Italy

Italy is where most of our journeys begin, and where the difference between visiting and travelling well is at its most visible. Rome and Florence reward a guide who knows which hour a room falls quiet; the Amalfi Coast rewards a boat that leaves twenty minutes before everyone else's.

We tend to build Italy around one simple rule: fewer bases, held longer. A sea-view suite above Positano, a countryside estate in the Val d'Orcia, a city address worth returning to at dusk. Then days shaped around long lunches, quiet museums and the occasional deliberately empty afternoon.