How to Travel Light
It was my grandmother’s habit to drag her suitcases from storage at least three weeks before any trip, plotting and planning which beaded jacket to take with which cocktail dress, how many sheets of tissue paper she’d need to layer her knits, which swimsuit went with which sunhat. You can’t go anywhere without a cocktail dress – not even the beach – because you never know, you see, who might be there and where they might invite you. Call it ready for anything. Call it super-organised. Call it neurotic. Whatever. I inherited this gene.
A Posh Pad in Shanghai
We do not travel, of course, to experience the familiar. That said, there is something comforting about bunking down in a thoroughly modern pied a terre when visiting a city as crazily confusing, polluted and exasperating as Shanghai can be. The Philippe Starck designed JIA Shanghai hotel, housed in a converted downtown art deco building, is just that.
Flirting With Rome
In Rome on business recently I discovered a wonderful truth. There, all the men flirt with all the women all the time. Flirting is a national pastime, without an age limit, one marinated in good humour and class. Italian men don’t ogle, they smile and chat and make women feel beautiful.