With a passion for fashion, traveling with just a backpack never appealed to me before 2022. There were always too many things I wanted to pack.
30.07.2024 - 15:25 / insider.com
In October 2022, I traveled around Italy and Switzerland by train and tried business and first-class cars in hopes of having luxurious, comfortable travel experiences.
First, I took a 4-hour business-class train from Venice to Rome, which covers 327 miles.
A few days later, I rode in first class on a 3.5-hour train from Milan to Zürich, which is about 135 miles.
I booked both trains through Trenitalia, Italy's largest operator that runs several fleets. The trains provided varying experiences for premium classes like business and first. Here's how they compared.
With a passion for fashion, traveling with just a backpack never appealed to me before 2022. There were always too many things I wanted to pack.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Candice Gallagher, a 38-year-old British marketer and content creator . It has been edited for length and clarity.
All-business-class carriers are among the rarest airline strategies in operation — and that's because they historically don't work.
Europe's scorching hot summer is showing no signs of cooling down, with Italy facing its warmest weekend of the year so far and heatwave warnings issued in southern France.
I wouldn't be surprised if you've never heard of the airline Beond.
Offering business class flights at a fraction of the cost, this airline says it’s creating a new niche in luxury travel.
Amid the cafes and boutiques of Athens’s Kolonaki neighborhood is a housewares shop that’s also a showcase for Greek craftsmanship. It’s the first brick-and-mortar location for Crini & Sophia, the brand that the former interior and set designer Maya Zafeiropoulou-Martinou founded in 2022. Its wood-and-rattan shelves, two-tone marble floors and furniture are all made by Greek artists, while one window is decorated with a vinelike steel and spray-paint piece by the Cypriot sculptor Socrates Socratous. The shop’s goods are designed by Zafeiropoulou-Martinou, whose inspirations include the colors in Francis Bacon paintings and the Amazon rainforest. Linens are produced in Portugal before being embroidered in Greece with patterns that often take cues from antiques on view at Athens’s Benaki Museum. Hand-painted ceramics and glassware are made in partnership with artisans in New York, Greece, Italy and France. When it comes to designing your own table, Zafeiropoulou-Martinou encourages layering. “The pattern isn’t just the plate or the tablecloth,” she says of her pieces, “but a puzzle of the two on top of each other.”
Digitally controlled dividers, 4K TVs and AI cabin crew: Qatar Airways’ recently unveiled Next Gen suites are taking business class flying to tech-fuelled new heights.
Get ready to go long with Holland America in the Mediterranean.
Jul 30, 2024 • 8 min read
Jul 29, 2024 • 7 min read
In Tuscany, the Val d’Orcia, with its rolling fields and untouched landscape beneath the dormant volcano of Monte Amiata, seems created for photo ops. Within it, the town of Pienza is one of the finest examples of Renaissance architecture, designed by the famed Bernardo Gambarelli, better known as Bernardo Rossellino, in white travertine marble and surrounded by palazzi which he also built.