Rejuvenation and wine in Lombardy April 25, 2010 PLINY the Younger wrote his Tragedia and Comedia in a villa on Lake Como and the lake has continued to attract the best and the richest of society, from Madonna and George Clooney to Gianni Versace, Ronaldinho and Sylvester Stallone. Indeed, the lakes of the northern Italian region of Lombardy – the most famous being [...]
Pick up a slice of European history April 22, 2010 ANYONE buying a Continental holiday home has a choice to make – do you like cutting-edge design and built-to-spec polish, or do you like something steeped in history? A minimalist mansion on an Ibizan hillside is one thing (a very nice thing), but a rambling old farmhouse or converted medieval church comes with a romance [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS April 21, 2010 THORNTONS Execution Noble has downgraded its rating of Thorntons from “buy” to “sell”. It says the chocolate-maker wavered at the January trading update, when the store sales trend was weaker than expected. It warns that earnings are likely to be volatile making it hard to support a positive investment case. THE RESTAURANT GROUP Seymour Pierce [...]
Blanc goes bland in the Square Mile April 19, 2010 Brasserie Blanc 60 Threadneedle Street, EC2R 8HP Tel: 020 7710 9441 Cost per person without wine: £26 IT has the name Raymond Blanc attached, but don’t be thinking Brasserie Blanc has anything to do with the French celebrity chef’s haute cuisine flagship, Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons in Oxfordshire. Brasserie Blanc is a chain of [...]
For babymooners, Brown’s is best April 18, 2010 WHEN I told people that my wife was expecting our first child, a lot of the men who already have kids did this laugh, a sort of bark that seemed to be at once ironic, sardonic and to suggest “you poor, poor fool, you don’t know what you are letting yourself into. No, really, you [...]
Ronson tops out the City’s Heron Tower April 12, 2010 HERON Tower, the tallest building in the City of London, was yesterday “topped out” at a ceremony held by the developer Heron International and construction firm Skanska. The 46-storey development, near Liverpool Street Station, is to be completed in February next year and will add 40,836 square metres of commercial office space to the London [...]
How the thirst for a good English cuppa led to a global travel empire April 12, 2010 IF, when staying in a ski chalet, your day has ever started with being brought a cup of tea in bed, you have Andrew Dunn to thank for it. It may seem a simple enough touch of hospitality, and the sort of thing that’s par for the course nowadays in chalets of a certain level, [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING April 11, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES TOTAL CHIEF STILL KEEN ON UAE DESPITE SETBACKS Total, the French oil company, is looking to invest in the United Arab Emirates’ nuclear industry despite having been part of a consortium that lost the $20.4bn contract to build the country’s reactors. The loss to a Korean consortium, led by Korea Electric Power Corp [...]
In the summer Switzerland’s mountains burst into life April 11, 2010 I’VE been skiing just once, when I was 11. My chief memories are of floundering in a snowdrift as my Austrian instructor sped off cursing my inability to stay upright, and the fact that by the end of the week I still hadn’t even mastered the snowplough. It really wasn’t for me. Since then, the [...]
BAILOUT CHIEFS FACE HOLLYWOOD PARADE April 8, 2010 HERE’S betting that the key players in the downfall and rescue of the US banking system never believed they’d have it so good. After countless sleepless nights and stress-soaked days, it’s probably fair to say that policymakers and bank bosses weren’t looking their best when they emerged, battered and bruised, on the other side of [...]