The Lobster Club Sandwich & The Book...

I can while away hours in a well-stocked bookstore and inevitably leave later armed with several new friends. I rarely purchase books online for several reasons. I like to browse and get lost, and secondly, I want to support the book guardians staffing the floors - especially the types who ignite with excitement when you pose a question or ask them to impart their knowledge - which is how we feel when readers ask us for tips.?

One of my favourite go-to bookstores in London remains Daunt Books on Marylebone High Street - a travel stalwart, it has a Harry Potteresque feeling, with little stairs that lead to new worlds - it is second to none if you love tales and travel. Recently, I gleefully stumbled upon?The Inner Sea?by Robert Fox. Insightful and fabulously written, the author describes his experiences visiting every country and island of the Mediterranean and gives his impressions of the peoples and cultures of the region; poets, politicians, popes, peasants, bishops, brigands and barons.?

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Escorted by my trusty old-school atlas, I was plotting a new course skirting the northern coastline of the Med, kicking off my?Grand Med Tour?in the?Balearics, heading to the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Adriatic, the Ionian and concluding in the Aegean. Three ancient sites,?figs and?the 'Path of the Gods' also spark a desire to pack the bags.?

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What do sandwiches have to do with this week's edit and lengthy intro? I hear you ask. Well, whilst reading, I need to keep the tummy rumbles at bay, and the sandwich, allegedly invented by the Earl of Sandwich so that he could continue to gamble whilst eating, is my perfect reading companion. Now, Paddington Bear famously loves his marmalade sandwiches with a cup of tea; I am more of a lobster club washed down with a glass of Pouilly-Fumé. At the same time, I was also explaining the whereabouts of?our newest Italian place on the Ligurian coast?to the Austrian - "it's sort of sandwiched between Genova and Nice" I said. This, in turn, reminded me about Empordà flanked by the Pyrenees mountains, Barcelona and the French border, or Campania sandwiched between Salerno and Paestum. Sometimes the visual helps.?

So this week, we take in the coolest farmhouse in Puglia, a glam pad on the beach on the Italian Riviera, a monastery wrapped in olive trees and vines, a sweet spot that affords a sunset front row overlooking distant Capri, and our lovely five Greeks over in the Cyclades.?

With my head filled with the culture of?the Mediterranean, me thinks?it's time for another delicious instalment of the lobster club sandwich - which, incidentally, I had discovered along the Amalfi Coast and included a rather delicious lemon mayo. Next week: 'Eat Carbon' headlines our earth-inspired edit.?

Hugs

Iain & Co.