DATELINE MONDAY 14TH FEBRUARY 2022

VALENTINE’S Day

Love is in the air everywhere I look around,

love is in the air every sight and every sound

And I don’t if I am being foolish

Don’t know if I am being wise

But it’s something that I must believe in

And it’s there when I look in your eyes

Sung by John Paul Young

Warm romantic greetings on this chilly but bright St Valentine’s Day Monday morning, yaaayyy Happy Valentine’s Day I hope you and yours are well and looking forward to a wonderful week that has started with a day of LOVE, perhaps we should start every week with a day of love.

Enjoy the calm weather we have in the south today it’s going to be a stormy, wet week ahead for most of us in the UK.

More COVID Common sense it is Carnival Week in Venice, started on Saturday, it has been cancelled for the past two years, another sign that things are returning to normal.

MM and Company news update

Austria

On the theme of LOVE on St Valentine’s Day Martin, Evelyn and the team at e+o DMC Austria reminded me that o The Kiss (Lovers) by Gustav Klimt is the most famous Austrian painting and the highlight of the permanent collection at the Upper Belvedere. It shows a couple swathed in richly embellished robes embracing in a meadow of flowers on the brink of a precipice. The painting dates from 1907/08 at the height of Klimt’s “Golden Period” when the artist developed a new technique of combining gold leaf with oils and bronze paint. The Austrian state purchased the Kiss for the recently founded Moderne Galerie, which was housed at the Lower Belvedere, from its first exhibition in 1908. The painting has been in the Belvedere’s collections ever since. I know you know what The Kiss painting looks like but just in case below is a link www.belvedere.at/en/kiss-gustav-klimt

Again in the theme of LOVE Martin Hodi, Evelyn and the team at e+o DMC Austria have told us that the MOTTO group, has opened the 91-room Hotel MOTTO in the centre of Vienna.

Comprising 83 rooms and eight suites, Hotel MOTTO is located in the centre of the city. It features a main restaurant and bar, an open-air rooftop garden and bar, a ground floor patisserie, private fitness and sauna rooms as well as meeting and event space. The historic building has housed hotels for over three centuries.

Chez Bernard – Restaurant et Bar, the hotel’s main organic restaurant, occupies the top two floors of the building and sits under a glass dome – a new addition by Arkan Zeytinoglu Architects. The interior design is inspired by 1920s Paris. Up on the roof, a wrap-around roof terrace houses a 40-seat bar and additional lounge seating.

Athens

More on LOVE as I love Hyatt Hotels, Nassos and the team at AME DMC Group tells me that Hyatt Hotels will open a hotel on Santorini in May 2022 The Magma Resort Santorini, will join The Unbound Collection by Hyatt portfolio as the first Hyatt-affiliated resort in the Greek islands. Magma Resort Santorini has 59 guestrooms, including 24 suites—of which 46 will have private pools and hot tubs, besides views of the Aegean Sea and Anafi Island. Set among old vineyards, the resort will be located on the lava-made slopes of Vourvoulos, in close proximity to lava sand beaches on the northeast part of the island.

Japan

More on LOVE it is fair to say you can never get too much love. James Kent of The J Team DMC Japan has told us that the Japanese celebrate St Valentine’s Day In Japan, in a unique way, it is only the women who give presents to men. This is done because women are considered to be too shy to express their love. Though it might not be true especially in modern times, Valentine's Day was thought to be a great opportunity to let women express their feelings. There are other things that express love in Japan, women wear a special “love kimono” when going out on a special date, also couples in love dress in matching clothes to show they are “an item”.

Mauritius

And finally on the theme of LOVE I simply LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, this piece of news, Stephane, Karl and the team at Hello Islands DMC Mauritius have told us that a recent enquiry has just confirmed to Mauritius and to Hello Islands DMC, the group will travel a few weeks’ time.

That’s it you are now fully up to date