While using the Polpo cookbook the other day, I had a moment to think about why the book was one of last year's biggest successes. Perhaps because it has an innovative spine that allows it to lie flat; perhaps because it looks beautiful and the recipes work; perhaps because it is true to one, quite specific cuisine – the Venetian cicchetti (little plates).

Art Deco glamour, dusky hues, Prohibition-style tea room, personal attachés, Jack Kerouac, and sophisticated retreats

'I had no idea there are more than 120 natural springs in Budapest'

Venice authorities will fit GPS devices and number plates on all the lagoon city’s gondolas to monitor their movements and prevent a repeat of the accident that cost the life of a German tourist in August.

Private collection

Daniel Radcliffe's turn as Allen Ginsberg was one of the highlights of the 70th Venice Film Festival, where Britain made up for its near-invisibility at Cannes, says Geoffrey Macnab

'Today, I am a free man,' says exasperated director Paul Schrader

The world's oldest film festival is 70 years old and struggling against more modern competitors, says Geoffrey Macnab

The row over the presence of giant cruise ships in Venice’s lagoon was reignited this weekend after claims that a huge vessel belonging to the same company as the wrecked Costa Concordia sailed dangerously close to St Mark’s Square.

The Italian socialist authors' sequel to Q has finally been translated into English after a four year wait. James Legge meets half of their number

Garsington's 'Maometto secondo' is risibly directed but superlatively sung 

A short walk from St Mark's Square, a 13th-century mercantile building is now an intimate guesthouse

Artist Alfredo Jaar makes the point that while 28 countries own national pavilions inside the Giardini, the remaining 60 are kept outside. Chile, his own country, has to rent its pavilion.

V&A Museum, London