Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me, Simon Calder.

It's Tuesday the 11th of February, which means two things.

First of all, it's Travel Desk, Tuesday in which I talked to one of my excellent colleagues on the Independent Travel Desk.

And also, it's only three days to Valentine's Day.

So I thought I should combine the two and talk to the

global travel editor, Annabel Grossman. Hello, Annabelle. Hi, Simon. So, Valentine's

destinations, I do calculate that we get about 8 billion PR messages saying, oh, you should go here

for Valentine's Day. But my eyes being

caught by Lonely Planet's top 10 alternative Valentine destination. So should we begin, instead

of Paris, they say, find romance in Lucerne? Well, first of all, I'm a recent convert to Paris. I

used to not like it at all.

I went this summer and I absolutely adored it.

But I think I really liked it because I was on a solo trip.

I don't really feel like Paris itself is the city of love.

I feel like it's quite a cool, fun, gritty city, which is quite good to do with groups of friends.

Whereas Lucerne, I can actually see why

that might be a romantic break, as it's a little bit calmer, it's very pretty, lots of nice

restaurants, it's a slower pace. It is a slower pace, but the pace at which you become

bankrupt, I think, is quite a lot faster because it's in Switzerland, which of course we love, but the Swiss Frank is so mighty that I'm not sure how if you are after a budget, Valentine's weekend or holiday, whether Lucerne would be the optimum place.

Should we try the second one?

Replace, Lonely Planet recommends, the French Riviera with the Baroque beauty and beaches of Leche and Southern Puglia.

That's the heel of Italy.

...