Destinations

Cities by character, not geography

Siena is not a small Florence. Villefranche is not a suburb of Nice. The classification lives at Brilliant Addresses; these essays are how the Journal uses it.

A country that split

The Maldives

Name the atoll, or do not name the trip. Ten faces. One brochure that still says otherwise.

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The water with a reason

Baa Atoll

UNESCO, manta season, Fushi. The atoll you book when the calendar is the point.

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The fashion shelf

Noonu Atoll

Randheli, Velaa, Jani — and Mondrian as a counter-argument. Three different trips, one lagoon on the map.

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Civic stubbornness

Siena

Not a small Florence. A hill town that still uses a medieval machine to run an argument.

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The slow port

Villefranche-sur-Mer

The in-between harbour. Arrive as if the journey were the stay.

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A port that became a museum

Venice

The Regatta is the weekend it remembers the first half of that sentence.

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Two towns, one promenade

Cannes

A three-week product and a Belle Époque resort. Book the second.

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Precision on a rock

Monaco

A machine that happens to have a harbour. The opposite of Villefranche — on purpose.

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