The ObjectThe Riva Aquarama, the mahogany speedboat that is the Riviera itself
Built by hand on an Italian lake, Riva's varnished runabout became the one object that stands in for the whole Mediterranean summer.
Ground TruthThe Meltemi, the wind that rules the Aegean summer
The dry northerly that scours the Cyclades from July to September is not weather so much as a season with a temper. It shaped the islands, and it still shapes the holiday.
The EditGibellina, the town Italy rebuilt as art
An earthquake destroyed a Sicilian town, and artists rebuilt it. In 2026 Gibellina is Italy's first Capital of Contemporary Art. Five things to see.
Field NotesSymi, the harbour painted by sponge money
A field note from the Dodecanese port where a fortune in sponge-diving wealth still stands, tier on tier, in ochre and blue.
The TableBottarga di Cabras, the Amber Gold of a Sardinian Lagoon
In a brackish lagoon on Sardinia's west coast, grey mullet roe is salted, pressed and dried into the Mediterranean's amber caviar.
On the RiseAstypalea, the island that turned off its engines
Volkswagen and the Greek state turned this Dodecanese butterfly into a laboratory for the electric car. Several years in, the experiment reads less like a pilot and more like a way of living.
The ObjectBlancpain's Fifty Fathoms Tech, the diver that stopped counting minutes
Blancpain's newest diver counts time in three-hour shifts, not sixty-minute laps. A quiet answer to how long divers really stay down.
Ground TruthThe bora, and the coast it made
A cold wind falls off the Dinaric wall and decides how the northern Adriatic looks, sails and tastes.
The EditNîmes borrows the Louvre's Rome
For one summer the most Roman city in France holds a hundred works from the Louvre, and asks us to stop looking at Rome as though it were only beautiful.
Field NotesMonemvasia, the town behind the rock
A field note from the Peloponnese, where a single causeway leads to a medieval town you cannot see from land.
The TableGaziantep, the pistachio kingdom
How a city in Turkey's south-east built its whole table around one small green nut, then fenced its baklava inside European law.
On the RiseNoto gets its grand hotel
Rocco Forte's conversion of the 1782 Palazzo Castelluccio gives Sicily's baroque valley a reason to stay the night.
The ObjectCarl Friedrik's aluminium carry-on takes on Rimowa
A London leather house makes its first metal case, and undercuts the silhouette it borrows from.
On the RisePetNat, natural wine and the Peristeri aperitivo
A natural-wine bar by the Peristeri metro, where the Kika team pours to a Milanese clock.
Ground TruthThe Strait of Messina, where Charybdis still turns
Three kilometres of water between Sicily and Calabria, run by two seas that keep different clocks. The geography that Homer turned into a monster.
On the RiseDhërmi, the white village on the Albanian Riviera
The Mediterranean coast the money has finally found, and where to stay while it is still itself.
The EditMatera 2026, the cave city's Mediterranean year
Matera shares this year's Mediterranean Capital of Culture and Dialogue with Tetouan. Five dates from the programme worth planning a trip around.
Field NotesOrtigia at dawn, the island heart of Syracuse
The oldest part of Syracuse is a small island you can walk in half an hour. Before the cafes open, it belongs to the stone and the sea.
The TableCetara, the anchovy sauce of the monks
On the Amalfi coast, a few drops of amber liquid carry Rome's lost garum and eight centuries of monastic patience.
The TableModena, the Balsamic Table of Emilia
The real balsamic never reaches a supermarket shelf. It ages for decades in a Modena attic, and the bottle you already know is not it.
On the RiseKythira, the Greek island caught between two seas
South of the Peloponnese, where the Ionian gives way to the Aegean, an island that never grew the airport crowd and is quietly filling up.
The ObjectSanta Maria Novella, the scent that travels from Florence
Eight hundred years of Florentine scent, and the small bottle that belongs in a wash bag.
Ground TruthThe Sirocco, the Wind That Carries the Sahara to Sicily
How a hot wind off the desert crosses the sea, turns humid, and drops red rain on the stone of Sicily and Malta.
Field NotesMani, the stone towers of Greece's deep south
In the Peloponnese's harshest peninsula, fortified stone towers built for a war the villages fought against themselves.
The TableMarseille's bouillabaisse, the rules of the real thing
The charter dish of the Vieux-Port, and why the version served on the tourist strip is not it.
On the RiseFavignana, western Sicily's island of slow time
The old tuna island off Trapani has traded the mattanza for bicycles and quarry coves. A quiet argument for going slow.
The ObjectValextra, Milan's quiet answer to the weekend bag
A Milanese leather house, an engineer's austerity, and the bag built to the exact shape of a forty-eight hour trip.
Ground TruthThe Strait of Gibraltar, where two seas trade water
Roughly fourteen kilometres of contested water is the reason the Mediterranean stays full. A look at the valve between two seas.
The EditThe summer stages: ancient theatres worth the journey in 2026
Five Mediterranean amphitheatres where the old stone still fills up after dark, and what is playing this summer.
Field NotesHydra, the island that kept out the wheel
No cars, no scooters, not even a bicycle. On Hydra roughly a thousand donkeys and mules do the work, and the harbour looks the way it did in 1800.
The TableValencia and the real paella of the Albufera
The rice was born in a lagoon south of the city. So were the rules.
On the RiseLustica Bay, Montenegro's quiet new Adriatic town
A slow, half-built town on the Luštica peninsula, and why the restraint is the point.
The ObjectPersol 714, the folding sunglasses that pack flat
Turin's answer to the travelling face: a folding frame that has outlived every trend since 1960.
Ground TruthWhy Sifnos and the Cyclades lost their trees
The bare, terraced islands read as timeless. The bareness is a wound, and it is several thousand years deep.
The EditFive Mediterranean food festivals worth the autumn trip
A late-summer-to-winter calendar of five, from a tomato fight near Valencia to the truffle markets of Piedmont and Tuscany.
Field NotesEMST, and an Athens that looks forward
On Syngrou Avenue, a former brewery holds the country's contemporary collection, and quietly tells you what the city is becoming.
The TableBeirut returns to the table
Three Lebanese rooms on MENA's 50 Best, and a city that keeps its nerve where it eats.
On the RiseTirana, the Capital That Woke Up
Albania's capital spent half a century sealed off in grey concrete. It came back in colour, and faster than anyone expected.
The ObjectGlobe-Trotter and the Case That Outlasts Us
More than a century on, Globe-Trotter still builds its cases from vulcanised fibreboard, by hand in England, on the premise that good luggage should outlast the trips you bought it for.
The ObjectThirty-five years in the dark
A 1990 Speyside drawn off at thirty-five years, cask strength, and the patience no shortcut can fake.
Ground TruthSantorini is a drowned volcano
The caldera read as geology: one Bronze Age explosion that still decides the cliffs, the soil and the wine.
The EditWhere to swim: wild Mediterranean coves
Five swims worth the walk, the kayak or the scramble, from a Sardinian gorge to a sea pool on Thasos.
Field NotesOn the Caravaggio trail in Naples
Three buildings, one short walk through the old centre, and the work a wanted man left behind.
The EditThe Places Asking to Leave the UNESCO List
World Heritage status was meant to be an honour for ever. For a growing list of villages and cities, from a Slovak hamlet to the Venetian lagoon, it has become a reason to ask for the exit.
The TableThessaloniki's table, before Michelin
Greece's northern capital joins the Michelin Guide in 2026. First, the table it built long before anyone kept score.
The TableMpoumpas, and a Hundred Years of Epirus Meat
From a village in Pogoni to a boutique counter in Kifisia, a family has spent a century refusing to be a middleman. They raise the animals, age the beef, and put their own name over the door.
The Tableenkel.kaffe, and the Hard Work Behind a Simple Cup
In Peristeri, a large district of western Athens with a coffee culture of its own, a national latte art champion and his brother named their place the Swedish word for simple. The cup is anything but.
On the RisePelion, the Mountain With Two Seas
A hook of Thessaly held between a calm gulf and the open Aegean, where stone villages, chestnut woods and a small antique train still keep the pace honest.
The TableBread B.C., and the Slow Proof of Chalandri
A filmmaker's lockdown habit and a Spondi-trained baker's decade-old starter meet on an ordinary street in northern Athens, where the dough is given a day and a half before it is allowed to become bread.
The TableBurro, and the Slow Morning of Ostuni
In the white maze of Ostuni, a morning-only café reads more Copenhagen than Puglia, until the food arrives. Then the name, butter, starts to make sense.
Field NotesIngbert Brunk, and the Marble That Kept Him on Naxos
A German sculptor came to Naxos as a student in 1984, fell for the island's translucent white marble, and never left. Forty years on, he still works the same stone as the ancient kouroi.
The ObjectBowers & Wilkins Px8, the headphones we travel with
The flagship noise-cancelling pair, judged as a piece of luggage rather than a gadget.
On the RiseCasa Massina, and the Quiet Rise of Lake Kerkini
Greece's great bird lake was always a day trip. A small, design-minded room in the village of Ano Poroia is the first real reason to stay the night.
Ground TruthThe Mistral, the Wind That Scours Provence
A cold wind out of the north that funnels down the Rhone, scrubs the sky clean and quietly decides how Provence is built and planted.
The TableOenogenesis and the Wine Called Ten
In Doxato, Bakis Tsalkos put Drama on the wine map, then built an estate around Deka: a white made to age, in a country that rarely tries.
The EditThe New Cycladic Design Hotels of 2026
Five island openings, from Milos to Paros, where the architecture is the reason to go rather than the afterthought.
Field NotesJeff Koons and the Ancient Venus, Athens
A mirror-polished balloon Venus meets ten Paleolithic figurines at the Museum of Cycladic Art, a dialogue across some twenty-five thousand years.
Ground TruthThe Meltemi, and Why the Cyclades Look the Way They Do
The summer wind that strips the islands bare, leans the churches, and decides where you can and cannot swim.
The TableNaoussa and the Xinomavro grape
Greece's first appellation makes a pale, ferocious red that ages like Barolo and sells for a fraction. On the slopes of Vermio, the secret is still holding.
On the RiseThe Itria Valley, Where Puglia Slows Down
Trulli, masserie and a stretch of southern Italy learning to be discovered on its own terms.
Field NotesThe Spa, Rewired
Inside Nao at Minos Palace: DNA tests, a cryo chamber and a brain gym, and a massage that lands as treatment.
The ObjectA Cashmere Antidote to the Long Haul
Loro Piana's Travel Set treats the cabin as somewhere worth surviving in comfort, and worth keeping for years.
On the RiseMessinia, where the Odyssey comes home
Nolan filmed Homer's coast here. Go now, before the world reads the same map.
The ObjectThe Suitcase Without Rivets
Ten years into the Horizon line, Marc Newson has removed the one detail every aluminium case was supposed to need.
The TableSantorini's Volcanic Table, Before the Stars Land
Michelin arrives on the island in 2026; we taste the terroir that made it inevitable.
Field NotesVenice, In Minor Keys
Koyo Kouoh did not live to open her Biennale; we go to read the exhibition she finished anyway.
The EditThe Museum Openings Reshaping the Mediterranean in 2026
From a long-delayed Cairo colossus to quiet additions to the Athenian shoreline, the year's most consequential museum debuts ring the inland sea.
On the RiseZagori, the Greece That Stayed Quiet
Two years after UNESCO listed its stone villages, mountain Epirus is finally easy to reach, and still, for now, unhurried.
The ObjectA Quiet Watch for Crossing Time Zones
Laurent Ferrier's Sport Traveller does the one thing a travel watch must do, and almost nothing else.
The TableCrete Reads Itself in Olive Oil, in a Thirsty Year
The island's defining oil is also its most exposed crop, and the past two harvests have shown why.
Field NotesThe Acropolis Reopens Its First Museum
On the sacred rock itself, a long-shuttered museum returns this spring with 1,185 objects shown for the first time.
The EditThe Mediterranean Wine Regions We Are Drinking Now
Volcanic slopes, high-altitude island vines and revived native grapes: where the basin's most interesting bottles are coming from this year.
On the RiseThe Albanian Riviera, Caught in the Act
A new tunnel opened the southern coast in a single summer; the question now is whether it can hold its nerve.
The ObjectRimowa Learns to Speak Leather
With a muted blue and its first all-leather case, Rimowa edges away from the aluminium grooves that made it.
The TableTinos Is Building a Cuisine, Not Maintaining One
While the Cyclades chase Michelin, a quieter island is being shaped plate by plate around its own ingredients.
Field NotesTroy Comes to the Colosseum
Rome reopens the question of its own origins with 300 objects, many lent by Türkiye and never before seen in Italy.
The EditThe Train Journeys Worth Taking This Year
New night routes and revived coastal lines that make the slow approach to the Mediterranean the better part of the trip.
No pieces in this column yet, more on the way.