Brazil is only one of ten countries that have Portuguese as their official language. Portuguese is one of the top ten spoken languages in the world (it’s difficult to get an exact figure) and yet Portugal, like England that spawned one of the most used languages...
No joke, I have honestly been messing around for over two hours trying to decide what image to add here as the lead photograph for this article. I’m no copyright lawyer but I’m pretty sure that there’s no way I’m allowed to put work by a...
Once you’ve been to Lençóis Maranhenses, you might well exclaim, as other travellers have, that the photographs don’t do the place justice. And yet the photographs are magnificent. Can you imagine that this place is even more spectacular than the...
Just as Eileen Gray did in the South of France, so Lina Bo Bardi created another dream house – this time in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The house is named el Casa de Vidro (the Glass House) and was designed in 1951. Lina, born in Rome, was a pioneer of...
It’s likely that you know what the most recorded song in history is? It’s Yesterday written by Lennon and McCartney, of course. But do you know that the second most popular, the runner-up, is Girl from Ipanema? Ipanema, as you can see from the map below,...
This amazing mid-century building is the official residence of the President of Brazil but it is open to the public who wish to visit this Oscar Niemeyer-designed masterpiece. It was built in 1957 and 1958. Needless to say, because the building is the home and...
If you were to create your dream island, what would it be like? Mine would be exactly like Fernando de Noronha. Tropical weather, stunning views and, as you can see in the photograph above, the deepest blue and sparkling ocean. There are swaying palm trees, lovely...
