The sumptuous Suffolk estate that transports you to Tuscany

Ah Italia! Land of gelato, Vespas and frescoes – I’ve pined for the place so many times over the last year that it’s difficult to know which I love more: Italy itself or the idea of Italy. 

The joy of travel is always sparked in part by imagination: the anticipation of a place before you arrive; the memory of it once you leave. And it’s not without reason that we love to recreate the places we admire back home. The Chinese have even gone so far as to enshrine their nostalgia for England through Shanghai’s mock English suburb Thames Town. It’s a riot of British stereotypes – from phone boxes to village greens. 

We too love to indulge in our own make believe versions of the countries that have captured our hearts. Nowhere is this more true than our passion for Italy. Indeed, Britain has the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio to thank for the wave of Italian-inspired designs that swept across Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries.