TALES OF LOVE | The Sunday Edit

"I choose such notes that love one another..."

I had promised myself that the V'tines and the tsunami of romantic newsletters, promotions and guilt trips into making you buy overpriced flowers, wouldn’t edge its way into this Sunday Edit. But hey, just did. 

They say the way to a man's heart (being politically correct, this should surely be a person's heart) is through his (their) stomach - anyway, we found a duo that has set the Dutch capital alight with Michelin stars. Talking of gender and stars, we head to Barcelona this spring for a cultural jam of three venues and a roster of phenomenal performers, opera singers and conductors: Verdi's Macbeth, The Seven Deaths of Maria Callas and Alexina B - a unique opera about an intersex person born in France in 1838. 

Saying it with flowers? Thousands of these magical bursts of sunshine headline our roundup of the best city centre botanical gardens - and there's a link to the ex-lawyer with the greenest fingers in Lisbon.  

If love takes time, the newly reopened Royal Museum of Fine Art (pictured in the header) in Antwerp must take the cherry on the cake. The doors are open again after a 10-year restoration and expansion plan by architects KAAN Architecten , and it is fabulous. 

Other hearts go to my love affair with gin, our oversized tote bags in convenient vert, we escape to the Azores, sleep with some oldies in Europe, and showcase a story of passion and restoration in southern Italy. 

So we can indeed celebrate love without mentioning next Tuesday the 14th (in case you forgot); inspired by the words of Mozart, above, this is our love letter to the good things in life, plus a few romantic hideaways should you feel the need to get all loved up, ❤️.

Hugs

Iain & Co