I haven’t the foggiest idea what sort of mental malady you’re suffering, but I do have the cure

Take one of these and call me in the morning.

Ah, but you’ll need to hang around until September for this one, so dip into some of the vintage stock whilst you wait. A little older, but no less effective.

Cheerio.

A place I saw in my dreams, to which my heart longs to return

Writing in National Geographic, Cathy Newman once poetically described a certain Italian city as “neither land nor water, but shimmering somewhere in between”. A place where “time is measured by the breath of tides, and space bracketed by water”.

I’ve been to the real city, and I’ve been to its fictional counterpart. In the years that have passed since those visits, I’ve longed to return to both.

If one speaks of the city in our own world, it may be a while before I can once more glide through the canals and walk along the streets of that heart-achingly beautiful place…

…but where its imaginary sister is concerned, I may soon get my chance.

In search of the real Neo Venezia

Diego’s off to the land of undines, feline executives, and golden sunsets for a much-needed half-month round of rest and recuperation.

Not that I’m expecting to find any actual undines, feline executives, or (in this rather chilly season) golden sunsets. No matter – what this sublimely beautiful country does have to offer will no doubt be well worth the long journey.

Assuming the transport strikes and gladiatorial politics don’t mess things up too badly, that is.

Cheerio.

I left my heart in Neo Venezia

For much of the past week, I felt as if I were sitting alone in a boat without oars, left to the mercy of a storm-tossed sea. The next week, and possibly the one after that, might be just as difficult. It’s in times like these that I find myself in the greatest need of a little solace from the trials of life: an opportunity, however brief, to retire from struggling against the current, and to simply drift along with nothing but pleasant vistas before my eyes and healing notes in my ears.

Luckily, I know a few lovely ladies who were only too happy to take me for a relaxing afternoon row through some much calmer waters.