Make a reservation at Four Seasons Florence

Four Seasons Florence, one of the most beautiful hotels in the world is located on the edge of the Florence and occupies two protected Renaissance palaces, the 15th century Palazzo della Gherardesca and the Conventino, a 16th century Palazzo, which was once a convent. Between them lie Florence’s largest private garden – the 11 acre Giardino della Gherardesca – one of the most beautiful and undiscovered green spaces.

The palace’s ornately painted and crafted interiors offer to view 15th – 19th century artworks in their original context. Frescoes, bas-reliefs, stuccoes and silk wallpapers have been carefully restored to reveal vivid detail. Original Florentine art and craftsmanship can also be found in several of the Hotel’s 117 bedrooms and suites.

Hotels main restaurant Il Palagio,offering traditional Tuscan cooking with local  ingredients. The two-storey spa features  natural products created by Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella, one of the world’s oldest pharmacies, which continues to use natural ingredients and follow the traditional recipes of monks from the 13th century. The Hotel also has an outdoor pool..This is a dream hotel in a fairy tale city where you can also find traditional  Four Seasons service, what else do you want?

Make a reservation at Four Seasons Florence

This year—the Serpentine’s 40th Anniversary—the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion is designed by world-renowned French architect Jean Nouvel. This 2010 Pavilion is the 10th commission in the Gallery’s annual series. The design for the 2010 Pavilion is a contrast of lightweight materials and dramatic metal cantilevered structures. The entire design is rendered in a vivid red that, in a play of opposites, contrasts with the green of its park setting. In London, the colour reflects the iconic British images of traditional telephone boxes, post boxes and London buses.
The building consists of bold geometric forms, large retractable awnings and a sloped freestanding wall that stands 12m above the lawn.

Body Worlds , the controversial traveling exhibition of preserved human bodies and body parts that are prepared using a technique called plastination to reveal inner anatomical structures is in Istanbul.  The exhibition’s developer and promoter is German anatomist Gunther von Hagens, who invented the plastination technique in the late 1970s at the University of Heidelberg. The skinless bodies are not positioned to stand soberly in display cases — but rather, they run, jump, and play instruments. They’re positioned in mid-motion, smiling or grimacing.

Torre Saracena is a bathing establishment opened in 1906 on the bay of Marina Piccola.  In its restaurant guests eat on verandas and terraces looking to fabulous views of the sea and the Faraglioni of Capri.
The menus, in which the freshest local fish is always the major protagonist, are created by Chef Domenico Guarracino, who  interprets Capri’s culinary tradition. You should not leave without tasting Guarracino’s legendary pezzogna all’aqua pazza and  his fish soup with scorpion fish and cherry tomatoes. The restaurant is open for lunch from April to October.

Internationally renowned for his intense video-installations featuring multiple screens and suspended between fiction and document, Kutlug Ataman and his art explores the complex nature of personal and collective identity, giving rise to portraits of great intimacy while at the same time also tackling broader social themes.

In Mesopotamian Dramaturgies, Ataman’s most ambitious project to date and presented in its entirety for the first time at MAXXI, Rome the theme of the construction of identity invests an entire geographical area, that middle ground between East and West that Turkey represents particularly well. The eight works – films, video installations and photographs – that constitute the cycle reveal the tension, the effort, the contradiction and the results of the meeting of two worlds, from the thrust towards modernity to the persistence of tradition.

Make a reservation at Palafitte

Palafitte is unique because it is the only five star hotel in Europe built on water, located on the lake of Neuchâtel.

The Hôtel Palafitte was built as a temporary structure for Expo 02, a Swiss exhibition that took place in 2002. It was financed by the Sandoz Family Foundation and designed by architect Kurt Hoffman. The goal was to create a state-of-the-art, 21st Century hotel using “sustainable architecture” that would allow the hotel’s components to be rebuilt or recycled after Expo.02. In the end, the hotel was such a hit that the Swiss government granted permission for it to stay open despite laws that normally forbid structures over public lakes.
Besides having an aquatic setting, the Hôtel Palafitte makes use of environmentally friendly features such as solar panels for hot water and electricity, heating with biogas from kitchen waste, and rainwater collection for toilet flushing.

The Palafitte has  forty luxury pavilions with breathtaking views of the lake and the Alps, twenty four of them are built directly on the lake. Each pavilion is 68m2 and is equipped with private terrace, with direct access to the lake. The ‘Le Colvert’ restaurant invites you on a marvelous culinary journey whilst ‘Le Bar’ is an elegant and cosy area where intimate conversations take over in a magic atmosphere around the fire.
For a Maldive-type experience on a Swiss lake…

Make a reservation at Palafitte

Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary celebrates Istanbul’s art program in the framework of European Capital of Culture 2010 with the sonic pavilion The Morning Line by Matthew Ritchie with Aranda\Lasch and Arup AGU in an amazing location:  at famous Eminönü Square just in front of the Spice Bazar…
The Morning Line – an impressive 8 meter high and 20 meter long pavilion, built of 17 tons of black coated aluminum – explores the disciplinary interplays between art, architecture, music, mathematics, cosmology, and science.

Make a reservation at Mystique

Santorini is one of the most romantic places in the world with its unique landscape and great views.  In Santorini nothing has much changed in the last 15 years, which is good and bad at the same time. You find the places, restaurants, beaches you visited before  exactly the same but the service and comfort you are expecting from a hotel has changed in 15 years. Finding a hotel that matches your expectations is not easy on this island except Mystique, that’s why it is The hotel in Santorini.

Mystique, is the latest addition to the Starwood Luxury Collection, located in Santorini, Greece. It is not only a stylish luxury boutique hotel but it also has the most exquisite setting on this island. Mystique is in the village of Oia, the most beautiful village of Santorini with most famous cliffs and sunsets  and dazzling views of clear blue equatorial waters towards the volcano and the Aegean Caldera.

Santorini island-style architecture of the hotel preserves the nature in a climate of unabashed luxury built in the beautiful scenery. The hotel’s unique cave-like interiors provide a genuinely romantic, cozy environment, for the many honeymoon couples that stay on Santorini. It features 18 villas, carved into the cliff, with panoramic private terraces and unrivaled views of  the ocean. The suites combine tradition with modern conveniences.
Mystique’s facilities include an outdoor infinity pool at the cliff’s edge, the Charisma gourmet restaurant, the poolside Aura bar which are perfect for a wedding ceremony.�
Hotels Secret Wine Cave has a dramatic 150 year old wine cellar, with a rare and local wine selection.

Sunsets are the perfect timing to experience this beautiful and romantic hotel..

Make a reservation at Mystique

Make a reservation at Cavo Tagoo

Nestled into a cliffside, minutes from Mykonos Town,  Cavo Tagoo blends magically with its surroundings. The soft curves of the white buildings, the pebbles that cover the roofs, the wood that has been utilized with supreme skill, the stone, and bamboo; the hotel is infused with Nature.

The water element embraces all the Cavo Tagoo structures; the eye balances on the pool’s water level which creates a second horizon across the expanse of the sea. The interior design is a  combination of traditional rustic elements, with modern minimalist purity.

The hotel has 80 individually decorated and designed rooms and suites, each in a subtle blue, rose, or fuchsia, always enjoying boundless blue views. Some of them  have Jacuzzi tubs and private pools. .

Make a reservation at Cavo Tagoo

Make a reservation at Mandarin Barcelona
Located on Passeig de Gràcia, at the center of the city’s commercial and entertainment district, Mandarin Oriental, Barcelona opened its doors in 2009 as the group’s first hotel in Southern Europe.

Housed in the re-development of an elegant mid-20th Century building, Mandarin Oriental, has 98 rooms and suites. The hotel offers stylized and spectacularly creative interiors by internationally renowned Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola.

Each of its  guest rooms and exquisitely designed suites have contemporary design which incorporate subtle reflections of the Group’s oriental heritage. Views are either over Barcelona’s most stylish boulevard, Passeig de Gràcia or the hotel’s landscaped interior garden. A number of guestrooms have a balcony or terrace.

The hotel has one of the most stylish spas of Europe.

Make a reservation at Mandarin Barcelona

Make a reservation at Sirenuse

Le Sirenuse, a luxurious 18th-century Villa is in Positano on the Italian Amalfi Coast. The hotel  opened in 1951, when the Sersale family decided to turn their summer house in Positano into a small elegant . Fifty years later the hotel has 62 rooms with all the comforts of a five star luxury hotel without losing the atmosphere of a family home. The Sersale family still owns and manages the hotel with that special touch.
Sirenuse is on top of a  hillside over the town of Positano overlooking the blue sea and the Island of the Sirens
Most rooms have their own balcony or terrace, decorated in a subtle, comfortable style with antiques collected over the years by the family. Plants, flowers, tiles, white walls and big windows give the hotel a wonderfully bright and natural feeling,  From the terrace, or the swimming pool the town of Positano and the harbour are breathtaking.

Make a reservation at Sirenuse

Galerie BSL  in the Marais is a place that aims at making over the codes of the genre. Exclusive one-off pieces, limited series, creation in design, jewelery and fashion…

The on-site architecture by Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance breaks with the international white cube standard for art galleries – a model that may suit contemporary artworks but does not cover the needs of a design
gallery. This structure becomes the founding statement in the gallery’s space: an object for displaying other objects. A shell that is showcase and cocoon, built to enhance the most advanced design projects of today and other rare pieces or exclusive commissions: 20th c. lighting, contemporary and vintage jewelery, fashion creations.

Make a reservation at JK Capri

Almost opposite the former Hotel Grotte Bleue, is located the JK Capri, once called Hotel Continental, managed by Giuseppe Maldacena 13th. The first plant of the Hotel Continental was a private house named Villa Bovaro, which was built before 1878 and turned into a hotel before 1885

The hotel is situated in the island of Capri, near the Marina Grande, the main harbor. It is reachable from Naples harbor by hydrofoil in about 45 minutes.In the late ‘80s, during the renovation works carried out at the Hotel Métropole, which has been renamed Hotel Palatium since that period, some important fragments and archaeological finds dating back to the Roman time were found. In fact the building is located on some Roman cisterns and on the first stretch of a road taking to the harbor, always dating back to the Roman period, which lies just below the hotel.

The JK Capri features interiors by Michele Bonan classic, urbane,  in soft pastels and patterned wallpapers. Some rooms have small balconies facing the sea,.

JK Place is one of the only hotels in Capri that’s right on the ocean, on a cliff overlooking the harbor.

Make a reservation at JK Capri

Make a reservation at Villa d”‘Este

Set on the shores of Lake Como, Villa d’Este was built in 1568 as the summer residence of Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio. The property has 25 acres of gardens, whose statues and landscape have been photographed for centuries. The design of the lower part of the gardens is from the Renaissance period. The two most outstanding landmarks are the 500 year old plane tree and the 16th century Mosaic with its Nympheum

The favourite playground of an Empress, an English queen and aristocrats,  it was transformed into a luxury hotel in 1873.

Continuously renovated and updated, today  the legendary resort has  152 rooms, all different in decor.  The main house built in 1568 and known as the Cardinal’s building counts 125 rooms while the trompe l’oeil masterpiece known as the Queen’s Pavilion, inaugurated in 1860 has 27 rooms. In 1873 the two Villas combined into one property became Villa d’EsteVilla Malakoff and Villa Cima are available for short term tenancies with services ranging from housekeeping to full private butler and chef service.

A beautiful 18-hole golf  course  winds its way through chestnut, ash and pine trees sheltering golfers even from the intense summer heat.

Make a reservation at Villa d”‘Este

Make a reservation at Katikies

Perched on the Caldera cliffs, 300 feet above the azure waters of the Aegean, Katikies The Hotel in Oia Santorini had many great characteristics. Awe inspiring Caldera views, beautiful  Santorini sunsets and perfectly manicured pink bougainvilleas provide the magnificent backdrop for this hotel that spills down the cliffs of the magical Caldera.

With a history as spectacular as its free form fantasy architectural formation of stairs, bridges, cubist cottages, infinity pools and Caldera views, Katikies rooms  are both pristine and welcoming where magical private terraces hover over the most unforgettable of views. Infinity pools with caldera views that continue down into the azure waters of the Aegean Sea. Cascading down the rim of the Caldera, each of the 27 Santorini rooms and Oia suites provide luxury accommodation and personalized hotel services. If you are on honeymoon, stay in the particular Honeymoon suite with white curtains billowing seductively with sweet sea breezes for a great romance.

Make a reservation at Katikies

Make a reservation at Capri Palace

Set in Anacapri, the most exclusive and unspoiled part of the island, Capri Palace Hotel & Spa offers breathtaking views over the Bay of Naples and the islands of Ischia and Procida. A recent refurbishment program has lent the hotel the classical grace of an ancient palazzo caprese. Columns, arches, and vaulted ceilings blend appealingly with Louis XVI period furniture.

With its imposing arches, vaults and columns, the hotel reminds the ancient Neapolitan palaces of the 18th Century, together with the white architectures typical of the Mediterranean sea.
The design of the suites, some of them with private swimming pool, brings your mind back to the charm and glamour of the myths: Callas, Hepburn, Monroe,  In the others, paintings and pictures are a tribute to the experimental art of the Great Masters of Modern Art: Kandinsky, Mirò, Mondrian, Calder.

The L’Olivo restaurant, the only restaurant on Capri which boasts a Michelin star, serves Mediterranean cuisine interpreted with great originality by brilliant young chef Oliver Glowig.

Make a reservation at Capri Palace

Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960 –1988) was one of the most fascinating and controversial personalities in the art world. After starting on the New York underground scene as a graffiti sprayer, musician and actor, he began to devote himself to painting at nineteen. His highly expressive, energetic work soon found wide admiration. Supported by Andy Warhol, he advanced to become an internationally acclaimed star.  In the space of only eight years, he created an extensive oeuvre of about 1000 paintings and 2000 drawings before his tragic death at the age of only twenty-seven. To mark his fiftieth birthday, the Fondation Beyeler is devoting a large retrospective to Jean-Michel Basquiat, comprising more than 100 paintings, works on paper, and objects from renowned museums and private collections around the world.

Vitra Haus designed byJacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron is the new home of Vitra’s Home Collection. The  five-storey structure is built of 12 ‘houses’ – five houses are at the base and seven other houses are stacked upon one another.

Aman Spa is inside The Connaught, one of London’s most legendary and historic hotels,  in fashionable Mayfair. The ambience is warm and welcoming, with an air of refreshing simplicity. The core of the Aman Spa’s menu at The Connaught is based on key treatments reflecting the renewing traditions of China, Thailand, India and the Americas.
The Aman Spa’s physical space at The Connaught is a blend of cool granite and white marble, warmed with timeless honey-gold oak and dove-grey Portland Stone – chosen for their intrinsic English appeal as well as for their enduring quality. The Aman Spa too bridges the old and new – combining wellness techniques rooted in ancient wisdom from around the globe with contemporary comfort and style.

MAXXI is the first National Museum of XXI Century Arts  devoted to the contemporary creativity. The Museum designed by Zaha Hadid Architects.The MAXXI design goes beyond the concept of the building-museum. The complexity of the volumes, the curving walls, the variations and intersections of the levels determine a very rich spatial and functional configuration that visitors may pass through via ever different and unexpected routes. Multiple environments coexist in a sequence of galleries illuminated with natural light filtered via a special roof system.