy, dated hotels, Hotel Piazza Bellini keeps the truly cool purring. Occupying a restored 16th-century palazzo opposite bohemian Piazza Bellini, its 50 rooms are pimped with quirky murals and whimsical local art.
Going for Baroque: Seventeenth-century architect and sculptor Cosimo Fanzago turned marble into polychromatic magic in the charterhouse-turned-museum, Certosa di San Martino.
Art & alchemy: Giuseppe Sanmartino’s 18th-century marble masterpiece, The Veiled Christ, is possibly the finest sculpture in Italy. You’ll find it in Cappella di Sansevero, stomping ground of prince, inventor and alchemist, Raimondo de Sangro.
Caffè under chandeliers: Naples is famous for its thick, strong espresso, and there’s no better place to sip it than Caffè Gambrinus, former hangout of Oscar Wilde.
Scented souvenirs: Skip the kitsch nativity scenes and follow your nose to Kiphy, an artisanal workshop selling organic soaps and beauty products made using essential oils and herbs. The orange and cinnamon soap bar are nearly good enough to eat.
Perfect pizza: Ever-packed Pizzeria Gino Sorbillo is where the locals line up for bubbling, wood-fired pizza perfection. In the hometown of pizza, this speaks volumes.
Caravaggio: With blood on his hands, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio fled from Rome to Naples in 1606. His Flagellation of Christ is one of countless artistic highlights at one-time Bourbon palace Palazzo Reale di Capodimonte.
A tailor: If you plan on turning heads, double your chances with a suit from veteran tailor Mariano Rubinacci. Past clients include legendary film director Vittorio de Sica, whose Oscar-winning flick Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow tells you all you need to know about Naples.
Quiet time: When you’re ready to escape the city’s trademark anarchy, slip into the Majolica-tiled, fresco-fringed cloisters of the Basilica di Santa Chiara.
Aperitivo: For civilised late-afternoon wine and cheese sessions, head to La Stanza del Gusto, which features in-the-know drops and produce from all over Italy. There’s a little produce shop in the basement and a fine-dining restaurant upstairs.
Culinary ingenuity: For regional classics with a twist, book a linen-lined table at Palazzo Petrucci. Menus are seasonal and refreshingly inspired, with creations like roasted cod with lavender, aglianico-wine vinegar and anchovies. We also love the attentive service.

© Isabelle Legeron

Ever wondered why so many top TOP chefs have almost entirely natural wines on their lists? Confused by the terms ‘acidity’ ‘finings’ and ‘tannins’? Pure, unabashed tastebud titillation is what #RAWfair’s twitter feed is for viticulture gourmets like us who polished up our grandfather’s tastevin weeks ago in excited anticipation of RAW, an artisan wine fair happening on London’s Brick Lane this weekend.

A brazen celebration of some of the world’s most creative and eclectic wines, the fair brings together 800+ different wines produced by 200 small artisan wine growers from around the globe, all of whom use natural farming techniques. Take the fine Georgian vintages cut from organic Rkatsiteli grapes left to macerate for six months in ancient clay qvevri sunk in the ground; or the fruity unfiltered nigori (literally ‘cloudy’) organic wines crafted by a wine-impassioned, Japanese fashion designer. Food stalls and pop-up cafes will provide the necessary gastronomic sustenance in between winetasting at the fair, and open talks on biodynamic wine, growing plants and – our personal favourite – the perplexing affair of marrying wine and chocolate, promise to delight and entertain.

Ooh, we simply can’t wait for Sunday to start swirling our glass.

Event: RAW, 10am-6pm Sunday 20 May 2012
Location: The Old Truman Brewery, F BLOCK, 83 Brick Lane, London E1 6QL
Tickets: £20 in advance online, £25 at the door, including unlimited dégustation (tasting)

Interior of Zaha Hadid's MAXXI Museum in Flaminio

You can climb up London’s Gherkin and walk its walled gardens during its Open House Weekend in September, and you can drink aperitivo in Milan’s private courtyards and admire the flowering genius of Cordoba’s pretty patios in April and May. But so far the doors of Rome’s private houses, its most cutting-edge modernist projects and many aristocratic palazzos have remained firmly closed, until now. This weekend, on the 5th and 6th May, the first edition of Open House Roma takes place.

Part of the Open House Worldwide network, Open House Roma is hosted by an association of non-profit architects, who’ve managed to unlock some of the city’s most unusual sites and are offering free (yes, that’s right, free) guided visits and tours as well as putting on some fun events and workshops for kids.

The spaces have been chosen for their diversity and imaginative clout so you can see anything from the newly restored baroque masterpiece Chiesa Santi Luca e Martina, built atop the most ancient Senate House of the Roman Republic in the middle of the Forum or, the Lincean Academy, one of the first science schools in Italy. You can even go on-site at current groundbreaking projects such as Massimiliano Fuksas’ new Congress Centre in EUR, with its bizarre internal floating cloud.

There are also intriguing intimate spaces, some apartments, studios, workshops and offices, which you may never have considered architectural marvels. But who can argue with the view of the St Peters dome from the minimalist, modern interior of the Casa delle Vittore. In all there are 100+ sites scattered across the city centre, Vatican City, and the outlying neighbourhoods of EUR, Parioli and Flaminio, where Zaha Hadid’s new space-age MAXXI museum is located.

In many cases the tours are guided by architects and there are even walking and cycling tours to cover areas such as EUR, Mussolini’s fascist centerpiece covering a whole city quarter.

Open House Roma aspires to be the largest annual event dedicated to architecture in the Rome, so book your tours and viewings now and be among the first to view some of Eternal City’s truly hidden treasures.

Event: Open House Roma, 5-6th May 2012
Location: Citywide

Phoot Camp 2010 © Michael O'Neal

Phoot is the brainchild of the talented Laura Brunow Miner, the founder of gorgeous Pictory (which we love to dawdle over on Monday mornings) and a former editor-in-chief at JPG Magazine. Inspired by the philosophy: Life is about doing great work with our friends, Laura has been pulling off Phoot camps for the last four years, first in the backwoods of northern California, near her home in San Francisco, then in LA and Texas, and now in upstate New York.

For each Phoot Camp she reaches out to 35 of the best and brightest photographers around the world (for a who’s-who of attendees, take a peak here), and asks them to join her for a weekend of photo walks, portrait challenges, slideshows and general creative collaboration. Twenty places at the camp are usually taken by veteran phooters, while 15 places are always held open for fresh talent. It’s an amazing, and fun, opportunity.

Remembering the very first phootcamp, Laura reminisces: They brought scuba gear, fog machines, ladders, 30-food monopods, and other sensible equipment for the photographer-on-the-go. I still don’t understand why the park ranger didn’t kick us out for the incessant ‘phoot lighting’ of flash bulbs rippling up the trees or the ‘phoot snakes’ of extension cords tracing out from the bathroom outlets. Probably because his stern warnings couldn’t hide the fact that he was having fun. We all were. And even better, we’ve stayed in touch. A number of friendships, creative collaborations, professional gigs, and even a few road trips have resulted from that weekend in the woods.

Phoot campers in the California back woods © Ryan Schude

This year’s Phoot Camp is the biggest and best yet. Taking place June 14-18 in upstate New York it coincides with the first ever Photoville NYC, a two-week long event during which local galleries and international collaborators aim to create a complete photographic village in shipping containers right in the heart of Brooklyn Bridge Park along the waterfront. With a mixture of exhibitions, workshops, nighttime projections, photo dog run and a summer beer garden it promises to be a photographic destination like no other.

So this year’s phoot campers have their work cut out for them, as they’ll need to have an exhibition-ready photo by the end of the camp to exhibit in the Phoot Gallery at Photoville. It opens on the 22nd June, just four days after the camp, and will be open to the general public for two glorious weeks.

Applicants for Phoot Camp need to apply by 30th April. Photography lovers just need to book their flight to New York in time for Photoville on 22nd June.

Phoot Camp: 14-18 June
Deadline for applications: 30th April 2012
Price: $20 Application fee, accommodation, food & photo adventure FREE if you’re invited to attend
Photoville: 22nd June to 1st July
Location: Brooklyn Waterfront

Plan of Brogdale Farm © Brogdale

The rows and rows of blooming apple, pear, plum and cherry trees at Brogdale Farm represent the largest collection of fruit cultivars on any one site in the world. With over 2000 apples, 500 pears, 300 cherries, 300 plums, 150 gooseberries, 200 red, white and black currants and smaller collections of nuts, medlars, quinces and vine, the Brogdale’s collection represents the UK’s contribution to global conservation and forms a vital gene bank for the future.

Brogdale is also important in other ways, with its Versailles Potager du Roi, Renaissance garden, Edwardian artistic garden and Wild Fruit garden it provides a record of how fruit trees have been central to the design of the pleasure garden and regional landscaping throughout history. For example, the collection includes the Tudor pear and the Newtown Pippin apple of New York, which launched the international fruit trade, as well as the most modern varieties of cherry, which have transformed the fortunes of Kent’s orchards in recent years.

The farm has a whole calendar of events, including the Cherry Festival in July (7-8th) and Plum Day on August 12th, and this year to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee and the planting of Brogdale’s orchards in 1952, the events are all inspired by the 1950s, the era appropriately epitomised by the Apple Pie.

This weekend though they’re running one of their famous courses on Artisan Cider Making with Kent’s award-winning cider producer Simon Reed from ‘Rough Old Wife Cider’. It’s a beginners course, and you’re encouraged to bring along your own apples and pears for pressing. You’ll also learn something of the history of British Cider and Perry and the fundamentals of setting up your own cider press. Afterwards you can take a tour of the blossoming orchards with a knowledgeable guide. There really isn’t a better time to see them.

If you can’t get to Brogdale this weekend, why not get into the spirit of things and buy a bag of crisp Cox’s Orange Pippins, and whip up Kay’s easy Tarte Tatin. Cox’s were first cultivated by Buckinghamshire brewer and horticulturalist Richard Cox in the early 1800s and have a sprightly crisp flavour with hints of cherry and anise. They are wonderfully succulent and are often blended in cider production, although they do make a delicious apple tart.

Course: Artisan Cider Making, 21st-22nd April
Course Price: £105 per person
Orchard Passes: £10 adult, £5.50 children under 16, £25 families
Location: Brogdale Farm, Faversham, Kent

Trinity Church in front of the Trinity Building © Sound Mind Blog

In New York the four classic points of the compass are secondary in importance. The decisive direction is the fifth compass point: it points upwards, above and beyond, just like the Statue of Liberty who stretches her powerful arm with its torch to the sky. Everyone, everything strives upwards. Everyone gets a chance, but only those who are daring and unafraid of heights can succeed. Architect, Le Corbusier, described it perfectly, New York is a vertical city. A sign of the new time. It is a catastrophe in which an overzealous skill has overwhelmed a brave and confident people, but it is a beautiful and respectable catastrophe. 

Balthazar for breakfast meetings and Parisian-style, fin-de-siecle brunches with friends.
A gentleman’s club: With mahogany-framed windows and Dean & DeLuca deli treats, City Club ardently preserves the cachet of the gentleman’s club it once was.
History you should know: On boarding the Titanic first class passengers were greeted personally by Captain Smith while third class passengers had health checks to ensure they carried no diseases that would preventing gaining entry to America at Ellis Island. The Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side tells their less illustrious story and tours their period apartments.
Work of Art: The Bedroom from the Sagredo Palace in Venice at the MET, which was opened by financiers and businessmen in 1872 in an effort to bring art and art education to the American people.
Place for a quiet conversation: In front of the marble fireplace at the Morgan Library dining room. On your way out take a peak at the museum’s three Gutenberg Bibles.
Art Deco architecture: Gotham city eat your heart out, NY’s early 20th-century architecture makes the heart sing. We all know the Chrysler Building, but check out the Trinity Building’s outrageous Gothic dragons and gargoyles.
Drink pre-prohibition inspired cocktails at Lantern’s Keep, a small, discrete Parisian-style salon tucked inside the Iroquois Hotel.
Vintage shopping at Estate Jewels where George and Raf have curated a collection of costume jewelry that spans nearly 150 years of American and European design.
Public Theatre: Over 6 hours, be seduced by GATZ, the re-telling of the ravishing F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 tale The Great Gatsby, which is taking New York and London by storm.

Map this weekend.

The Titanic © Titanicphotographs

At 11.40pm on the 14th April 1912, just four days into its trans-Atlantic crossing, the RMS Titanic hit at iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland. Over the next two and half hours the ship filled with water and sank, causing the deaths of 1,514 people. This weekend and next week events at the London’s Barbican & the Candlelight Club, and Boston’s International Poster Gallery commemorate the 100th anniversary of the disaster.

By the time Titanic sailed, she was one of only three Olympic class ocean liners operated by the White Star Line, and was the largest and most luxurious ship afloat on the sea. Her 2,224 passengers included some of the wealthiest people in the world, along with thousands of British, Irish and Scandinavian immigrants seeking a better life in the New World.

A veritable ‘floating palace’ the ship was outfitted in opulent style with an on-board gym, electric lifts, running water in every cabin, a swimming pool, libraries, three dining rooms and a Parisian-style café. Amateur photographer, Francis Browne, who was aboard the ship from Southampton to Cobh (then Queenstown) in Ireland, captured many extraordinary scenes aboard the boat, including his cabin, the dining hall, the infamous deck chairs and even this picture of William Waldorf Astor, before he boarded.

William Waldorf Astor suited and booted (left) © Titanicphotographs

But, one of the most enduring images from the disaster is that of the ship’s string ensemble playing the hymn tune of Autumn as the ship when down bow-first. On Sunday, at the Barbican in London, the Gavin Bryars Ensemble with Philip Jeck on the turntables, will revisit the emotional scene with the 1969 composition, The Sinking of the Titanic, a 72-minute piece that weaves refrains from Autumn with electronic dissonance conjuring up the crash of the waves and the great surge of the engines as the ship went down.

Across the pond, in Boston, the International Poster Gallery is opening one of the largest ocean liner poster exhibits ever held by a gallery on Thursday 16th April. Commemorating the entire glorious era of ocean travel, from the birth of the Floating Palaces in the 1890s to their decline in the 1960s with the advent of air travel, it includes rare Art Deco pieces from the very best artists of the era, such as A.M. Cassandre who’s iconic posters runs to tens of thousands of dollars. The spectacular and hard-to-find L’Atlantique (shown above) has already been snapped up. You can view all the posters and purchase online as well.

If you can’t make those events jump aboard the good ship Candlelight tonight or tomorrow and raise a glass of champagne to the Golden Age of Travel. Then dance the night away with Benoit Viellefon and his Orchestra.

Barbican: The Sinking of the Titanic, 15th April, Silk Street, London
International Poster Gallery:  Titans of the Sea exhibit, 6-8pm 19th April, Newbury Street, Boston
Candlelight Club: The Golden Age of Travel, 13th & 14th April, London