Driving in Italy: in southern Italy road rules are more like helpful suggestions than laws made to be obeyed.  Traffic is chaotic and fast and dangerous. Tips and hints on how to survive a driving holiday around Southern Italy and why driving is still better than bussing or going by train.

Chuting stars
The Calgary Stampede is, if you believe the banners and posters hung from every available post, pillar and rail in the city, “the greatest outdoor show on earth”.  If the hype, enthusiasm and sheer spectacle is anything to go by, they are probably right.
For 10 days each summer the western Canadian city of Alberta comes alive in the grip of cowboy fever as everyone in town pulls on their boots and dons a 10-gallon hat to celebrate all things country and western.  And I mean everyone.  If you’re not doing the western swagger round town during Stampede, you don’t belong...

Hong Kong Futures
My date with destiny was getting off to a rocky start. “Aaah… Master can tell you are 38.” Well of course he can – I’d just given him my birth date and now I was thinking about asking for my 200 Hong Kong dollars back.
I’m crouched on a tiny footstool, hunched over a table under the shelter of a tattered yellow tarp that’s threatening to drop a night’s worth of accumulated rain on my head at any moment.  The Master is just one of a sting of fortune tellers offering insights into the future at the Temple Street night markets in Kowloon’s Yau Ma Tei area.
Divining the future is serious business in superstitious Hong Kong...

Coast to Coast
A great drive is one that has a little of everything – a circular route, so no backtracking; gorgeous countryside; little other traffic; fascinating history and plenty of attractions and activities along the way to ward off the dreaded white line fever.  The Twin Coast Discovery Highway in northern New Zealand, packs in all this and more, in spades. Starting and finishing in Auckland, the trip is an 800km journey through the subtropical, beach-strewn, forest-studded north of the country to the far northern tip of the North Island, Cape Reinga.  There is history and culture galore – both Maori and European settlement began here – and more tours, cruises and adventure outings than you can count in the Bay of Islands area.  Throw in one of the best golf courses in the world, and some spa indulgence, and this great drive is about as good as it gets, anywhere...