Anita claims that to stay at Freiform is to meet Niemeyer—not in flesh, but in spirit. She is right. Because Freiform embodies free and sensual curves, inspired by the surrounding mountains, the relief of the slope, or a female silhouette. It’s about elbows and knees,…

Enrico Mattei had a knack for making enemies—powerful enemies. It got him killed. His rise from humble beginnings to one of Italy’s most influential post-war figures was meteoric and contentious. Mattei was a man of contradictions: a shrewd industrialist with utopian ideals, a corporate…

The fog that rises from the Tamar River down beyond the lawn is no match for the autumn sun up the hill and leaves the grass silvery wet with dew. In the distance, a pheasant clucks and flies off. You hear its wings flapping. A woman and her dog were there before you this morning. Her…

"Fabio!" Vito yelled. He was leaning against one of the sliding doors of the vaporetto, all agitated. But Fabio was slumped in his green plastic bucket seat, his head tilted to the left and teetering with the waves that crashed against the boat's black hull.

We love Milan. It's one of our favorite cities in the world. Our love affair started about two decades ago. But, oh my God, did we hate the city before that. Nothing is less memorable than arriving in Milan on a cold, rainy day. If you arrive by car, as we often do, you'll invariably find yourself navigating the claustrophobic exits...

Raked to the perfection of a zen garden, the gravel parking lot was covered with bamboo reed shades that let just enough sunlight through to make it look like a giant sheet of squared paper. The plants had been watered, and even though autumn was approaching, there wasn't a single dry leaf around. There was no trace of...

Some people know what their lives will be like. From their earliest childhood, they want to become dentists, pilots, teachers, or lawyers. They devote their very existence to accomplishing just such an objective. We've never felt like that; we had no idea what we wanted, but we were sure that life for us would...

I don't have many regrets. An opportunity arises that requires an immediate decision. You don't give it much thought; you decide, and it ends up amiss. C'est la vie. But there is one decision that I have regretted all my life. It was in the mid-nineties in New York, on a layover from New Zealand. When you...

It always gets worse before it gets better. Like the other places we arrived in, we drove through the outskirts rapidly. We kept going where we saw tourists flock together. And floored the accelerator when we noticed a hen party cackle and cluck. We drove until the streets became quiet again...

I think that Babette has a crush on me. I've known her since she was a pup. Now she's grown up. It's pretty obvious. Being a Dachshund, she wasn't exactly at the front of the queue when the innuendos were distributed. She's a tad overweight too. When…

It's in unexpected places like these that journeys end and begin anew—places I never planned to arrive at. On country borders, at highway intersections, or somewhere random and utterly by chance or even mistake. I reached them mostly after dark on quiet roads with empty sidewalks. Shutters were drawn for the night.

They stood out like a sore thumb. Both were dressed identically: Converse sneakers, blue jeans, tailor-made white shirts, and a gray cashmere sweater that hung over their shoulders. And as if that weren't enough, they were the only Europeans on board the 5 p.m. ferry that arrived at the port of Takamatsu.

The one time I set eyes on Philippe Starck, he was fondling the breasts of his girlfriend.

At least that’s what I think. That she was his girlfriend, I mean. I have no doubt that he was fondling her breasts. I'm not that shortsighted. She wasn't exactly flat-chested either.

"Merde! Vous me faites chier avec vos olympiques." She stood about 20 centimeters away from the policeman with her feet slightly apart in expensive low-heeled pumps. In attack mode. Her face was flushed with anger. Like a topographic map, a taupe mauve contour …

I've been thinking again. You may have your doubts about the intellectual capacities of canines like me. But keep in mind that we observe you humans every moment of the day. Sharply. So hear me out. You humans are peculiar creatures. You think of …

If it weren't for the rhythmic thumps of the tires on the expansion joints of the concrete bridge crossing the Amelia River, I might have felt like an explorer heading into new territory. But soon enough, I realized that I was just following the cars in front of me and…

I'm a lousy singer. Can't dance either. I don't connect with music. Once—at a nightclub in Ibiza I'd been dragged into—someone asked me if I was the manager. That's painful. A night on the town with me is as lively as watching cacti grow.

"This comes with two sides," he said. I looked at him sheepishly. I was ordering the beef brisket. From the pit, barbecued for hours until the meat gets so tender that it falls apart. Smoky protein, as soft and delicate as a ripe peach,…

It took longer than I had expected; Manhattan needed nearly three weeks to fully recognize my cachet. Doormen have a sixth sense for incognito celebs like me. They were the first to notice, even when I squinted in the morning sun because the gold stripes on the sleeves of…

Driving in Florida is as dull as dishwater. To make the ride more interesting, I floor the accelerator of the huge brick-like rental at every traffic light until I reach 35 mph, then abruptly lift off. The car jerks and rocks. I can do this twice before my wife starts to grumble and my dog turns towards me…