Early doors for the Palio dash

This week: a locals’ view of Siena’s great horse race; the Arctic bites back; German joys; a masterpiece in Moravia

romantic bliss had failed to take into account one or two important facts… this is the land of the midge/mosquito, and what do they like (apart from fresh English blood that is)? Yes, water. Within a few minutes of our romantic early evening stroll by the lake we were bitten from head to foot, so badly that the remainder of the holiday was spent applying a vilesmelling ointment to each other’s bite-marked torsos. Once home I never did see, or indeed hear, from this girl again… strange that. STEVE GREEN

German journeys

Your recent online article “30 reasons why we secretly love Germany” was spot on, offering a great mixture of classic and quirky sights, culture and nature.

I’d like to add another reason to love Germany – the profusion of themed touring routes linking places that have something in common – from castles to clocks to cheese. There are around 80 of these routes nationally, and many are worth a detour. Among the most impressive are the Romantic Road, linking several chocolate box towns in the south; the “beer and castles” route, in the west; and the Alpine route, weaving along past many lakes, castles, forests and peaks. So there’s no need to love Germany “secretly”: there’s a lot to love, after all. MARTHA HALES

Modernist flourish

When Chris Leadbeater was writing “Europe’s 20 Secret Cities” (Cover story, April 2), I was staying in Brno for three days. This second largest city of the Czech Republic, and the capital of Moravia, is by no means “lost in Prague’s shadow”.

Only a few tramway stops from the centre, I stepped into one of the greatest modernist buildings of the Twenties: 29 steel columns support what was the home of Fritz and Grete Tugendhat for only seven years [they fled the country due to Europe’s unrest in the late Thirties]. Its windows offer the view of Brno skyline dominated by the Cathedral of St Peter and Paul. Readers of Simon Mewer’s novel The Glass Room will recognise this.

Its table witnessed the signatures that sealed the amicable divorce of the Czech Republic from Slovakia in 1993.

Moravia is yet to be discovered by anyone looking for the perfect holiday less than a two-hour flight from England. ANNA HOWARTH