With opera season well underway in Verona and the summer sun starting to shine over the stunning Italian scenery, there's never been a better time to visit one of Italy's most glamorous bodies of water: Lake Garda. At these historic hotels, paradisal golf courses and world-class spas, adopting the Dolce Vita lifestyle is easy.

In this Global Village, our international event highlights return – condensed but no less relevant.

Click on through for our top picks of festivities around the globe this June, and stay tuned in the coming days for more in-depth articles on select events.

Expertly hewn from a solid block of smoked oak wood, sculptor Georg Wilczek's handiwork adorns this summer's CENTURION Magazine cover – the latest of our creative endeavours to highlight the craftsmanship and timelessness represented from page to page within.

Continue past the jump for our behind-the-scenes look at the cover's creation.

Opera aficionados in the know will be winging their way to the arena nestled in the village-like city of Verona this summer, to join in marking the bicentennial of Giuseppe Verdi's birth. With Plácido Domingo at the helm as Honorary Artistic Director (as well as also acting as conductor and performer), expectations are high – and understandably so.

Christie’s and Sotheby’s present the best of India and a little further afield in London on June 11th, with a host of modern and contemporary masters – from Husain and Raza to Gaitonde and Souza.

With some of the world’s heavyweight auction houses involved, London’s Russian Art Week should be a highlight of the auction calendar. Running between May 31st and June 7th, four particular sales stand out, one each at Christie’s and Bonhams, and two at Sotheby’s.