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Below the Grace Hotel is Stuvetta Moritz, where the menu is an ode to Swiss comfort – Engadiner cheese fondue, rösti and Zürcher Geschnetzeltes refined

We visit the coolest fondue spot in St Moritz – and enjoy some healthy options and a great vibe

Waltz into The Grace, the first new five star hotel in St Moritz since the time the dinosaurs ruled the Earth, or at least since they ruled the Cresta Run down the road, skip downstairs from the contemporary Alp-chic lobby and you enter the 1980s chalet-style Stuvetta Moritz.

In December 2024, Stüvetta Moritz was redesigned by the Berlin-based interior designer Fabian Freytag

A fondue restaurant with a modern twist in the shape of its cool dude-and-chick clientele, music and vibe, Stuvetta also has a useful cocktail list and a menu refreshing for its selection of lighter offerings as well as the usual full-nuclear Swiss fondue.

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We started with a poached egg from nearby Poschiavo with some delicious grated truffle, and a plate of local deer carpaccio with baby spinach, cranberry and truffle dressing.

Swiss traditions meet contemporary twists at Stuvetta Moritz, and fondue meets more than just bread in their signature Fish Fondue

For the main, you can choose a fish fondue – salmon, seabass, prawns, or kingfish – but we chose to share another healthy option: fondue of beef fillet and chicken breast.

Read more: Megu, Gstaad review

Both were beautifully lean, and we cooked them ourselves in bouillon served with a host of home-made sauces. A protein fondue with broth – a far cry from the gorgeous but less wellness-orientated cheese and bread tradition (which did look incredibly tempting).

Stuvetta Moritz offers a cosy meal alongside views of Lake St Moritz

Wines from the nearby Bündner Herrschaft, Switzerland’s best kept wine secret, complimented. The vibe, even in summer, was fun.

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Tetsujiro Ogata at Megu, the head chef of the top Asian restaurant in Switzerland and home to the country’s largest sake collection

Haute cuisine in the high Alps: anyone passing through Gstaad this summer had the choice of not one but two culinary legends next to each other on one of the most scenic terraces in Europe, with a contemporary cool vibe unmatched anywhere else in the mountains

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The crispy green asparagus crumbed with kaki no tane and lemon. That’s what lingers in the memory from Megu. And that’s despite an array of superstar dishes that came afterwards, each at the pinnacle of the culinary experience.

‘Many Japanese restaurants in Europe have the quality of cuisine but not the vibe; Megu has both’

But the asparagus… First, there was the asparagus itself, which tasted as if it had been lovingly hand-reared in one of the impossibly green meadows rising up the mountainsides all around. It tasted of chlorophyll and crunch, the essence of what the colour green should taste of. Then the crunchy crumbs surrounding it, nutty, dry, peppery, toasty, and with a hint of tartness. A dish for all times.

We were sitting outside on the terrace at Megu, Bossa Nova singer warbling away in the background, the green and blue mountain dusk turning to night as smells of the meadows rose up all around.

The impossibly elegant lobby of The Alpina Gstaad

This is a chi-chi and boutique Japanese restaurant in the impossibly contemporary elegant Alpina Gstaad hotel above Gstaad, in Switzerland. The vibe is chilled, fun, and of the highest level.

Read more: Il Salviatino, Savoy Florence and Portrait Florence review

The menu continued with delicate, delicious maki and nigiri – with the scallop and seabass standouts – and climaxed with silver cod marinated in saikyo miso. A more delicate, lightly savoury, almost herbal alternative to its more common black cod sister, this was Japanese cuisine at its most refined and enchanting. Many Japanese restaurants in Europe have the quality of cuisine but not the vibe; Megu has both.

The Sant Ambroeus pop up restaurant at the Alpina Gstaad, offering the highest-level Milanese cuisine amongst the Alps

The Alpina Gstaad has always sought to redefine cuisine and the dining experience in the Alps since it opened just over a decade ago. On the next terrace to us at Megu was Sant Ambroeus, a pop up of the Milanese legend, which has its outposts already in New York, the Hamptons, Palm Beach and Aspen. Sant Ambroeus (Alps edition) was rocking. And within the space of around 50 metres on a magical terrace that seems to float above the Gstaad countryside, The Alpina created a kind of culinary heaven.

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Grand Hotel La Cloche, considered the best hotel in Dijon, at night

Burgundy is at the top of the list for any discerning wine lover to visit, with its blend of history, scenery, rural charm, beautiful cities and some of the world’s greatest wines. Here we visit the best city hotel in Burgundy, and an authentic rural retreat amid the vines

Grand Hotel La Cloche Dijon review

It might seem strange to suggest that France, one of the most attractive destinations in the world for high-end tourism, is actually underrated. After all, who doesn’t rate Paris, the Cote d’Azur, or Mont Blanc. But France has an array of cities that for some reason have not quite reached the consciousness of the international luxury traveller.

The facade of the Grand Hotel La Cloche by MGallery

Dijon is an interesting case in point. On the one hand, it is the historic capital of Burgundy, and Burgundy is the most fashionable wine for ultra-high-net-worth collectors. So, the surrounding vineyard areas are not short of very wealthy visitors year-round.

Read more: An interview with Bas Van Kranen

But, unlike Beaune, Burgundy’s other wine city, Dijon is just outside the edge of the vineyard area, rather than at the centre of it (unlike Beaune, Dijon does not have its own vineyards) and perhaps not enough of the luxury wine tourists actually make time to visit the capital.

The dining salon in the style of Napoléon III cabaret

And that, we decided, as we strolled out of MGallery’s Grand Hotel La Cloche, was a great shame. The hotel is on the edge of Dijon’s old town, by a little park where families gather by the fountains and carousel; across the pedestrianised square, you walk under and arch and into an old town not just teeming with shops, churches and historical buildings, but a real sense of grandeur, as the home of the historical Dukes of Burgundy.

La Cloche is known to be the best hotel in town; from our room on the top floor, we looked out over the Cathedral and the city, over its rooftops to the long hillside of the Cites de Nuits, stretching along into the distance. Do a wine tour to Gevrey-Chambertin, come home to your room, and look back out to the vineyards you visited in the distance.

The Suite Montrachet in the Grand Hotel La Cloche Dijon

The room, in the rafters, was characterful and quiet, and the service at MGallery’s Grand Hotel La Cloche was of the top level; once when we found ourselves with no key, outside our door, one of the housekeepers we had gotten to know opened our door and then rushed downstairs for a duplicate key, without being asked.

Read more: Mont Cervin Palace and Beausite, Zermatt review

We had breakfast in the room each day because of the view, and everything was prepared to perfection: omelette with herbs, homemade pancakes and smoked salmon of far higher quality than served at most hotel breakfasts, along with fresh sourdough.

A gem of a hotel in a gem of a city.

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Ermitage de Corton, Burgundy review

There is nothing, we find, as attractive as sipping a glass of one of the world’s greatest wines in plain sight of the vineyard where it was grown, and then waking up in your hotel the next day with a view of the same vineyard. Particularly if that vineyard is Corton Charlemagne, the celebrated white wine that is spectacularly situated near the top of the hill of Corton, a distinctively shaped mini-mountain in the middle of the Burgundy region.

Read more: Binith Shah is creating the ultimate duvet with UMŌ Paris

The vineyard itself is something of an outlier: unlike the other great white Burgundies which are found south of Beaune around Puligny Montrachet and Meursault, Corton is located in the heart of a region otherwise dominated by celebrated red wines.

You can ponder all of this, and more, from the terrace of the Ermitage de Corton, situated amid fields and vineyards just outside the village of the same name at the base of the hill.

The Ermitage has the feel of an authentic country inn as you walk in, a restaurant on the right and a bar area on the left, with chairs and tables outside, all looking at the horizon of hills.

Arriving after a long journey, we didn’t have any appetite but enjoyed a couple of glasses of excellent white burgundy – not Corton Charlemagne as that would have been a little excessive as a welcome drink – in the bar along with some local artisan-sourced cold cuts.

Read more: The morning after the night before at St Moritz’s Dracula Club with Heinz E. Hunkeler

Our room was as memorable as it was delightful, spread over a bedroom area, a living area down some steps, and a huge terrace with views across the fields, away from the vineyards into the heart of rural France. It was utterly peaceful.

As well as the comfort, the location is pretty much unbeatable for anyone touring Burgundy. You are in the heart of the countryside: an easy cycle along the side roads to anywhere you like in wine paradise villages like Chambolle-Musigny or Morey St-Denis.

A word of advice: Burgundy is not like some of the more tourist-focused wine regions in the world where you can just turn up at a good winery and enjoy tasting. You need to make the effort to make your appointment well beforehand and plan your itinerary accordingly, much more so with the most celebrated names which are unlikely to welcome you anyway unless you have insider contacts.

Whoever you visit, make sure you come back for a little dinner with a view of the Hill of Corton at the Ermitage.

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An installation view of Light, curated by Angeliki Kim Perfetti, showing until 30 August at Hauser & Wirth St. Moritz

This summer, Hauser & Wirth St. Moritz presents Light, a luminous group exhibition curated by Angeliki Kim Perfetti, founder of DYNAMISK and LUX Contributing Editor. Inspired by her upbringing in Swedish Lapland, The glamorous, dynamic Perfetti – alongside the gallery’s luminescent Director Giorgia von Albertini – brings together works by Larry Bell, Frank Bowling, Martin Creed, Jenny Holzer, and Pipilotti Rist. The show demonstrates more evidence that St Moritz is cementing its place as one of Europe’s art hubs – unsurprising given the number of collectors in residence – and that summer in the Engadine is becoming as attractive as winter.

Curator Angeliki Kim-Perfetti at the opening of her exhibition Light

“When I was asked to curate an exhibition for Hauser & Wirth in St Moritz I returned to my personal past and my upbringing in the very North of the Swedish Lapland. Where everyday life is contrasted between the extreme light in summer and the long dark winters, with an occasional visit of the Northern light painting the sky in the most beautiful colours. Finding myself in the mountain village of St Moritz not only made me recall home, but also inspired me to reflect upon why I am so mesmerised by light.”

– Angeliki Kim Perfetti, curator of Light at Hauser & Wirth St Moritz

Jenny Holzer’s Live Music (2024) on display in the exhibition Light. Image courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth

A 2025 video installation by Pipilotti Rist titled Tine Refills the Oil. Image courtesy of the artist, Hauser & Wirth, and Luhring Augustine

Martin Ring’s 2015 DON’T WORRY in multicolour neon. Image courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Hauser & Wirth is in the heart of St Moritz opposite the Badrutt’s Palace Hotel

Larry Bell’s Open Box SS, made of sand and zinc laminated glass coated with stainless steel and titanium. Image courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Frank Bowling’s 1977 Untitled, made of acrylic and collage on canvas. Image courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth

The show will be on view at Hauser & Wirth St Moritz from 12 July to 30 August 2025

Huda Alkhamis-Kanoo, founder of the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation

Huda Alkhamis-Kanoo is the founder and Artistic Director of the Abu Dhabi Festival, and founder of the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation (ADMAF). An Emirati with a Saudi father and a Syrian mother, she was born in Beirut, educated in Paris and raised her family in Abu Dhabi with her husband, Mohamed Abdul Latif Kanoo, an artist and director of the Kanoo Group conglomerate. She is a driving force in the Abu Dhabi cultural scene. Here she speaks with LUX Leaders & Philanthropists Editor Samantha Welsh about mentoring artists and the next generation, and elevating the cultural scene in the UAE

Samantha Welsh: How has your background shaped your passion for the arts?

Huda Alkhamis-Kanoo: I was brought up in Beirut, a crossroads of cultures, where my father was one of Lebanon’s leading merchants.  We were raised to be curious, to value tolerance, and to embrace a cultural life that brings joy. My seven siblings were all into business and science but from early childhood I insisted on joining every school musical and dance production.

I was creative, and I think that’s a gift.

Ram Han, Room Type 02, 2018, to be exhibited in ‘Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits’

I was fascinated by the Arabic language and literature, calligraphy, and by writers and poets like Khalil Gibran. I was drawn to philosophy. To understand arts and culture was to try to process life itself, whether that be the horror of war through Picasso’s Guernica or the joy of love through Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro.

SW: Why do you focus on making a difference through the arts?

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HAK: I went away to the American College in Paris and that was an epiphany, a moment of total enlightenment. Museums, opera, theatre – the cultural life was an épanouissement and I blossomed. I studied History of Classical Music, but within the American College system all students also played an instrument except for me, so I wanted to drop this course. The professor dismissed the idea right away and encouraged me, saying: “Your essays show your understanding of the emotion behind the art, you listen, and you go beyond what is expected.” So I stayed and I am so glad because now I am truly pursuing my passion.

When I married and moved to the UAE, I did not make a conscious decision to get involved in arts philanthropy; I just saw things around me that were missing. Within the state educational system, whether school or university, liberal arts as a whole – including music – were not offered at a deep level.

I felt strongly that while I had had that privilege to study the arts, most young people did not. UNESCO’s Article 19, within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, holds that all people have a right to learn, create, and have access to all liberal arts. So here I was, in Abu Dhabi, married with three children, and I had identified a need and realised I could make a difference.

Read more: Ronnie Kessel’s insider guide to St Moritz

SW: How did you get started?

HAK: In 1996, I began working among communities on the ground to help fill noticeable gaps in arts education. I visited state schools where children did not learn an instrument and where no concerts or plays were put on. We started with no governance, just a set-up in my backyard with me covering the costs.

I would invite university students from Zayed University, along with their professors and families, and we would sit in small circles with the community, sharing our knowledge and experience. I soon realised my approach needed to become more proactive and strategic to have impact.

SW: What was your approach?

HAK: I was purpose-driven because when you work closely with communities it is important to create opportunities by building connections. If people don’t believe in what you are doing, it is unlikely to gain momentum or achieve lasting results. But when it means something to people, they relate to it, take ownership of it, and benefit from it.

At ADMAF, working with young people is our number one priority. We share knowledge through education, offer opportunities, and invest in that talent. We open doors for conversations with emerging and established talent at community level and beyond. We create opportunities for connections between nations, cultures, and people by connecting audiences to artists and in doing that we also open opportunities for Abu Dhabi with REW. My approach is based on connection and collaboration.

SW: How does this work at macro-level?

Huda Alkhamis-Kanoo founded the Art @ Embassies programme, which showcases Emirati artists’ work through themed exhibitions hosted at partnered embassies around the world

HAK: We nurture Emirati artists to grow their talent, encourage dialogue, and support their development as cultural ambassadors representing the UAE on the global stage. Our Art @ Embassies programme showcases our artists through themed exhibitions hosted at embassies we have partnered with across the world.

Read More: Coralie de Fontenay on women luxury entrepreneurs

We also loan works from the ADMAF Art Collection, arrange reciprocal music concerts, organise artist residencies, screen UAE-filmmakers’ work, and celebrate Emirati literature through book signings and panel talks – all aimed at challenging perspectives, fostering cultural understanding, and supporting the cultural ecosystem.

SW: What makes the Abu Dhabi Festival an effective cultural platform?

HAK: The Abu Dhabi Festival, ADMAF’s flagship initiative, brings together leading cultural institutions for the public good. ADMAF links the arts with action, and our purpose is to serve others. We are not just event organisers but we make a long-term difference through securing operational funds and sharing ideas and talent.

ADMAF introduced Emirati artists to perform at Carnegie Hall

We have moved the dial at every level – from encouraging schoolchildren to discover an instrument, to introducing artists to perform at Carnegie Hall, to creating partnerships on an international scale. Locally, we have become a platform where tradition and innovation come together to open new networks. Internationally, we focus on cultural diplomacy – starting conversations and building bridges. These dialogues take many forms. For example, co-productions like our recent world premiere concert at Kensington Palace where three brilliant Emirati musicians performed alongside international artists.

A recent world premiere concert at Kensington Palace where three Emirati musicians performed alongside international artists, facilitated by ADMAF

Another example is an institutional collaboration, notably our ongoing three-year institutional partnership with the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA).

ADMAF is partnering with the Seoul Museum of Art, curating the exhibition ‘Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits’; one of the pieces in the exhibition by Chung Seoyung, What I Saw Today, 2022

SW: What is unique about the partnership between ADMAF and SeMA?

HAK: The Seoul Museum of Art’s (SeMA) collection exhibition in the UAE is the first collaboration founded under royal patronage of its kind in the Middle East. It is the first large-scale showcase of Korean contemporary art in the region and catalyses a major three-year collaboration between ADMAF and SeMA to promote cultural diplomacy between Abu Dhabi and South Korea.

Byungjun Kwon, Dancing Ladders, to be exhibited in ‘Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits’

This historic exhibition in Abu Dhabi, entitled Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits, features 48 works by 29 Korean visual artists, showcasing the evolution of Korea’s media art scene over five decades, highlighting pioneering artists who have helped define contemporary art today, and showing crossovers with the artistic landscape of the UAE.

Ayoung Kim’s work to be exhibited in ‘Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits’

SW: How will you continue this cultural conversation?

HAK: Following the first exhibition in Abu Dhabi, this cultural dialogue will continue with a second co-curated show, Intense Proximities, opening at SeMA in Seoul this December. The exhibition will introduce contemporary art from the UAE to Seoul, bringing together three generations of artists based in the country. Alongside these exhibitions, we are also publishing Layered Dialogues, featuring contributions from UAE-based writers, which provides a richer insight into the cultural exchange between Korea and the UAE.

Huda Alkhamis-Kanoo is the founder of the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation (ADMAF), Co-founder and Artistic Director of Abu Dhabi Festival, and leads a 3-year institutional collaboration between ADMAF and the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA)

Dinner in the Garden of Eden… sorry, L’Andana, Tuscany

In summer Europe is at its best, and it’s time to visit destinations made justifiably famous over the centuries. Here, we visit a classical country estate hotel in Tuscany, L’Andana a wonderful and authentic luxury hotel in the Cotswolds, The Fish, and a traditional luxury hotel in Vienna, The Harmonie

L’Andana, Tuscany review

Tuscany is a place of justifiable legend among discerning and well-heeled travellers. But which Tuscany? Everyone knows Florence and the hill country around Sienna. But Tuscany is a big place, relatively speaking, and if you drive a couple of hours south, through beautiful scenery, you come across L’Andana.

The Tuscan countryside view of L’Andana

Nestled amid olive groves underneath a forested hillside, it is just a couple of miles from the Mediterranean Sea but away from the bustle of the coast. You can see mountains, sea and sky and as you make your way up the long, cypress-lined drive.

Read more: Omega CEO Raynald Aeschlimann on the watch industry

L’Andana is a grand-manor-house-turned-hotel in the Tuscan tradition. This area feels more discreet, less busy than the countryside of central Tuscany. Walk through the hotel’s grand hall to the outdoor pool and it feels more as if you are in a private home – it never felt crowded, and the servers by the pool feel more like your personal butlers.

It feels as if you are in a private home as you sit by the outdoor pool at L’Andana

There is another pool across the gardens and near the forest with views leading down to the sea: this is officially the children’s pool but during our stay it was empty and delightful after teatime. It’s the kind of place you go to and then give up your plans to tour the surrounding area or go for dinner, just deciding to relax until sunset.

The cuisine at L’Andana is celebrated, and we enjoyed a highly memorable dinner in the gardens surrounded by fountains, flowers and trees; perhaps just as memorable was the breakfast in the same garden, where you see the birds, insects and bees in full glorious activity. You are are in the middle of nature. And unlike the rest of Tuscany, there isn’t a cluster of other hotels on the horizon or busy roads nearby – it’s just you.

The comfortable reception area at L’Andana

Our room was suitably memorable, with a vaulted high ceiling and a view across to the hills in the forest. The public areas at L’Andana are so relaxing it seems only natural to have a Negroni at the piano bar. There are many activities including wine tasting, cooking classes and even golf – and the hotel will book you a place at one of the beach clubs in nearby Castiglione della Pescaia, where the beach is long and sandy and the water is shallow and clear.

Altogether, something of an undiscovered gem.

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The Fish, a luxury hotel in the Cotswolds overlooking the Severn River valley

The Fish, Cotswolds review

There are many hotels which oversell themselves. You’ve been to them: wide angle images of rooms disappointingly small, images of grand façades that conveniently ignore the hideous 1990s office block jarring into the view in real life; country hotels that look grand but are poky with views of nothing much.

The Hideaway, one of many unique rooms at The Fish

The Fish is a very rare example of the opposite: a hotel even more interesting than it what it seems to be on its website.

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There’s nothing wrong with the website, mind. It’s just that the very concept and execution are discreet. It is built into the woodland Western escarpment of the Cotswolds, the celebrated uplands halfway between London and Wales where plutocrats and aristocrats rub shoulders. Here, in one of the most distant and remote corners is an area of many thousand-year-old forests and ecosystems, tumbling down a steep slope that marks the end of the Cotswold uplands and drops into the deep Severn River valley. The mountains of Wales loom in the distance.

A suite at The Fish, within the Farncombe Estate

You approach The Fish from a country lane at the top of the Cotswolds, first entering the grounds of the Farncombe Estate that encompasses it. The driveway winds through woods, past a couple of buildings, and down the sloped escarpment, views all around. You park at a low-rise wooden building, almost lost in the forest; this is where the reception area, bar and restaurant are located. They are stunning inside, modern without being jarring, with a Scandinavian-forest-feel and extensive outdoor terraces that blend woodland with views.

Our room was in another building, a short walk through the woods (you can also drive and park outside) and it had uninterrupted views across the fields of the Severn Valley. In the evenings, we walked to the bar and restaurant (where breakfast was also served) and enjoyed some quite magnificent country food – excellent fish and local herbs and vegetables. Very pure flavours and highest quality ingredients. We also appreciated the efforts to employ local staff: it gives The Fish a feeling of authenticity.

The Treehouse: The Fish is a collection of quirky hotel rooms, treehouses and huts, all nestled in the 500-acre hillside

If you feel like escaping from The Fish, you have an array of Cotswolds walks all around, and these are among the best country walks in the world: along hillsides, through glades and woods, meadows and hilltops. There are also the historical villages to visit: you can walk to the crazily pretty Broadway in 20 minutes, and others like Chipping Camden and The Slaughters are a short drive (or long hike).

The Fish itself also offers an array of activities and recreations, from clay shooting to axe throwing and falconry. But our favourite was chilling at sunset – which it faces – with a Picante on the bar terrace.

thefishhotel.co.uk

The Hotel Harmonie in Vienna: ‘a centre of wealth, craft, science, culture, literature and commerce’

The Harmonie, Vienna review

Vienna is a city of stories. Every square, every street, every building speaks to you of the artistic, cultural and imperial history of this capital without an empire. It was only just over 100 years ago after all that this city ruled Europe’s greatest empire, the Austro-Hungarian domaine that stretched from Germany to Italy and the Balkans.

Read more: Il Salviatino, Savoy Florence and Portrait Florence review

Not the biggest in size, but a centre of wealth, craft, science, culture, literature and commerce that dominated what was one of the most powerful continents in the world for centuries.

‘The Hotel Harmonie has a recognisable central European vibe as soon as you stroll in’

Vienna was virtually untouched by bombing in the Second World War and so is preserved perfect and unscathed, its stories seeping from its walls and the palaces almost alive.

In a city like this, we don’t always want to stay in a grand palace of a hotel, removed from the action. We want to feel part of the fabric of the story, joined with the history, living perhaps like the powerful Hapsburgs just over a century ago.

And it’s for this reason that we chose the Hotel Harmonie. It sits on a quiet street on the edge of Vienna’s historic central First District. You can walk to the great museums, the cathedral and squares through within minutes.

The Hotel Harmonie bistro: ‘everything beautifully laid out, homely, correct, with a sense of place’

A series of townhouses, or at least feeling like one, the Hotel Harmonie has a recognisable central European vibe as soon as you stroll in. It is immaculate, there is marble, and everything works beautifully but you also expect to see poets and spies in the corners of the bijou lobby area.

Read more: Binith Shah is creating the ultimate duvet with UMŌ Paris

Our room meanwhile was exactly what you might expect if you were staying with your distant cousin, the dowager princess of Hohenzollern zu Wolkenstein: everything beautifully laid out, homely, correct, with a sense of place.

Breakfast at the Hotel Harmonie bistrot

The staff were polite, considered, and slightly reserved, just as you would expect and want the Viennese to be. A fulsome welcome is fine in Minneapolis: this is Mitteleuropa.

Meanwhile, our favourite part was the little bar just off the lobby, where newspapers – yes, real newspapers – on sticks were provided alongside coffee table books and a cultured atmosphere.

A place to come back to, for hundreds of years.

LUX travelled to and from Vienna by the most environmentally-friendly means possible, train. Our journey the length of Austria took us past the Wienerwald forest with its castles, along the deep Danube valley, the orchards near Linz, and the rising Alps as we approached the Tyrol, where the tracks were surrounded by dramatic snowy peaks, rising up to more than 1200m altitude, before dropping into the forests near Bregenz. All courtesy of the Austrian tourism board on Austria.info

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The grand exterior of Il Salviatino, Firenze

Florence has never been more compelling for its mix of old and new art – and old and new people – with a buzzing youth scene complementing the wonders of the Uffizi and its churches and squares. And there has never been a better selection of places to stay, as we discover at Il Salviatino, on a hill outside the city, and the Savoy and Portrait, in the city’s heart

Il Salviatino, Florence review

Il Salviatino is special. Now, you could say that about a lot of luxury hotels in Tuscany, and you would be right.

But in the case of Il Salviatino, it’s special in a way nowhere else is.

The Italian gardens of Il Salviatino, which look out onto the Duomo, seen in the distance

To get there from the city centre of Florence, we drove past the Duomo and famous palaces, out for five minutes through a suburb, onto a winding hillside road lined by cypresses and suddenly – only fifteen minutes after leaving the hectic centre of Florence – a botanical-historical paradise emerged.

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Like everywhere special in Tuscany, Il Salviatino is a visual feast – but that’s not the first thing you notice. Instead, it was the smell of jasmine, mint, rosemary: a thousand herbs and flowers wafting through the air as if they had been beautifully packaged and released – except they hadn’t, we were outdoors and this is how the gardens, planted by owner Alessandro Rovati, smell.

The entrance hallway to Il Salviatino: 17th-century Italian architecture refreshed thoughtfully by books, furnishings, and art added through time

These aren’t the formal and slightly forbidding gardens, inspired by the originals at Tivoli, that you often find in an Italian hotel. The foliage is as wild and beautiful as its scent.

Wander around the front of the palazzo and an Italian garden drops away into a quite astonishing view of Florence set out before you. The Duomo looks near enough to touch – and in fact it is only a couple of miles away in a straight line. On the hillside it feels like you’re lined up with the top of its roof.

Beyond rise the forest and vineyarded hills of Chianti, undulating into an eternal distance.

The bathroom of the Duomo View suite in Il Salviatino

The house itself – it seems wrong to call it a hotel – is a 17th century masterpiece, a work of art so gently and thoughtfully refreshed with books, furnishings and art by the owner, but always retaining the feel of being in a private home or club.

Our suite was down below the Italian garden, comprising of a bedroom and bathroom that led into a conservatory which in turn led to a terrace.

A few minutes crunching down the gravel through the gardens (lizards by day, fireflies by night) led to the swimming pool area. One side is on a shelf offering a view of nothing but trees and gardens, despite the fact that driven in Italian style you could get to the Ponte Vecchio in around six minutes on a traffic free early morning.

Giacomo al Salviatino, bringing one of Milan’s most famous restaurants to the Florentine hotel

On the terrace by the main building, the view of Florence and Tuscany changes colour and character hour by hour. This is where you have dinner, created by one of Milan’s most famous restaurants, Giacomo, while gazing at this view and choosing from a fascinatingly curated list of mainly Italian wines.

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If it gets chilly, or too hot, you can repair to the bar and enjoy the room inside, feeling even more that you are part of a house party.

The beautifully curated bathroom of the Greenhouse suite at Il Salviatino

Curation is everywhere – the small but elegant spa offers treatments with Augustinus Bader and local Santa Maria Novella products.

It’s a place where your pulse rate decreases the moment you walk out and into the scented air and continues at that level throughout. Both Tuscan country and Florentine, it is special like nowhere else.

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The Hotel Savoy, located in the very heart of Florence

The Savoy, Florence review

If location is everything, then staying at the Savoy in Florence gives you everything you may ever need. On the Piazza della Repubblica in the heart of the city, our room at the back of the hotel had a little balcony looking out directly to the cathedral and its famous square.

If you are at the front of the hotel, you are facing the famous pedestrianised Piazza della Repubblica and are directly across from the city’s celebrated Palazzo Strozzi museum. A good cricketer could throw a ball and hit Michelangelo’s David a block away. (Actually, the David in front of the Uffizi is a replica, but let’s not spoil the dream here).

The Presidential Suite at Hotel Savoy, looking directly onto the Duomo

Our favourite part of the Savoy was breakfast. You are taken outside to a little terrace cleverly carved out of the square, where proper old-fashioned friendly Italian-British service (it’s part of the Rocco Forte hotel group) melds with hearty and deliciously cooked dishes.

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You feel you could sit and sip coffee for the rest of the day, watching Florence and its tourists go by. Wander in and pick a few more berries or slices of salmon or roast turkey from the buffet, pour yourself another glass of prosecco, and repeat.

Bar Artemisia at Hotel Savoy, inspired by the great Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi

The decor and design of the public areas and the rooms is as lavish and LUX as you would expect a hotel – belonging to Rocco Forte and lovingly put together by his sister Olga Polizzi – to be. Bathrooms are marble, beds are generous and high-quality, service is impeccable. And as for the location: it’s a sanctuary in the heart of the historical maze of the city centre.

This is Florence at its best, created by someone whose dream was always to make the best hotels in his family’s original homeland, their adopted homeland of Britain, and beyond.

hotelsavoyfirenze.com

An evening view of the Portrait Hotel, Florence, along the Arno riverbank and just next to the Ponte Vecchio

Portrait Hotel, Florence review

Is there a better city view to wake up to than drawing the curtains of your big picture window, and seeing the Ponte Vecchio and Arno riverbank in front of you? We don’t think so, and that’s how we were greeted every day doing our stay at the Portrait, the super-chic luxury hotel from the Ferragamo family.

The view of the Ponte Vecchio from Caffe dell’Oro, the hotel’s riverside restaurant

Arriving gives a good taster of the experience to come. Your taxi ambles along the Lungarno, the embankment of Florence’s river, coming to a halt just metres away from the famous bridge. We celebrated our arrival with lunch and a glass or two of delicious Franciacorta at the Caffe dell’Oro, the hotel’s restaurant whose tables line the river back.

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Service was contemporary Italian – fashionable and delightful. We particularly enjoyed the Bao al Vapore, steamed bao buns with chilli pork, which somehow went very nicely with the Franciacorta.

The slick and comfortable lobby of Portrait Firenze

The lobby area is like a curiosity cabinet of contemporary design; a place you could feel you could sleep in quite happily if the rooms weren’t so nice. Rooms in the heart of Florence are never huge, but our suite had two separate rooms, each with the same view of the river and the city across from it. Walls were light cream, furniture 20^th-century-modern style also finished off in crema (as a Ferrari owner would say). Everything was just so, showcasing contemporary Florence inside and Asian Florence through the window. There was also a compellingly readable selection of excellent coffee table books in the room.

A suite at Portrait Firenze, each with a view of the river and city

There was one challenge: the dilemma of whether to have breakfast in your room, with its silent view of the bridge and the city, or outside on the terrace, which offered the view in the sunshine and buzz. Either way, you really can’t go wrong, and you are left with a feeling that you have enjoyed the lavish hospitality of Florence’s most celebrated fashionable family whilst staying in its coolest spot.

portraitfirenze.com

Bas van Kranen, Executive Chef of Restaurant Flore at Hotel De L’Europe in Amsterdam

Dutch chef Bas van Kranen has redefined fine dining throughout his career at restaurants Bord’Eau and Flore, introducing plant-forward menus with a focus on sustainability – and earning two Michelin stars along the way. In a conversation with LUX, he tells us about his beginnings as a chef, his inspirations in Dutch agriculture, and the future of micro-seasonality in fine dining

LUX: You started your career quite young at 14, after a dinner at a Two-Michelin-Star restaurant. What was the name of the restaurant and the food that night, and how did it spark your passion?

Bas van Kranen: I actually didn’t eat there. I started working behind the dishwasher. The restaurant was Da Vinci in Maasbracht, just two streets away from where I grew up. At 14, I knocked on the door and asked Margot Reuten if I could get a job in the dish pit, because I wanted to become a chef.

The outside of Restaurant Flore, where sustainability meets fine dining in a serene, Michelin-starred setting.

From that moment, I was completely absorbed by the rhythm, the ambition, the quality of the food, and the service. It was like entering a different world. I had been fascinated by food since I was six. There are so many photos of me smiling with something edible in my hands. Working at Da Vinci set the tone for everything that came after. It showed me what was possible when passion meets discipline, and it gave my ambition a clear shape: this is what I wanted to do with my life.

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LUX: And now you’re known as one of the youngest chefs in the Netherlands. What would 14-year-old-you say if he saw where you are now?

BVK: He would probably be amazed. But I think he’d also recognise the drive. I consider myself lucky to have a mindset that doesn’t settle. The moment a goal is reached, I’m already looking forward to the next. What matters to me today is the idea that anything you choose to do, you should do it as well as you possibly can. Whether it’s a simple salad, a sandwich, or a bunch of flowers on a table. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.

The beautifully curated interior of Flore

LUX: Flore is reopening and many are excited – but what inspired the name? Can you define the meaning behind ‘Flore’?

BVK: The name ‘Flore’, derived from flora, meaning ‘blossoming’, encapsulates the essence of our culinary philosophy. It represents the plant kingdom and the unfolding of flavours in each dish. The name speaks directly to our vegetable-forward approach and our connection to the natural rhythms of Dutch agriculture. Just like plants flourish under the right conditions, we believe flavours should be allowed to express themselves at their natural peak.

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LUX: With the reopening, the interior and design have also been renovated. What elements and inspirations shaped the new space?

‘It’s all about harmony between the food, the space, and the story we’re telling’ – Bas van Kranen

BVK: We wanted the design to reflect the same values as our food: rooted, natural, and intentional. Together with Reiters-Wings Studio, we used carbon-negative materials inspired by traditional building methods, for example, lime and hemp plastered walls. The ceiling undulates like the Amstel River, bringing a sense of movement and locality. The furniture is reclaimed wood, and we designed the ‘Flore Chair’ in collaboration with Tim Reiters to complement our vision. It’s all about harmony between the food, the space, and the story we’re telling.

LUX: The phrase ‘conscious fine dining’ – how would you define that, and how does it live at Flore?

BVK: Conscious fine dining means making the best possible decisions at every step, not just in cooking, but in sourcing, design, and service. At Flore, we work with hyperlocal ingredients, maintain a deep fermentation program to minimise waste, and collaborate closely with biodynamic growers across the Netherlands. We aim to prove that true luxury isn’t about imported rarity but about care, quality and proximity. Conscious fine dining shifts the focus from status to substance, from exclusivity to integrity.

Culinary innovation is at the heart of Flore, seen in this transformed risotto dish

LUX: Your travels have influenced your cuisine – how do you translate those inspirations into your dishes?

BVK: Travel for me is about learning techniques and principles, not copying flavours. Spending time with different cultures around the globe has taught me a huge amount about balance, fermentation, restraint and seasonality. Japanese cooking in particular has influenced how we draw out deep flavour with minimal intervention. We don’t recreate dishes from other cultures. Instead, we use those techniques to express Dutch ingredients in a new and more meaningful way.

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LUX: What country has been your favourite to visit, and what dish did it inspire?

BVK: Japan has made the deepest impression. The culture is rooted in respect, technique, and nature. It’s incredibly refined. Right now I’m studying how to age and refine seaweeds, the way Japanese chefs have been working with kombu for hundreds of years. It’s like a new language of flavour. That’s the beauty of it. It never ends.

No dish is repeated at Flore; each dish is made using local and seasonal produce

LUX: Flore was named ‘Vegetable Restaurant of the Year’ in 2024 and holds two Michelin stars and a Green Star. What did those awards mean to you, and are there any other recognitions you aspire to?

BVK: Receiving two Michelin stars and a Green Star within eight months of reopening was incredibly affirming. The ‘Vegetable Restaurant of the Year’ recognition meant a lot, not just for us, but for the shift it represents. It shows that a plant-led menu can lead the conversation in fine dining. We’re not chasing more titles. What we want is to help redefine what excellence means in our field, to set a new standard that includes responsibility alongside creativity.

LUX: Why did you decide that no dish would be repeated, and that the menu would evolve constantly throughout the season?

‘The space, the interaction, the materials, the sound – everything is designed to support what’s happening on the plate’ – Bas van Kranen

BVK: It’s a direct response to our commitment to Dutch micro-seasonality. We work closely with nature and producers, adjusting our menu every week based on shifts in weather, soil and harvest. This keeps us creatively alive and allows us to present each ingredient at its absolute peak. It also invites guests into a specific moment, one that can’t be repeated. That kind of authenticity is powerful.

LUX: What changes do you see in the dining habits of your guests?

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BVK: There’s a noticeable shift towards conscious dining. Guests are more curious, more engaged. They want to know where things come from, how they’re made, and what they represent. There’s also more openness toward plant-based options and non-alcoholic pairings. We’re seeing a move away from the old markers of luxury, toward something more thoughtful and personal. That’s very encouraging.

LUX: Is there a generational difference in what people like to eat?

Some seasonal produce used to create the ever-changing menu at Flore

BVK: Younger guests are often more fluent in sustainability. They’re excited by fermentation, by unusual vegetables, by zero-waste thinking. But across generations, we see a growing interest in real food stories and a willingness to step away from what’s expected. Older guests sometimes have deeper emotional connections to traditional ingredients, which leads to interesting conversations. What unites everyone is a deeper awareness of the impact of food.

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LUX: How important is the overall experience beyond what’s on the plate?

BVK: They’re inseparable. The space, the interaction, the materials, the sound – everything is designed to support what’s happening on the plate. We want guests to feel a shift when they walk through the door, a kind of transition into a more grounded, present moment. Conscious fine dining is about mindfulness as much as taste. When all elements are in alignment, the experience becomes something you carry with you.

The entrance to Flore: ‘We want guests to feel a shift when they walk through the door, a kind of transition into a more grounded, present moment’ – Bas van Kranen

LUX: Who are your culinary heroes?

BVK: Dan Barber, for his work on agriculture and flavour. René Redzepi, for changing the way we think about fine dining. Yoshihiro Narisawa, for translating nature so elegantly onto the plate. And Jonnie Boer, who has been putting Dutch ingredients like magnolia, wild duck, crayfish and pikeperch on the map for over 25 years. I have great respect for that.

LUX: If you could be transported anywhere in the world to eat and drink anything, what would it be, and with whom?

BVK: I’d go to one of the remote Japanese islands with my partner Roos and our close friends. Somewhere in the forest, overlooking the sea. We’d grill freshly caught fish, open a pot of aged miso, and make a salad from Japanese seasonal greens. And we’d drink a bottle of Nichi Nichi sake – one of the best I’ve ever tasted. That’s the dream. Good food, natural surroundings, and people you love around you.

restaurantflore.com