Places
For centuries, the name Solingen has appeared on objects designed to do two rather different things: kill people and prepare their dinner. Medieval swords,…
6 min read
Places
Walk through Toledo and sooner or later you will encounter a sword. Usually sooner. They hang in shop windows beside suits of armour, medieval…
7 min read
Places
Ceuta looks like the sort of place created during a particularly competitive evening of mapmaking. It sits on the North African coast, shares a…
7 min read
History
Picture the Great Wall of China and your mind probably creates a familiar image. You see one enormous stone ribbon winding across misty mountains.…
8 min read
Places
Everyone has a mate who’s been to Mallorca. They come back with a tan, a bottle of Hierbas, and the same story: “Oh, it’s…
5 min read
Places
Rome rarely names a street after something flattering. It prefers saints, emperors, martyrs, or at least a respectable family with a coat of arms.…
7 min read
Culture
Rome does not whisper about power. Instead, it plants it in the ground in 300-tonne chunks of granite and builds traffic around it. You…
8 min read
Culture
Marrakech does not announce its cats. Instead, they appear gradually. One sleeps on a warm step before the doorway registers. Another, meanwhile, watches from…
6 min read
Business & Economy
The idea sounds like a joke someone tells after their second glass of wine. A house in Italy for one euro. Stone walls, a…
6 min read
Places
It happened quietly and loudly at the same time. Quietly, because most people were distracted by domestic noise, budgets, rail strikes, and the endless…
7 min read
