A Venetian Evening for Cabana Issue No. 25

A century-old summer cottage on Narragansett Bay, published in architect Thomas A. Kligerman's new book, reveals how generations of one family have layered memory, ritual, and collected beauty into a deceptively modest retreat where antiques, mid-century finds, and maritime history coexist in effortless harmony.

A monthly guide to the events and exhibitions on Cabana's Radar: a global cultural bulletin and a must-read for anyone looking to keep their finger on the pulse of art and design. Read on to discover our May highlights. A preview is available for all, while the full global cultural bulletin is exclusively vailable on our Substack. Join us for our newest and most intimate chapter.

Spain's Baix Emporda, where the Pyrenean foothills meet the Costa Brava, has long drawn artists and poets to its medieval villages, golden light and quiet shores. The most notable of these is Salvador Dalí but beyond Figueres, Cadaqués and Pubol lies a deeper culture: Iberian settlements, Romanesque chapels, and farmhouse tables. Emporda native Pablo Rovira, founder of Viu Emporda, shares an insider's guide.

 From the shopfronts of Biba to the founding of Osborne & Little, the late artist and tastemaker Anthony Little helped define the visual language of 1960s London. As Dreweatts brings the contents of his Chelsea home to auction, Anthony's vivacious life comes back into focus. Join Cabana for an exclusive tour of his London home. 

The Orient Express has been transporting passengers in style for well over a century, but until a year ago never had a dedicated all-Italian train. Now, with multiple journeys across Italy, a hotel in Rome and an imminent opening in Venice, the fabled brand – as much a cultural symbol as a train – is racing towards its future. Camilla Frances hops on board to experience one of La Dolce Vita's three-day Italian itineraries.

Across São Tomé Principe’s volcanic hills, abandoned plantation estates (roças) lie abandoned, relics of the African island state's once-prosperous cocoa empire. It's a place where colonial ambition, coerced labor, and sudden independence collided. Crumbling verandas, silent machinery, and encroaching forest reveal the island's layered passage from grandeur to ruin, finds Harrison Thane.

South Africa-born UK-based textile entrepreneur Bernie de Le Cuona has built a brand rooted in resourcefulness, sustainability, and an enduring connection to Africa. Speaking with Camilla Frances, she reflects on rural beginnings, daily rituals, and how the landscapes, textures, and spirit of her homeland continue to shape her work and worldview today.

Trained as a conservator, Adam Calvert Bentley spent 15 years examining objects at close quarters, learning how they were made, used and repaired. Now an antique dealer based in London's Holland Park, he brings the same patient research to buying and selling. Adam shares with Emma Becque the stories of two objects that have passed through his hands: his greatest find and the piece he will keep forever.

What does one give a princess who already has a palace? In 1840, Prince Filippo Andrea Doria Pamphilj gave Mary Talbot a bathroom. Opened to the public for the first time, the Nymphaeum of Diana is a compact fantasia of allegorical décor hidden inside one of Rome’s grandest houses. Emma Becque and Isabel Bronts take a tour.  

Austrian designer Catherine Bruckner, co-founder of New York-based design studio Casalta, may live in an elegant apartment on Fifth Avenue but her native Vienna will always call her home. Catherine shares her favorite spots in the Austrian capital, from restaurants and coffee shops serving Viennese classics to beautiful shops, museums, parks and lesser-known treasures.

With Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art, the V&A examines a designer who refused to separate fashion from art. Spanning early experimentation to the house’s most iconic creations, the exhibition reveals the rigour beneath the spectacle. Senior fashion curator Sonnet Stanfill talks Cabana through eight works that define Schiaparelli’s legacy.

Between Gabon and the equator lies São Tomé & Principe, a small island state where 16th-century forts and tiled villas – remnants of its colonial past – stand crumbling and untouched by tourism. This makes the island's capital feel like a time capsule of Atlantic trade and plantation wealth, amid jungle cliffs and black-sand beaches, finds Harrison Thane.