Adam Jacot de Boinod

Gondolas bowing and swaying. Pigeons prowling and seagulls scavenging. Water flapping and lapping from gentle to furious. Sinew-straining gondoliers bobbing and balancing. Everyone must come to Venice at least once. It’s really that insistent a request, that special a place, that must for any bucket list. I defy anyone who arrives not to be astonished by their dramatic entry into this historic city. No cars, just boats and water and arrestingly beautiful buildings. All worldly concerns vanish as I take part on this stunning stage.

What beauty. What charm. What gorgeous country living and at how seductively gentle a pace. Dreamy villages, deep in the heart of France, with their stone buildings in keeping with their natural environment. Shutters painted in gentle hues ranging from celadon green to lilac, from sky blue to burgundy. Proper broad rivers for canoeing, woods for truffle-hunting and hot air balloons from which scan the scenery. Not to mention plenty of foie gras and weekend food markets.

Trastevere is one of Rome’s prettiest districts with small, winding, ivy-draped lanes.

Sicily is too big an island to try to cover in a week. I recommend either going to Western Sicily (as I chose) with Palermo where one airport is, (with Monreale) and then the south-west (with Agrigento). Alternatively,  there’s Eastern Sicily (with flights to Catania) and comprising Taormina, Mount Etna, Syracuse and then the south-eastern baroque towns of Ragusa, Modica and Noto.

The fjord villages of Norway resemble a rather impressive train set. I began my visit in Bergen, where the Hanseatic League once monopolised commerce. Arriving in the city, I stumbled immediately across an annual classical concert in the main square where the audience stood, throughout the entire performance, noticeably and respectfully still, as though in church.

TO get away properly I need to change climate, language, culture and, most vitally, I need to change centuries. Florence is the perfect place do that, as the city centre and the banks of the River Arno are mercifully free from any modern architecture. It is not a living museum – the city still breathes, but her history is respected.

He’s 5ft 5in tall and weighs barely more than nine stone, yet Nairo Quintana can take much of the credit for Bogota’s standing as the South American city with the highest ratio of cyclists to population. Quintana might not have won the Tour de France yet – he’s been runner-up twice– but the specialist climber is inspiring the young to eschew four wheels in favour of two, a trend that might one day put an end to the smog that frequently chokes the Colombian capital.

Even in the depths of winter there is never a dull moment in Reykjavik. The city is very noticeably extreme both geographically and climatically. But it also has a population that is undeniably outre. While the rest of us moan and mutter come February, little deters the fun and imagination of Icelanders who think up offbeat ideas to liven up the winter evenings.