There's a big wide world out there…..

Fortress town on Lake Garda For those planning their first trip to Lake Garda I would recommend starting with visiting Peschiera. The town is conveniently located on the main train line from Milan to Venice, it's a stop on the fast train the Freccia Rossa. It's also not far from Verona airport, there's a direct local bus from the airport to the Peschiera train station. Peschiera is situated on an island surrounded by the lake and the river Mincio. This location was perfect for a fortress town as the entry and exit points were controlled. The fortress walls that are there now date back to the 16th century and were built by the Venetians. It's possible to walk along the walls, the historic centre is quite small, with the town spilling out to the areas right next to the lake. Peschiera was an important location for the Venetians as they could navigate from Lake Garda, then along the Mincio and Po rivers all the way to the Adriatic Sea. By the beginning of the 19th centur...

Revoltella Museum Trieste Italy

Fantastic Art Museum The Revoltella Civic Museum can be found in Trieste, the building and its contents were bequeathed to the city of Trieste by Baron Pasquale Revoltella. Pasquale Revoltella came from humble beginnings, he was the son of a butcher who moved the family to Trieste, then a major trading port, when Pasquale was 2 years old. Pasquale's father died when Pasquale was 13 years old and he went to work to support his family. He was the epitome of the self-made man. He built his fortune bit by bit, invested wisely and reached the heights of the vice president of the Suez Canal Universal company and received the title of Baron from the Austrian Emperor. (Trieste was at the time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.) Revoltella never married and had no heirs so he bequeathed his winter home, for it to become a museum, and his summer home, it's now a public park with his Swiss Chalet home, further out of the city, along with money to fund his museum and add to his a...

Carrick Hill, Adelaide

Looking inside the house The Carrick Hill house and gardens had been closed for a few months with some work happening inside the house and I was curious to see what had changed. The house itself isn't that old, having been built in 1937 to 39, it's what inside the house that makes it historically interesting. The young couple Edward and Ursula Hayward were given the land as a wedding present and then travelled to the UK for a year long honeymoon. It was during their time there they attended a salvage sale of a stately home. Beaudesert House was owned by the Marquess of Anglesey, it had been a Tudor mansion. The house was set to be demolished as the Depression had left the family with huge depts and the house was uneconomical to run. In July 1935 the Haywards had bought the windows, doors, fireplaces, oak panelling and the staircase. It was then all shipped back to Adelaide and an architect who was a family friend set about designing the house around these items, the h...

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