One&Only Resorts to open new property in Montenegro
With exclusive havens in photogenic locations from The Maldives to Australia’s Wolgan Valley, this resort operator knows the power of place.
With exclusive havens in photogenic locations from The Maldives to Mexico, not to mention Australia’s own Wolgan Valley, One&Only Resorts knows the power of place. Its latest incarnation doesn’t mess with the formula. One&Only Portonovi, which opens on May 1, overlooks beautiful Boka Bay on the Adriatic coast of Montenegro. It’s a setting where medieval buildings sit side by side with glamorous bars and the superyacht set frolic on beaches lapped by cerulean seas.
An array of guestrooms and suites look out over terracotta roof tiles to the water and rugged mountain ranges. Top of the shelf are two private villas with personal butler service. The largest, a so-called “villa of dreams”, has space for seven adults and two children and has its own hydrotherapy pool, spa room, wine cave and bar.
Michelin-starred chef Giorgio Locatelli (London’s Locanda Locatelli) is behind the menu at fine diner Sabia while there’s contemporary Japanese at Tapasake Club and local fare at La Veranda. Pampering takes place at Chenot Espace, where traditional Chinese medicine meets Western technology, and services include detox diet planning, one-on-one fitness sessions and beauty therapies.
Sightseeing must-dos in the vicinity include Sveti Stefan, a former island hangout for the likes of Liz Taylor and Sophia Loren, the picture-postcard towns of Kotor and Perast or scoot up the road an hour to the Croatian tourist hub of Dubrovnik.
From about $1280 a night.
PENNY HUNTER
View from here
The Dig
Netflix
The world’s appetite for archeology was whetted by Howard Carter’s Egyptian discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922. The Dig, directed by Aussie Simon Stone, recounts the story of Britain’s greatest find of all just 17 years later — an Anglo-Saxon burial ship and treasure chamber at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, northeast of London.
Widow Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan) engages Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes), who has worked with Ipswich Museum but is very much a working man and self-taught archeologist, to excavate ancient soil mounds on her estate. Time is not on their side. Edith has a heart ailment that threatens to orphan her young son; and Britain is on the brink of another world war.
There’s rich pickings here for riffs on life and death and how archeology gives future generations “the line that joins them to their forebears”, to quote Basil’s wife.
His digging, with the help of a British Museum team, unearths the remnants of a 1400-year-old royal (it is thought) burial ship and an intact chamber containing Byzantine silverware, gold jewellery and an exquisite iron helmet. The find throws new light on the Dark Ages.
The film adds spice to the tale with a love interest and ratchets up tensions between amateur Basil and museum pros. It is, after all, based on a novel by John Preston, but gets a tick for basic accuracy.
The movie also digs the dirt on the British Museum, to which Edith gifted the treasures with a request Basil’s work be recognised. This did not happen until recent years.
Must-do: Visit splendid Suffolk (where The Dig was filmed) and Sutton Hoo, a National Trust property; and Room 41 of the British Museum (take a virtual tour at britishmuseum.org). May the evocative score by Stefan Gregory be playing.
GRAHAM ERBACHER
Spend it
Light and easy to wear by the surf or pool or at a barefoot resort, photographer Sarah Silverton’s versatile and feather-light sarongs come in a slightly sheer blend of 70 per cent cotton and 30 per cent silk. Each piece features one of Silverton’s evocative photographic images of the waves, swells, foamy splashes, ripples and textures of her favourite Australian beaches, including Sydney’s Bronte, Bondi and Tamarama. Choose from regular size 140cm x 96cm ($180) or full body wrap ($275); each style can double as a scarf or shawl. Also available are fully lined and zippered beach purses ($35) in a super-soft, washable neoprene blend, roomy enough to stow keys, sunglasses and SPF block; plus cards, wall art, printed cushions and linen table napkins. Free shipping for orders over $80.
SUSAN KUROSAWA
Book club
Shortly after this column debuted last year, I wrote about “cosy crime novels” (May 2-3) that embody a sure sense of place, albeit with the likes of poisoners and thieving scoundrels afoot. In the mix were favourite authors of the genre such as Alexander McCall Smith (Botswana), Colin Cotterill (Laos) and Anne Zouroudi (Greece), all of whom place clever and appealing detectives at the centre of their narratives.
In the past months, I’ve been solving crimes in India with lawyer-turned-sleuth Perveen Mistry, star of two appealing mysteries by Sujata Massey, A Murder at Malabar Hill and The Satapur Moonstone, each drenched with exotic details and a cast of characters full of murderous intent. Closer to home, Death in Daylesford by Kerry Greenwood, with that style maven Phryne Fisher on the case, has kept me intrigued and longing for a nice hot mineral bath in Victoria’s so-called spa country. In chunks of Botswana more deadly than the domain of McCall Smith’s No 1 lady detective Precious Ramotswe, two South Africans who write under the joint Michael Stanley byline continue to entertain me with the investigations of Detective Kubu, a portly policeman with unerring instincts.
All these books take me to the heart of those destinations, serving as ersatz travelogues. Around the world with 80 super-sleuths, if you like. Others to look for, if you’re as keen as I am on international crimes and misdemeanours, include the Shetland series by Ann Cleeves, now adapted for TV and filmed on location, amid persistently bleak weather, in Scotland with Douglas Henshall as DI Jimmy Perez.
Italian author Michele Giuttari knows his stuff. He’s a former police chief of Florence and the investigator in his crime series is Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara, head of the elite Squadra Mobile. This is grittier stuff but rich with evocation of landscape, culture and Italian idiosyncrasies amid the mounting bodies. A Death in Calabria, A Death in Tuscany ... Venice has been spared by Giuttari, at least so far. That’s a city of demons best left to Thomas Mann and, in contemporary terms, Michael Dibdin or Donna Leon. Turf wars could ensue. Bring on the carabinieri. You get the drift.
SUSAN KUROSAWA