John Gasson falls in love with Italy’s blissful, rustic Aeolian Islands, from the fertile soils of Panarea, through to Lipari, the largest of the archipelago, and onto Salina.

Faith Ryan sinks her toes into aged rugs, searches out invisible switches and considers moving out to a vintage caravan for the summer.

The shops are filled with Mother’s Day beauty gift-sets this month but why plump for a predictable present?

ON ONE hand, there are the (in Damascus, largely invisible) activists who are trying to bring down Bashar al Assad.

WALKING around the west Limerick town of Newcastle West, there are two things that strike you— firstly, what a beautifully designed old fortress town it is and, secondly, just how can such a small population sustain an elite interiors shop like Objekt Design Space?