How to have the Vatican all to yourself
Private tours are a great way to enjoy tourist hotspots, such as Rome's Sistine Chapel and the Vasari Corridor in Florence, without the crowds
Tasmania’s cheekiest devil
Provocative and irreverent, the gambling multimillionaire David Walsh has built a breathtaking art gallery – billed as "subversive Disneyland" – on his beautiful vineyard outside Hobart in Tasmania
Dublin’s independent arts scene is a silver lining in the recession-hit city
With the economy in freefall, Dublin has quietly become a city of pop-up spaces, with art and design collectives putting on exhibitions in vacant warehouses and shops
Outside art: great sculpture parks and trails
From life-sized elephants to figures hanging from the trees above you, England's sculpture parks and trails make for an enlightening winter walk. Here are 10 of the best
The pick of Europe’s art deco hotels
The best-preserved art deco hotels from Devon to Prague
A fine French vintage at hotel Le Macassar
The area infamous for the Somme battlefields has a new destination: a stunning art deco hotel whose charms carry Lisa Allardice to a lost era
Could Dundee be the new Bilbao?
The proposed designs for the V&A's new Dundee outpost bear an uncanny resemblance to the Spanish city of Bilbao. So how do the two cities compare?
High design, low price: UK holiday homes
Alain de Botton's set of cutting-edge, affordable holiday homes is bringing modernism to the masses, as Hannah Booth discovers
Hotel review | Base2stay, Liverpool
This new affordable hotel in Liverpool's world heritage site gets nearly everything right, but why can't you open the windows, asks Sally Shalam
What to see at Impressionist Normandy: 10 best festival events
Normandy was at the heart of the Impressionist movement, and this summer the region hosts a four-month festival to celebrate the great masters