The design and photography floor at Barnes & Noble bookstore in Union Square.

Every time I need inspiration for a present for friends or family, I go to this store and inevitably discover something intriguing, exciting and unique. Books, clothes, luxurious old fabrics, bizarre little objects, and a lovely owner whose passion for antiques is communicative.

25 years ago my father used to work here. I know they have a garden on top of the roof. It looks like a big spaceship, I love the futuristic design it has so many little details, I never get tired looking at it.

Serene, calm, intimate park

The conceptual beer bar representing 60 beer styles with 15 beer taps and almost 300 bottled beers from all-over the world.

incredible selection of local produce and natural wine

Art and design museum in the Parco Sempione. Some permanent and some rotating exhibitions. Definitely visit the Casa Lana installation and the Italian Design permanent exhibit.

The Brera Gallery was officially established in 1809, even though a first heterogeneous collection with educational purpose existed already from 1776 – and then increased in the following years – alongside the Accademia di Belle Arti, requested by Mary Therese of Austria to offer the students the opportunity to study lofty masterpieces of art close up. Brera become a museum to host the most important works of art from all of the areas conquered by the French armies. So unlike other important museums in Italy such as the Uffizi, Brera did not start out life as the private collection of a prince or nobleman but as the product of a deliberate policy decision. Paintings confiscated from churches and convents throughout Lombardy with the religious orders’ dissolution began to pour into the museum in the early years of the 19th century, soon to be joined by artworks of similar provenance from other areas of the Kingdom of Italy. This explains why the collection comprises chiefly religious works, many of them large altarpieces, and accounts for Brera’s special aura on which later acquisitions have had only a minor impact.

If you go sailing in Croatia, you usually start from a large port next to the old city of Trogir, but most people forget to take time to explore this small town. I can strongly recommend spending a day in the city and stroll around the narrow alleys and eat delicious sea food and ice cream. Trogir is a harbour city that must not be missed while being in this area of Croatia!

The is an old geisterbahnhof, or railway station, in the Prenzlauer Berg district of Berlin, Germany. It is served by the Berlin S-Bahn and the M13 line of the Berlin Straßenbahn. The station opened on October 1, 1935, at the junction of the Nordbahn line from Berlin to Stralsund with the railway line to Szczecin where the eponymous street named after Bornholm Island crossed the tracks. As Bornholmer Straße station lay right at the Berlin Wall it was closed on August 13, 1961, turning it into one of Berlin's ghost stations, passed by eastern and western S-Bahn trains without stopping. After German reunification Bornholmer Straße was reopened on December 22, 1990. Today, you can still go there to see remnants of the wall, and where people flooded in when the wall came down in 1989. (In the evening of November 9, 1989, thousands of East Berliners and GDR citizens assembled at the bridge demanding entry to West Berlin. At 9.20 p.m. local guards were the first to open the checkpoint and allow people passing through freely to West Berlin, where they were greeted enthusiastically. The event marked the commencement of the fall of the Berlin Wall.).

Classic Bagels from Montreal

One of those comic shops that just have it right. Good selection, room at the back for exhibitions and talks, small selection of music for sale. I got hooked on “Big Questions” by Anders Nilsen, and he came in for a signing in the summer, I had no idea, just popped by and there he was. I’m holding onto the 90’s and this place has it.