Travel around Miami

Trance is not usually a big thing in France, with dready fractal chic and polo shirts mixing suspiciously at best, but the funky, regular Alien Factory events have a virtual monopoly on what little scene there is. Just about every trance DJ in Paris worth his salt (all twelve of them) will give it all during this 12-hour non-stop birthday bash, stretching from midnight to midday at the flagship Gibus.

On show at the busy commuter station of Nuevos Ministerios, this exhibition is a tribute to the millions of children across the globe whose infancy has been stolen from them by the crippling poverty into which they were born. Fernando Moleres portrays the cruel exploitation of working children aesthetically but without soppy sentimentalism, preferring instead to confer dignity on to his subjects. Moleres hopes that his work will help in the first step towards the eradication of child labour by contributing to debate and reflection on the subject.

Flemish choreographer Marc Bogaerts has created this ballet especially for the Royal Ballet of Flanders, the flagship company of classical dance in Belgium. Based on Charles V, King of Spain and ruler of a huge empire, ‘El Sueño del emperador’ (The Emperor’s Dream) presents the conceptions of a visionary and his unflinching obsessions with the apocalypse and the change of millennium. This spectacle features Ayesem Sunai as the leading dancer and music ranging from Arvo Pärt to the Master Drummers of Korea.

Veteran photojournalist James Natchwey is currently one of the most respected in his field, owing to his brave portrayals of conflicts from all around the world. This show, consisting of a 150 images, both in black and white and colour, depicts the dignity and human spirit of those who survive in even the most horrendous circumstances during conflicts such as Rwanda and Afghanistan. Natchwey’s work has appeared in Time, Paris-Match and National Geographic and is laden with countless awards including the Robert Capa Gold Medal and the World Press Photo among them.

Do continental breakfasts leave you peckish? Then a full Anglo-Irish plate of grease could be just the ticket. A newly opened tea room next to Brussels’ English shop has just begun serving up weekend brunch with meat and eggs supplied by Irish butchers, Jack O’Shea’s, next door. For under 500BF (£10), you can gorge yourself on sausages, rashers and black pudding and wash it all down with bladder-bursting quantities of tea and coffee at no extra charge. During weekdays, the tea room specialises in lighter fare, such as salmon rolls and quiche lorraine.

This ‘Tasting Local’ serves up hundreds of different Holland brewed liquors. Except for a brief spell in the 80s when it was home to squatters, this standing-room-only bar has been serving the same sort of shots since 1672. Not only are there dozens of varieties of ‘jenever’ – Dutch gin – but there are such tantalisingly named drinks as ‘Parrot Soup’, ‘Bride Tears’, ‘Naked Navel’, ‘Venus Oil’ and ‘Reassurance Against Bitter Suffering’. The perfect place for a quick pick-me-up.

This long-established ‘disko striptyz’ club has gone from sleaze to over-the-top, finally shedding its dreary programmes for a popular mix of pizza and bizarre live acts. On Wednesdays, grab a brick-oven pepperoni and brace yourself for the drag show; Thursday could be a mushroom pie with foot-stomping Czech country & western; Friday’s a four-cheese with techno; and Saturday’s got to be garlic and pop beats. It all happens under cowtown-style tile eaves and hitching posts – it seems the black glitter paint will not been missed.

One of the most important factors to look for in a hotel, if you are spending any time in Florence in the summer, is outside space. If you have deep pockets, you couldn’t do better than the Torre di Bellosguardo, a four-star villa hotel perched on a hill to the south of the city with a fabulous view over the steaming masses below. Formal Italian gardens and a pool make a magical setting, and the bedrooms are furnished very much in keeping with their 16th-century origins with, of course, the addition of all the usual comforts you would expect from a hotel at this price.