Caroline Phillips

Journalism

Caroline Phillips
“Caroline Phillips is a tenacious and skilful writer with a flair for high quality interviewing and a knack for making things work.”

Caroline Phillips

Journalism

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Sicily’s Finest

Lusso | 22 Jan 2016

The Fattoria Corleonese is heaven on earth in the heart of a bustling working estate. (Think parfaito homemade cheese, olive oil and luscious tomatoes which the owners leave you as a welcome.) It’s in the middle of the Sicilian countryside – near Corleone – with views of hills, meadows and avenues of pines and eucalyptus trees from the house to eternity. And gardens of walnut, cherry and apple trees. The estate dates back to 1873 and the accommodation is in part of a bougainvillea-covered manor house – built around a cobbled courtyard –that’s still a family home.


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In Calais

London Review of Books | 24 Dec 2015

At the Jules Ferry refugee centre in Calais on Saturday there were hundreds of men clamouring to get in to listen to Handel’s Messiah but the gates were closed, with 700 people already inside. I was there with Play 4 Calais, an offshoot of the Lexi social enterprise cinema in North London, spearheaded by the actress Alix Wilton Regan. The aim was to bring four days of film screenings to some of the Jungle refugee camp’s estimated 6500 inhabitants, including children who are waiting to be reunited with their parents in the UK.


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The last days of summer in Sicily

Country & Town House | 24 Sep 2015

Tell people that you’re going to holiday in Sicily and you can see, on their faces, their imaginations conjuring up pictures of rolling hills, cypresses, red clay roof tiles baking in the sun, plump tomatoes bursting with flavour, cornfields, sheep and exotic, if benign, undercurrents of Godfather-related history. How satisfying, then, to realize that our family trip to SoloSicily‘s Fattoria Corleonese (near that Corleone, but more of that later) was to deliver on all of the above and more.

Monaci delle Terre Nere: an Italian hideaway from heaven

Country & Town House | 24 Aug 2015

‘I always dreamt of making an earthly paradise,’ reveals erstwhile engineer Guido Coffa. Mission accomplished. Working with his girlfriend Ada Calabrese – a passionate amateur interior decorator and an architect, Guido has created Monaci delle Terre Nere, the sort of boutique hotel that makes heaven look second rate. The property sits in 40 acres of organic farmland in the fertile foothills of Mount Etna, the volcano coughing angrily behind, the Mediterranean Sea beckoning serenely in front. The dusky-pink villa dates from 1800 – a noble family’s private home turned winery, then farm – and there are 19 bedrooms/suites, some in outbuildings on the estate. The refurbishment took five years and the result is the epitome of rural chic – where stylish-rustic meets cool-contemporary. ‘Having fallen in love with it instantly,’ he remembers. ‘I decided to devote my life and every drop of my energy to its resurrection.’

Get your rocks off in Nicaragua

Country & Town House | 24 Mar 2015

I’m suspended above the ground wearing a harness. Dangling over rain forest. I’ve already signed a waiver for death, dismemberment and suchlike. Now like some hybrid of monkey and horizontal parachutist, I’m rocketing past trees, rain forest and over coffee plantations. Jumping off the zip line at ceiba trees around which 60ft. high platforms have been built – there to ready myself to take the next leg of my treetop journey. Then careering off again as howler monkeys howl in the forest.

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