Enchanted April

Spring in Italy is heaven. It is transforming and powerful like spring anywhere, but it is also soft and gentle, like a lullaby.

Enchanted April is one of the best films capturing that.

Released in 1991 and based on a best-selling novel written by Elizabeth Von Arnim, the story is about four English women who rent a castle in Portofino for the month of April.

Coming from different backgrounds, the women are united by unspoken dissatisfaction with their lives. Italy appears to be the tonic that allows them to relax and open up their hearts for a fuller sense of being alive, and I can tell from experience, the tonic works wonders outside novels and films too.

Watching Lottie open the yellow shutters and breathing in the fresh air and sunshine for the first time makes you breathe in deeply and travel along.

So if you are in a need of vacation, like today, how about a ninety minute mini-break in Portofino.