World’s most welcoming countries
International hospitality from Iceland to Bosnia
Finally, there is the new National Portrait Gallery in Canberra which opened in 2008, a low-slung building dominated by two cantilevered concrete blades that complements the brutalist architecture of its neighbour, the High Court of Australia. Critics, like Catherine De Lorenzo of the University of New South Wales, have celebrated its “assured presence”, suggesting that it “reveals a new architectural maturity in Canberra and, perhaps, the nation”. Australia’s bush capital has never really gone for grand, monumental architecture – visitors can literally clamber over its new parliament building on the turf that covers its roof – and the Portrait Gallery is typically understated.
Like all the other galleries, though, it is a welcome addition. “The Great Australian Emptiness” is a thing of the past. Just look at the artistic landmarks peppering its cultural landscape.
The way of the shepherd 
Hiking and houseboats in Sausalito 
Matinee jazz in a Manhattan parlour 
Classic sights in the City of Light 
Italy’s stolen treasures come home 
Living in... cities of the future 
Forms of ID: Geraldine DeRuiter 
My city: Mumbai 
The Spanish ritual of baby jumping 
Beijing’s labyrinth of history 
America’s best little beach towns 
Duct tape designs take form in Ohio 
Reader Q&A: Mini breaks from London 
Johannesburg’s hip transformation 
See eye to eye with a butterfly 
Spain’s super-charged sport 
Walking in Inca footsteps 
Jaffa, an Israeli city in flux 