It’s the time of year when seasonal changes dictate less hours of daylight.  But our days seem to grow shorter in any event.

Well, so far – not so good – in 2013. Contacts in the interior design industry in UK tell me that – despite winning awards and receiving accolades – their businesses are in serious decline. The same must apply here in South Africa because Habitat’s clients across the board are hedging their bets. It’s a very difficult marketplace for most of us.

It offers much more than pasta, Parmesan and even Prada. This issue showcases a bonanza of Italian style – in architecture, furniture, cars and cuisine – with the annual EuroStyle review and a Maserati drive in Parma and the Chianti countryside. An ancient and iconic country, Italia might require a financial bailout very soon, but at the high end it still ticks most of the boxes.

One of my peers – the editor of a leading lifestyle title – noted at a glittering event in Italy a couple of years ago: ‘It’s a great life being a journalist, because we get to experience fabulous travel, luxury destinations and happenings, for free. We really do get spoiled’. This is true enough but one hopes that what we deliver in our columns is considered an equitable pay-back. But yes, the cosseting is legendary and we are indeed fortunate.

Since last I wrote, there have been major rumblings in this country’s political system, a resulting depreciation of our international image and a downgrading of our risk rating. Sad indeed, because South Africa is such a wonderful country and surely deserves enlightened leaders, not those who spend more time squabbling than achieving.

We’ve been around for 39 years. Habitat was first published in March 1973 and there have been more than a few gradients on our graph – both upside and downside – in those almost four decades.