United Kingdom
Irene is freelance writer focusing on lifestyle from arts & culture to design, food & wine to travel and a regular contributor to Luxury Lifestyle Magazine, where she has an author page, and Travel Begins At 40, among others. www.hashtagtravelling.com.
Italian adventurer Casanova was a fan of oysters and it's said that he ate 50 for breakfast. Sounds a little over the top and yet oysters are a natural food source, responsibly and sustainably grown and harvested. Both wild and farmed oysters are rich in rare amino acids and zinc.
Travel writer Irene Caswell visits Lens in Northern France and discovers art, fine food and history combine to make the perfect weekend break. Northern France's mining history The Arras region of Pas-De-Calais is a former mining area and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It is well known that the French take their wine and their food very seriously indeed. I travelled in a small group, courtesy of the Conseil Interprofessionel des Vins du Languedoc (CIVL), to the South of France to discover how the locals live the Mediterranean life.
A new exhibition at The British Museum Troy: Myth and Reality is the first major Troy exhibition in the UK. Irene Caswell reviews it. The Trojan War lasted for 10 years but the tales of war, love and loss have lasted for over 3,000 years, wrapped up in the myths that have surrounded the city for generations.
The region of Piedmont or Piemonte is surrounded on three sides by mountains. The capital city of Turin is well known for its Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neo-classical, and Art Nouveau architecture. The whole area is rich in cultural treasures and it seems as though every town and village offers a significant heritage site worth visiting.
Irene Caswell looks forward to a world where we can travel internationally once more and explores the delights of traditional food in Slovenia. Slovenia is less than a tenth of the size of Great Britain yet there are 24 different gastronomic regions as well as three wine regions.
Nick Knight Roses from my Garden will be opening on 4 July at Waddesdon Manor gardens. The exhibition was due to open in March but was postponed due to the Coronavirus COIVD-19 pandemic. Irene Caswell talked to British fashion photographer and film maker Nick Knight about his work and gardening.
As the world tentatively reopens from lockdown, luxury hotels are gearing up to welcome guests once again. With the need to modify and innovate to build confidence, safety and wellbeing of visitors and staff, hotels are seeking out the best possible ways to achieve this. Naturally, strategies are evolving as society is changing almost daily.
Who knew that coffee consumption was an age-related activity? It seems the older we get the more coffee we drink. In the UK, coffee consumption is incremental by generation. Imbibing coffee ranges from less than a cup per day for the under twenties, to just over two cups per day in your fifties and beyond.
Piedmont sits on the borders of France and Switzerland surrounded on three sides by The Alps. The capital of Turin is a hub of industry but away from the city, the pretty pastoral landscapes are similar to nearby Tuscany.