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See
below for the latest
Reviews
(August 2010)
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RUSSIA If you have ever hesitated – as, I confess, I have hesitated – about visiting Russia, I have good news for you. Gentle reader, you and I both know that one of the very best reasons for going anywhere is the presence of a really, really good hotel. I mean not just any old (or new) five-star hotel, for there are plenty of those which fail to please the ranks of the discerning to which we belong. No, I mean the sort of establishment which combines style and elegance with faultless service and unashamed luxury, and which – whenever we recall our stay – brings a smile to our lips, because so many extra miles have been run to ensure our absolute contentment. Allow me therefore to introduce you to one of the Great Hotels. It is in the glorious city of St Petersburg and it has provided me with one of the most enjoyable hotel visits of my life. It is The Grand Hotel Europe. |
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ITALY “An oasis of perfection next to the sea.” Those words really do sum up La Posta Vecchia, surely one of the loveliest hotels in Italy. Driving to it in the hire car after my flight (the Leonardo da Vinci is the nearer of Rome’s two airports), I was deeply unimpressed by the surrounding area, which is more suburban than I had anticipated. But once I turned through the electric gates of La Posta Vecchia, I entered a different world – a world of manicured lawns and coiffured palm trees, a retreat where marble busts of Roman emperors gaze at swaying drapes of the finest silk damask. I stepped into the main entrance and looked straight through the building to the Mediterranean. The motor was taken away and I felt that I had found my Italian home. |
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RUSSIA As long as you can cope with the two unpleasant aspects of a trip to St Petersburg – the tedious and time-consuming business of obtaining a visa and the hellish battle to get through the airport when you leave – the city offers boundless joys of the most civilized kind. We all know of The Hermitage, of course (ah, those Impressionists, at the memory of which I can still sigh), but there are a hundred other palaces besides the Winter one, all slotted in carefully by the canals and the parks. We should, truly, all visit this place, for it is one of the great cities of Europe. And a stay at the Hotel Astoria is pretty good, too. It is one of Rocco Forte’s hotels and therefore, as you would expect, its location is splendid: in St Isaac’s Square, overlooking the eponymous cathedral. |
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