Before I finish up my big fat Portugal post, and another on Dublin, and still others on Italy and Provence, here is one on Puerto Rico, where my husband and I went in early January.

These photos show the views from the great rooftop terrace of the O:LV Fifty Five Hotel in Condado Beach. We had reserved at the sister hotel, Olive Boutique Hotel, about a 2-minute walk away, but as the terrace there was under renovation, we were granted access to the roof at LV (clever that LV are the Roman numerals for fifty-five).  These Olive properties (there are three others, with a fourth opening in 2028) are members of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World group, and we really enjoyed our stay at Olive Boutique.  There is a nice casual but classy-cool vibe throughout the hotel and our guest room was large and also had a private outdoor space as big as our room.  The service by everyone we encountered was welcoming and excellent, especially by the reception staff.  The complimentary breakfast could have been better but all in all I would stay here again in a heartbeat.  The rooftop scene at O:LV was really terrific, with lots of tables for dining, a great plunge pool, a jacuzzi, and some private seating areas like this one below. 

 This part of our trip was at the end of our visit.  When we first arrived in San Juan we stayed at the stylish Alma San Juan, which also has a nice rooftop with a good restaurant, Mar y Rosa.  The Alma's location was excellent as it was on plaza Colón, just steps away from the Castillo San Cristóbal but away from the heart of Old San Juan (and its potentially noisy bars at night).  The ground floor restaurant, Andaluz, was Puerto Rico's first restaurant to receive a James Beard Award nomination (we never made it there so I can't say anything about it).  The hotel also has the Café at Alma, open for breakfast and lunch.  Our guest room was a nice size, and I loved the sustainably made, light wood furniture and the eco toiletries.  However, we had a connecting room (that we didn't request), which meant that we could hear the people speaking in the other room.  I have no idea if the walls in the other guest rooms were as thin, but they may be.  The clientele at the Alma skews younger, which may partly explain why the building next door had signs posted on its facade stating that the Alma was a mal vecino (bad neighbor) - I was told that there were some previous issues with late night partying, but we didn't experience any of that and I was also told that the Alma had addressed the concerns by closing its dining venues earlier.  Perhaps the signs are unwarranted, perhaps not, but travelers thinking of staying here should inquire.  

The Hotel El Convento is a well known favorite in Old San Juan and is also a member of the Small Luxury Hotels group.   It's a converted convent dating back to the 1600s, and while we didn't stay here, we did spend time at the atmospheric bar which is a lively and fun, indoor-outdoor space with great bartenders.  I hear the rooftop plunge pool is especially nice.  On one of our walks through Old San Juan we passed the Decanter Hotel, which looked like it would be worth considering for a future visit.  

I did struggle a bit with the food on the island because pork is a specialty (I don't eat it) and it's everywhere and in many dishes.  Mofongo - mashed green plantains with garlic, olive oil, and usually pork rinds or bacon, is another island specialty.  However, I did find some good - sometimes delicious - things to eat, notably at El Vino Crudo in Old San Juan and at Santaella in the Santurce neighborhood of San Juan (Jose Santaella is the author of Rizzoli's Cocina Tropical: The Classic and Contemporary flavors of Puerto Rico).  We enjoyed great rum drinks at La Factoría (which was named 'Best Bar in the Caribbean') and JungleBird (a tiki bar by the same owners, conveniently located catty-corner from Santaella).  There is a drink on JungleBird's menu called 'Adios Pantalones' which we thought was incredibly funny.  The drinks here are not run of the mill, and we had the Boriken Green Swizzle made with carypton, a boozy mix of rum, lime, sugar, and herbs produced by Angostura in Trinidad before Prohibition.  The bar food choices here are great - try the tortalitos.  Café Cuatro Sombras is a really good place for coffee and breakfast, and Café Manolín is a classic, old school place similar to a diner with all the Creole specialties on the menu at very affordable prices (I had read that this was a favorite of Lin- Manuel Miranda and it did not disappoint).  We also had dinner at Carli's Fine Bistro & Piano, which serves perfectly executed fine dining dishes, but this meal was not our favorite.  The owner, Carli Muñoz, toured with the Beach Boys for some years (note the framed gold album hung on the wall) and he often plays with his jazz trio, sometimes accompanied by singers and musicians who are in town.  The later you go, the better the music is.  The piña colada, by the way, was invented in Puerto Rico, though by whom and where is still contested.  Three bartenders claim the drink as their own, two of them at the Caribe Hilton Hotel and the third at Barrachina in Old San Juan.   

Also in Old San Juan we went on a very enjoyable culinary walking tour with Spoon Puerto Rico.  Our tour was led by the vivacious and friendly Desi, and she took our group of about ten people to four different stops, beginning with coffee at Don Ruiz.  The coffee is very, very good (and bags of beans may be purchased there) and it was the perfect place to begin our food-centric morning.  Desi was able to satisfy everyone's dietary preferences, including mine, and at every stop we had something delicious to eat or drink (or both).  One stop was at Deaverdura, which serves some of the best comida criolla in town.  Another stop was at Cortés, where we had gone previously for coffee so we were already familiar with it - it's a fourth generation, family owned, bean-to-bar chocolate company founded in 1929.  A few of the chocolate bars have this great retro packaging: 

Food stylist and cookbook author Camille Becerra (Bright Cooking: Recipes for the Modern Palate is her latest book) was born in San Juan and she recommended some of her favorite places to eat for YOLO Journal last year.  Becerra wrote that after some years of farmers' markets being supplanted by huge supermarkets, today the local tropical ingredient culture is vibrant once again and thoughtful chefs are incorporating the best local produce into creative fare. "Now everyone is flocking to the food scene in San Juan - dare I say it's the new Miami!"  I thought that since we were visiting after the festive season it wouldn't be necessary to make restaurant reservations much in advance, but I was mistaken.  All the restaurants Becerra defined as those committed to locally sourced products were fully booked, at both lunch and dinner, on all the days I tried to reserve.  Clearly it isn't only tourists who want to eat at these places, which include Vianda, Cocina al Fondo, La Casita Blanca, and Celeste.  

A few shops I liked:
Just-Reyes Arts, with some really nice artisanal items including handmade bookmarks and frameable cards, nearly all made in Puerto Rico.  

Casa Bohème, with tabletop items, furniture, and home goods.  Very few items are made in Puerto Rico but it's an appealing and unique shop nonetheless. 

7Ven Seas Jewelry & Art Gallery (206 calle Fortaleza): even though this is the official name of the store, we stepped inside because one half of it is a liquor store with a nice selection of local rums and tobacco.  The rums stocked at the local SuperMax market (on calle de la Cruz) are cheaper but the very helpful sales assistant at 7Ven Seas will explain the differences between all the rums.  She told us that Puerto Rico is the only place in the world with a quality seal for rums.  We bought bottles of both Ron Barrilito and Don Q, both founded in the 1800s.  According to Charles Coulombe, author of Rum: The Epic Story of the Drink That Conquered the World, by 1667 the sugar cane-derived spirit was already known as rum in English and ron in Spanish, just over a decade after it was first reported in the West Indies, in Barbados.  It's believed to originate from rumbullion or rombustion, a "great tumult." 

MOTA handbags at See U Soon (calle de San Francisco).  It's the handbags - which are handmade, bright, fun, and colorful - that I like, not necessarily the store (which is fine, just not distinctive).  MOTA bags are also found at Chroma (Mall of San Juan), Local Story (Dorado), The Makers (Caguas), and at a pop-up store in plaza Las Americas.  

Libreria Laberinto, a really nice bookstore.  I bought a copy of Stories From Puerto Rico - Historias de Puerto Rico, a bilingual book of eighteen legends that include a tale about creation and stories from the Spanish colonial period and from the twentieth century.  The Spanish-English stories are presented side by side (lado a lado) so readers may easily see the Spanish words and the English translation.  There is an English to Spanish vocabulary and a Spanish to English vocabulary at the back of the book, as well as an appendix on the Tainos, the indigenous people who inhabited Puerto Rico at the time of the first voyage of Columbus.  According to the authors, Robert Muckley and Adela Martinez-Santiago, fifty years after the first Spaniards arrived, the Tainos had disappeared almost completely.  "Exploited cruelly by the Spaniards, only about 60 remained in 1542, the year in which a royal decree granted their freedom.  In the years that followed, the indigenous population became totally assimilated."  The authors go on to say that the language of the Tainos has not been preserved in its entirety; it disappeared before it could be studied by missionaries and scholars.  But some Taino words have come to form part of the Spanish spoken in Puerto Rico, Spanish in general, and other languages.  These include the English words canoe, hurricane, and hammock, as well as the name the Indians gave to the island: Boriquén, which means "land of the brave lord."   Boricua (pronounced bo-ree-kwa) refers to a native of Puerto Rico or someone of Puerto Rican descent, and is a way of life.  

We went to a baseball game and it was big fun!  The teams were both from San Juan - the Cangrejeros de Santurce and the Senadores de San Juan - and they were meeting each other for the third game in the series.  Cangrejeros means crab fishermen, and whenever the team scored a run or otherwise did something good, the fans held up their hands and moved their fingers up and down as if they were crab claws - it was really funny, and we couldn't help but do the same.  Palancas Arriba! (pincers up)  Bad Bunny (Benito Martinez Ocasio) is an investor in the Cangrejeros. 

The Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico is really nice - the Museo de Arte de Ponte is more renowned but the San Juan museum is definitely worth a visit, both for Puerto Rico Plural (the permanent exhibit) and the sculpture garden behind it (which is free for anyone to walk around).  

A mural in the garden.

A selection of mascaras (masks).  

The centerpiece in Puerto Rico Plural is the 14-panel painting 'La Plena' by Rafael Tufiño (known as the Painter of the People).  It's fantastic and not to be missed.  There are two numbered, explanatory panels on either side of the work, which is 15 feet x thirty feet. 

 

A close-up of one of the panels. 

We visited both of the forts at either end of Old San Juan, Castillo San Felipe del Morro (El Morro) and Castillo San Cristóbal.  Both are operated by the National Park Service and both are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and they're interesting and worthwhile.  El Morro was built to protect San Juan Bay's deep harbor from attack by sea.  It was the first good harbor and the first major island with fresh water that ships encountered as they sailed west from Europe.  San Cristóbal was built over 150 years to protect El Morro and the city from land attack, and it's the biggest European fortification in the Americas.  El Morro is popular for weekend picnics complete with kite-flying, and walking on La Muralla (the ramparts of the fort) affords great views all around.  

The Spanish Colonial architecture in Old San Juan is well-preserved and pretty... 

...and the blue cobblestones are found only here: the story is that before the ships left Spain for the New World, they were filled with stones cast from furnace slag (waste from iron smelting) as ballast, to make the empty vessels more stable.  When the ships arrived in San Juan, the stones were taken off and then all the gold, sugar, and other valuable materials were loaded on.  The road builders used the leftover stones to create the cobblestones for the streets of Old San Juan.  The blue color is due to age and moisture. 

Some things we missed (it happens) (next time!):

The farmers' market in Old San Juan on Saturday morning.  As Camille Becerra writes in her cookbook, "The first thing I do when traveling is find the local farmers’ market, one of the biggest areas of culture within a city…Even if I don’t need to buy anything, I go.  Every farmer's market throughout the world helps you understand its culture.  It shows you how people eat, convene, and get along, and it introduces you to ingredients you might’ve never seen before."  She likes to buy the local, tropical  flowers there and put them in her room, which sounds like a nice idea to me.  

A salsa performance.  Puerto Rico is the home of salsa, and it hosts a National Salsa Day every year.  The salsa radio station Z93 produces the event, which is held at Hiram Bithorn Stadium (the baseball stadium) in San Juan.  While salsa has its roots outside of Puerto Rico - it was first used in 1937 by Cuban composer Igancio Pineiro in his song, 'Echale Salsita' - the island is directly responsible for the rhythm known by this name.  Salsa's roots can be traced back to Europe and Africa, and its emergence was deeply influenced by musical forms from Cuba and other parts of the Caribbean as well as by diaspora Puerto Ricans living in New York.  Among the most important of these mainland musicians was Tito Puente (1923-2000), who composed 'Oye Como Va' which was a big hit by Carlos Santana in 1970.  "The history of salsa is the history of the new world," a guidebook states.  "In salsa, there's evidence of rhythms from past ages, as well as the musical history of our own time.  Salsa isn't a "pure" musical form, but represents - like Puerto Rico itself - a mixture of rhythmic elements, adapted by the inhabitants of the new world."  Two other distinct but closely linked Puerto Rican musical traditions are bomba and plena, both tracing their roots to the African slaves brought to the island starting in the 17th century. 

El Balcón del Zumbador, which features live bomba music (Thursdays apparently are especially great).

A performance at the Centro de Bellas Artes Luis A. Ferré, a great venue for theater, small concerts, dance, and Puerto Rico's symphony and philharmonic orchestras. In January 2019, Lin-Manuel Miranda famously hosted a 24-performance run of 'Hamilton' at the center - it was a fundraiser for the restoration of arts and cultural programs in the aftermath of hurricanes Irma and Maria.  The funds were distributed by the Flamboyan Arts Fund created by Lin-Manuel and the Miranda family in partnership with the Flamboyan Foundation.   

*

Not far from San Juan is El Yunque National Forest, the only tropical rainforest in the U.S. national forest system, and it encompasses 28,000 acres and reaches an elevation of more than 3,500 feet.  The forest receives an estimated average of 200-240 inches of rain each year. The forest is home to some endemic plant and animal species, notably the Puerto Rican Green Parrot (the only one native to the island and one of the world's rarest birds) and the coquí frog (a tree frog known as the island's national symbol; male frogs sing and their song has been measured at 90 to 100 decibels, making it the loudest existing amphibian - a writer for the island's tourism website notes that "Like the coquí, many Puerto Ricans are smaller in stature, but exuberant when speaking.  The saying is, "I'm not yelling, I'm Puerto Rican"...small island, small frog, BIG VOICE.").  In this link from Anthropocene magazine, you can hear a recording of a coquí, and the accompanying article is really interesting - it's an excerpt from The New Wild: Why Invasive Species Will Be Nature's Salvation by Fred Pearce.  Waterfalls are the thing at El Yunque and two of the best are Juan Diego Falls and one at the Angelito Trail Head.  While the temperature in the forest doesn't budge much beyond 73 degrees, be sure to come prepared for rain (though it didn't rain at all when we went).  

*  

After three days in San Juan we drove west all the way out to Rincon, site of the first World Surfing Championships in 1968.  We don't surf, but we went for the laid-back vibe and the beaches.  We spent two nights at Villa Montaña, in Isabela, and two more nights at Casa Isleña, not far away.  Of the two, I preferred Casa Isleña, though the Eclipse restaurant at Villa Montaña was a real draw.  

The beach at Casa Isleña.

We liked Playa Jobos, where we had lunch at Tabla Salá.  Just down the road a bit from Villa Montaña is Ola Lola's, a fun, outdoor place with good drinks and food.  The Beach House in Rincon is a good place, especially if Billy is playing guitar and singing.  Cafe 413 in Rincon is a great breakfast place (we went twice). Ola Sunset Cafe is, as the name suggests, a great place to watch the sunset and is big fun besides (it's at the lighthouse in Rincon).  For $15 we had gigantic cups of mojitos, and a well-known and quite good Grateful Dead cover band, Half Step, was also playing.  We didn't make it to Reina Mora, which apparently is an excellent restaurant, because it's only open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and we needed to be back in San Juan on Thursday (reservations are required).  Jack's Shack is a good food truck in Rincon.  Jake's Java, near Casa Isleña, is a good coffee place and is where I learned about Dylan Smith (there is a Dylan Smith Way street sign hanging on one wall at Jake's).  There is also a framed newspaper article about Smith, who was from Rockaway, New York and during Hurricane Sandy, he rescued at least a dozen people using his surfboard.  Two months later he died while surfing in Rincon, at age 23.  A documentary, 'Seven Miles to Shore,' was made about his heroic efforts.  Playero, a local, family-run company founded in 1977, has a shop in Rincon.  This beach lifestyle brand is really appealing, and we had to stop in (one T-shirt and a pair of sandals later). 

The view from The Beach House.

To Read:

The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson (Simon & Schuster, 1999).  One of Thompson's few works of fiction, though he spend time on the island.  It was made into a film, starring Johnny Depp (2011). 

The House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferré (Plume, 1996).  A finalist for the National Book Award, this novel is about a house, and it's on a lagoon, but it's also a many-layered family saga set within actual events in Puerto Rico's history.    

When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago (several editions; I read the Vintage edition of 1994, but a newer edition, published by Grand Central Publishing in 2006, includes two forewords by Jaquira Díaz and Julia Alvarez).   A beautiful memoir - named by Oprah's Book Club as one of "The Best Memoirs of a Generation" - that is beautifully, honestly written and is by turns heart breaking uplifting.  She writes that when she was a teenager and leaving the island to come to New York, "For me, the person I was becoming when we left was erased, and another one was created.  The Puerto Rican jíbara [female form of a person from the countryside] who longed for the green quiet of a tropical afternoon was to become a hybrid who would never forgive the uprooting."  When Santiago began writing the book, she had no idea it would result in a dialogue about cultural identity.  She spoke to many immigrants who have returned to their countries, only to discover how much they have changed by immersion in North American culture.  "They accept and understand the irony of the past tense in the title, the feeling that, while at one time they could not identify themselves as anything but the nationality to which they were born, once they've lived in the U.S. their "cultural purity" has been compromised, nor do they feel one hundred percent comfortable as Americans."  When she returned to Puerto Rico after living in New York for seven years, she was told she was no longer Puerto Rican because her Spanish was rusty, her gaze too direct, her personality too assertive, and she refused to eat some traditional foods like morcilla and tripe stew.  "I felt as Puerto Rican as when I left the island, but to those who had never left, I was contaminated by Americanisms, and therefore, had become less than Puerto Rican.  Yet, in the united States, my darkness, my accented speech, my frequent lapses into the confused silence between English and Spanish identified me as foreign, non-American."  

Thrillist recently featured an interview with iLe, a Puerto Rican singer, who shared what makes for a perfect day on the island. 

A Puerto Rican playlist might include Bad Bunny, Luis Fonsi, DaddyYankee, Marc Anthony, Pedro Capo, Ferruko, Residente, Wisin & Yandel, Rick Martin, and Don Omar.  And the island's classic, 'En Me Viejo San Juan' by Javier Solís - here's the backstory from NPR.  Puerto Rico Tourism has created two good lists on Spotify, 'Borikén is Calling' and 'Boricua Roadtrip.'  

The Puerto Rico Tourism Site has some useful information and The Culture Trip has a good summary of some Puerto Rican myths, legends, and superstitions. 

Puerto Rico has still not yet fully recovered from Hurricane Maria in 2017 - the island receives absolutely nothing from FEMA - though San Juan has bounced back in a big way as it is such a source of tourist dollars.  The island is a real place with real people living on it (as opposed to just a pretty picture postcard), and while it may be true that life is a bit simpler there, it's also a bit complicated: there are 78 municipalities in Puerto Rico, which means there are 78 mayors, and it remains an island with an unresolved colonial status.  I hope the island won't be in limbo, so to speak, for much longer, but in the meantime, it's an interesting, beautiful place to visit.  The entire time I was on the island I had a promotional tv commercial song in my head from the 1970s - the main lyrics were 'Come on and go, to Puerto Rico' ... 'You'll love it so, in Puerto Rico' - and I intended to provide a link to the commercial here (because it was a lively song with a catchy jingle) but I cannot find a single reference to it anywhere online, which seems strange to me.   It's possible that the tune may be an actual real song; at any rate, it's disappointing that I can't find it, but you should come on and go!  

If you love Italy, you likely know of Katie Parla, cookbook author, host of her own television show ('Katie Parla's Rome'), and frequent contributor to a variety of publications.  And she appeared on Stanley Tucci's 'Searching for Italy' and 'Chef's Table: Pizza,' among others.  And she leads culinary walking tours in Rome (and elsewhere in Italy).  So it's not surprising that she's been referred to as the "Italian Goddess From Jersey" (she grew up in New Jersey, which she has referred to as "Italy's unofficial 21st region").  

I was fond of her books Tasting Rome: Fresh Flavors & Forgotten Recipes from an Ancient City (with Kristina Gill), Food of the Italian South: Recipes for Lost, Classic and Disappearing Dishes, and The Joy of Pizza (with Dan Richer, owner of Razza Pizza Artigionale in Jersey City).  So when I learned her next book was Food of the Italian Islands I was really looking forward to its publication.  I admit I was also curious to see if the book was really going to cover all the islands of Italy or if it would only represent some of them.  Followers of this blog who know me also know that I am crazy for the Italian island of Pantelleria (which I have not yet posted about), so what I really wanted to know was if Katie would include Pantelleria in her book, and I was prepared to judge the book by the island's inclusion (or not). 

I needn't have even had the thought, because of course Katie included Pantelleria. !  And she really did include all the individual islands and island archipelagos of Italy, and I like that when she mentions the Venetian lagoon she acknowledges there are 120 islands there, and she writes "To be honest, the lagoon merits a hundred books of its own - hmm...maybe my next project?" The book is simply great, and it's equally a practical cookbook with uncomplicated recipes (which are from acquaintances and friends, and from cooks, farmers, winemakers, and professional chefs) and an inspiring travel book (with photographs and a QR code to access her travel tips to the islands - some of the links are here: the general Islands guide; Sicily and its neighboring islands; Palermo; Amalfi Coast; Naples; Venice).  These are found in the 'City Guides' section of Katie's site, and this is a good place to see her recommendations for other destinations in Italy and further afield (Istanbul, Paris, Greece, London, etc.).  Like the best cookbooks, this is far more than a collection of recipes, and various features throughout the book - such as 'Palermo Street Food,' 'Badass Sardinian Shepherd Culture,' 'Fiat Panda 4x4,' and 'Al Dente as a Digestion Strategy' - are worthy on their own.  As for the recipes, I was happy to see how easy it is to make Crema di Pistacchio, one of the most delicious spreads I've ever eaten. 

Katie's writing style and voice in all of her books is very appealing, and it's clear she's also funny and has a sense of humor (the description of her train trip from Rome to Palermo in the Islands book Introduction is comical).  But what endeared her to me in the Islands book is a page very near the end, 'Donate.'  As she writes, "The Italian islands may conjure images of romantic getaways and spritzes at sunset for many tourists.  But they are also the site of rescues at sea and reception centers for many of the nearly seven hundred thousand migrants who have arrived on Italian shores since 2014.  Support the organizations devoted to caring for the world's most vulnerable communities."  Would that there were more people like Katie.  The organizations she lists are the International Rescue Committee, Joel Nafuma Refugee Center, Migrants of the Mediterranean, and United Nations Refugee Agency.   

I have reserved a tour in Rome with Katie this fall, and I positively cannot wait to meet her in person.  In the meantime, we corresponded by email about her Islands book: 

Q:  First off, how did you land on writing a book about the Italian islands?  Other than Giuliani Bugialli's Foods of Sicily and Sardinia and the Smaller Islands and The Islands of Italy by Barbara Grizzuti Harrison (not a cookbook and only about Sicily, the Aeolian Islands, and Sardinia), I think your islands book is a first as I don't believe anyone else has focused on Italy's islands.  

A: When I wrote my previous solo title, Food of the Italian South, I deliberately excluded Sicily so it wouldn't steal attention from Molise, Basilicata, and the other southern regions. When I thought about a follow-up, I wanted to do another regional cookbook, including Sicily and Sardinia was the logical pair. Eventually it morphed into an island book. 

Q: You have previously posted about  how you decided to forgo using an established publishing house to print, produce, and market this book, so I won't repeat it here; now that the book has been out in the world for eight months or so, are you pleased with the process?  Has the book's success met your expectations? 

A: The book came out in March 2023 and it was kind of a huge experiment. When I had to decide on the print run, I looked at the sales record for my previous titles and thought I could sell 15K copies over the course of a few years. I worked incredibly hard to promote the book (3 book tours, for example), hired an incredible publicist (shoutout to Phoebe), and sold out my first printing in 9 months. It was a team effort for sure and the success has exceeded expectations. 

Q:  As I stated above, I am a big fan of Pantelleria and I was so happy that you included this unique island in your book.  I guess it's obvious that with 'Italian Islands' in the title, Pantelleria would have to be included.  Still, you could have chosen to give it short shrift in the event the island didn't appeal to you.  Where did you go on the island, and did you stay in a dammuso or at one of the island's hotels?  

A:  I love to stay at Tenuta BorgiaTenuta Borgia but lately I have been hitting the same weekly rental nearby. It's a set of dammusi with a pizza oven and I love cooking there. Every morning I hop in my vintage FIAT Panda and head to the port to shop for produce, wine, and fish to cook. I drop the shopping back at the house and hit a beach for the afternoon.

Q: In your paragraph about Pantelleria on your site (under 'City Guides'), you mention the restaurant Osteria Il Principe e Il Pirata, which has a loyal following and apparently is a favorite of Giorgio Armani.  When I was on the island in May of 2022, the restaurant was closed so I haven't yet been.  What were your meals like there?  

A: Ha! I didn't know about Armani. Osteria Il Principe e Il Pirata is perched on a windswept stretch of coastline. I always sit on the powder blue terrace and order a bottle of Tanca Nica Soki Soki to accompany pasta with pistachio and bottarga pesto followed by fried seafood and a bacio pantesco, fried pastry shells filled with sweetened ricotta. 

Q: You devote a page in your book to capers, the culinary star of Pantelleria.  Was visiting La Nicchia's caper operation and farm a highlight of your visit?  One of the salad recipes in the book includes foglie di cappero (caper leaves), which are a fairly new part of the caper plant to eat.   As you note, La Nicchia began brining caper leaves in 2016.  Do the locals now eat the leaves or are the leaves more popular elsewhere?  [Note to readers: the wonderful online Italian food company Gustiamo, based in the Bronx, carries La Nicchia caper leaves.] 

A: Every part of a trip to Pantelleria is a highlight! Greeks and Cypriots eat caper leaves but Italians don't, although caper plants populate all the islands. La Nicchia has been curing them for a gourmet audience in Italy and abroad but it's a super small hand harvested production so I wouldn't say the custom has reached critical mass on the island or elsewhere. 

Q: You own a boat, Laura, in Venice - how did that come about?  How often do you get up to Venice?

A: I met my boyfriend, Roberto, while hosting a TV show called 'Great Getaways: Venice.' He's a glass maker in Murano (check out his company Wave Murano Glass). I'm up there some weekends and holidays, and our friend was selling his boat for a good price. I snatched it up and it's our ride when we need to hit the narrow canals of Venice. 

Q:  Sardinia seems to be a very favorite island of yours.  As you write," ...I want it to be the destination of your next Italian holiday."  What are some of its unique features that make it so special? 

A: The interior of the island is a wild place where the sheep outnumber the citizens, the knife culture is excellent, and Cagliari, the region's capital, is one of Italy's most dynamic cities!

Q:  Admittedly, winter temperatures in Rome don't typically fall below 39 degrees (F), but everything is relative and a chilly day is a chilly day.  What dishes from the book might you make in winter to make you think of particular Italian islands? 

A: We had a really warm winter and it was in the 60s all during the holidays from Rome south through Sicily. It's like we didn't have a winter. Fortunately  some days were cool enough to enjoy the cold weather classics like gattò di patate (recipe and video here) and pasta patate e provola (my recipe on Saveur). 

Q: Are you thinking of another book you'd like to write?

A: I'm always thinking of another book! The next one is a Rome cookbook-travelogue-memoir, coming 2025! 

Q:  Do you foresee staying in Rome for many more years?  

A: That's been the plan since I was 16 years old and decided on my life plan. Rome is home for the long haul!

                                             Moraine Lake, Valley of the Ten Peaks, Banff National Park

I'm just back from Portugal and the Extremadura region of Spain and will post about it soon, but in the meantime, a friend asked me recently for some advice about Banff and Jasper National Parks, in the Canadian Rockies, as she knew I'd been there some years ago.  I didn't post about my trip at the time (not because it wasn't amazing - it was!) but I was swamped, and I saved all my notes intending to post about it later.  Happily, there aren't a lot of changes to report on in this part of the world, which isn't surprising for an area that is mostly wilderness.  Here are some brief notes: 

First off, we flew into Calgary International Airport, which is quite a nice airport for its size, and the views for the entire ride to Lake Louise looked like they were created in Adobe Photoshop.  The colors of the sky and the landscape were so intense they didn't look real, so the two-hour ride was really memorable.  The Edmonton and Vancouver airports are other air options (Edmonton is closer), and the Rocky Mountaineer and VIA Rail train are other (more scenic) considerations. 

My husband, daughter, and I traveled with my brother-and-sister-in-law and our nieces, who are among my most favorite traveling companions.  They stayed at the Fairmont Château Lake Louise and we stayed at the nearby Post Hotel & Spa, a Relais & Châteaux property.  Both of these options are expensive, but I urge visitors to consider them because they're truly special, notably the Fairmont.  What isn't immediately apparent from hotel photographs is that there isn't anything else around the lake - the hotel is it.  If it was just another hotel on the edge of a beautiful lake it would not be distinctive enough; but the few trails that branch off from the lakeshore trail lead to the Lake Agnes and Plain of Six Glaciers tea houses, and when you get to them you can't believe they exist as they're really in the middle of nowhere.  It's a unique setting and I cannot think of another place in the world that is quite like it.  It's not at all similar to the northern Italian lakes, for example, or Lake Annecy in France or Lake Lucerne in Switzerland: once you leave the lakeshore you're in the wilderness.  If Banff National Park weren't so amazing it would almost be understandable to never venture very far beyond the hotel as there are numerous outdoor pursuits (such as canoeing, skiing, hiking, horseback riding, snowshoeing, ice skating, and sleigh rides) and indoor activities (such as wine tasting, yoga, in-room wellness, and a health club).  At any given time, Fairmont offers special promotions to make a stay less expensive, and travelers may set up an Accor Live Limitless (ALL) account and save on reservations and earn points (AccorHotels Group acquired the Fairmont hotels group in 2022).  Relais & Châteaux also offers many promotional rates and has its own members program. 

         

That's part of the Plain of Six Glaciers trail in the photo to the right (Lake Louise is at the back of the photo) and the trail is a bit unsettling as there is a steep drop-off on one side.  The drop-off is more apparent in the photo below (that's my niece Caroline in the foreground).  

I didn't investigate any other accommodations in the Lake Louise area, but there is a handful of other options (though not as many as in other areas of the Canadian Rockies) including hotels, cabins, B&Bs, and campgrounds.

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Aboriginal peoples knew about the area that is now the Cave and Basin National Historic site likely for millenia, gathering to trade or to dip into the sacred and curative waters found there.  In 1883, two years before the completion of Canada's first transcontinental railroad, three railroad workers stumbled upon a series of hot springs on what is now called Sulphur Mountain (there are nine thermal springs on the mountain, and the Banff Snail - about the same size as an apple seed - lives here in the mineral springs and nowhere else in the world; it's an endangered species and is protected by Parks Canada).  In 1885, after an ownership dispute, Prime Minister Sir John A Macdonald supported a landmark proposal to set aside the hot springs and the surrounding area and create a special reserve, and Banff became Canada's first national park.  By now the Canadian Pacific Railway lines stretched across the country and the tourism potential of the Canadian Rockies was apparent.  In 1888, the elegant, 250-room Banff Springs Hotel opened; other grand hotels opened along the line and Banff began to be advertised as an international tourism stop on what had become the fastest and most direct route from Europe to the Far East.  Banff today is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The view of Moraine Lake at the top of this post is stunning, so much so that it's featured on the back of Canadian twenty-dollar bills issued between 1969 and 1979.  It's one of the most popular sites within the park, for good reason.  Note that the road to the lake is only open to personal vehicles in June, July, August, September, and October (shuttles, public transit, and guided tours are also available).  In the winter months, the road is reserved for cross-country skiing to the Ten Peaks viewpoint. 

We stayed in nearby Canmore, which is a nice, laidback town that we really liked - it has a great vibe, and there are lots of independent shops and good places to eat and drink - while the other family members stayed at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel.  It is not quite as impressive as its Lake Louise sister but is still quite wonderful.  

                                            Rainbow in Canmore

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If rafting is your thing, Wild Water Adventures is the company we used for a trip on the Kicking Horse River, located in Golden, British Columbia, about an hour and a half from Banff.  The Kicking Horse is a Canadian Heritage River for its historical, cultural, and recreational significance, one of only three in British Columbia.  Rafting is most definitely not my thing.  Before this trip, I had only been on one rafting adventure, on the American River in northern California.  I was terrified for the entire journey, and I think the only reason I survived is because I molded my legs to the side of the raft and didn't move, even when our guide fell off (at that point, I was sure I was going to die).  So when the family suggested this rafting trip, I was understandably lukewarm.  While we were checking in and trying on life vests, etc., I overheard another, smaller family talking about how they had opted for the shorter version of the trip on the river, and I asked them if they would consider having me join on their raft.  They said they would be happy for me to join, and I was buoyed by their welcoming attitude.  When I told my own family, they were incredulous.  "You're going to what?  You're actually going to abandon us and go on a raft with another family you don't even know?"  I was guilted into sticking with the original plan.  Our guide was terrific and the river was beautiful and in some spots it was calm and quiet, but mostly, I was terrified yet again, especially when the guide announced that we were approaching a spot that was known as the meat grinder or something like that (I have successfully blocked out of my head what he actually called it).  Obviously, I made it through, but I made it clear that I will never, ever be going on a rafting trip again.  Everyone else loved it, and despite the fact that I couldn't relax for a half a second, I still recommend Wild Water for the friendliness of the staff and the overall professionalism of the operation.  

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Jasper National Park is equally as worthwhile as Banff.  We loved Maligne Lake and we walked the 2.6 km Moose Lake Loop.  Three other trails are longer - the Opal Hills Loop (8.2 km), Bald Hills one-way trail (5.2 km), and Mary Schaffer Loop (3.2 km) - and the Mona and Lorraine Lakes Skyline Trail is 2 km one-way.  We drove along a portion of the Icefields Parkway, named for the 100 glaciers that line the western side of Highway 93N.  The route is 143 miles long and runs between Lake Louise and Jasper.  The road traces the Continental Divide and is one of the world's most scenic drives - the Jasper tourist office refers to it as 'The Most Spectacular Highway in the World.'  We did not visit the Athabasca Glacier or the Columbia Icefield but I think these would be really interesting - the "adventure of a lifetime" as they're referred to.  These are a surviving remnant of the Ice Age, and there are few places in the world where you can step onto an active glacier.     

                                            Wildlife really is everywhere...

Note for all hikes anywhere: bring water (surface water may be contaminated with Giardia, an intestinal parasite) and wear layers of clothing or bring extra clothing in a daypack (the weather can change unexpectedly).  Our trip was in the month of August, and while there was plenty of sun and mild temperatures throughout our stay, it's chilly at night (all the patios at restaurants in Canmore had outdoor heaters, and this was pre-Covid), and on one particular day there were snow flurries while we were hiking (bring gloves, hats, fleece jackets, etc.).  Also, stay on the trail: this is wilderness and there are wild animals everywhere even if you can't see them.  If you step off the trail you may startle an animal, and any animal (not just bears) can be aggressive if it feels threatened.   

This was one of the very best family trips we've ever taken, and though this part of the Canadian Rockies is popular in the summer months, winter is considered high season due to the excellent ski resorts in the area (it will likely come as no surprise, if you've read this far, that downhill skiing is also not my thing; however, I very much excel at après-ski!).  Besides downhill and cross-country skiing, other cold weather outdoor pursuits include dog sledding, snowshoeing, skating, and the game of Snow Battle. 

"For better or worse, zoos are how most people come to know big or exotic animals. Few will ever see wild penguins sledding downhill to sea on their bellies, giant pandas holding bamboo lollipops in China, or tree porcupines in the Canadian Rockies, balled up like giant pine cones."

                 - Author Diane Ackerman

   

 

Postcard From New Orleans

I recently visited New Orleans and it was a great time to be there - not for Mardi Gras or Jazz Fest, not during summer, not for any holiday at all.  Among my five other traveling companions (my husband, my brother-and-sister-in-law, and two friends) I was the only one who hadn't been to the city before, so it was a first for me.  We checked the weather forecast a few days in advance, and then again early in the morning on the day of our departure, and there was no discrepancy that it was going to be a chilly, overcast day with some rain.  We landed and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, the sun was shining bright, and it was in the mid-60s.  Apparently, it had rained earlier in the morning, but we later learned that this is quite typical, and the locals all know that the forecast is changeable, even within the same day.  

The locals also know that no one uses the standard directions of north, south, east, and west in New Orleans.  Because the Mississippi River curves through the city, and doesn't flow in a straight north-south or east-west direction, people define direction by the Mississippi and Lake Pontchartrain.  Therefore, instead of north, there is 'lakeside' (referring to Pontchartrain) and instead of south there is 'upriver' or 'uptown' (west) while 'downriver' is east.   Plus it helps to know where the Gulf of Mexico is.  It's confusing at first, but eventually you get it.   

We stayed at the terrific Henry Howard Hotel in the Lower Garden District.  Henry Howard was a prolific 19th century architect and his work may be seen throughout the Garden District and much of Uptown as well as a few places downtown.  Howard was a fan of Greek and Roman architectural elements but he designed shotgun houses, grand mansions, commercial buildings, and houses of worship (a good book for delving into his work is Henry Howard: Louisiana's Architect by Robert Brantley, co-published by the Princeton Architectural Press and The Historic New Orleans Collection in 2015).  The Hotel was not designed by Howard but is a very attractive building that also dates from the 1800s and is in a quiet location on Prytania Street, one block from the St. Charles streetcar.  The main first floor room, with a bar, has lots of comfy chairs and is a lovely place to sit - it's also where coffee and tea are served every morning.  Guestrooms are large, nicely appointed, and feel of the place, and the staff is welcoming, helpful, and eager to make sure guests have a nice stay. The #wheretogeaux - a local guide featured on the hotel's website - is excellent, with dozens and dozens of worthwhile recommendations.  Additionally, there is a 'Walk the Garden District' self-guided walking tour available on the site for $18.  

On our first afternoon we went on a great tour of the city with Celebration Tours.  Our guide was an amateur historian and very knowledgeable, and the tour was very thorough, taking in Basin Street Station (the tour begins here), the French Quarter, Treme, Armstrong Park (formerly Congo Square), Lake Pontchartrain, the central business district, the Garden District, City Park (with a stop for beignets and coffee at an outpost of Cafe du Monde), and Metairie cemetery.  The tour is especially good for learning the geography of the city.

We enjoyed meals at Paladar 511, Bayona, Casamento's, Molly's Rise and Shine, Acme Oyster House, and Galatoire's - Friday lunch is the time to come to Galatoire's (after a Ramoz gin fizz at the bar at the Roosevelt Hotel) but we had to make do with lunch on Saturday, which was big fun.  There are three floors at Galatoire's but the first floor is where you really want to be, at least if it's your first time.  The day we went it was super loud - nearly every table was taken by a bevy of young women who were all dressed up and wearing holiday tiaras and hats - but it was also super entertaining.  The menu has all the New Orleans classics you might expect, but don't miss the café brulot at the end of your meal!   

We also enjoyed rounds of absinthe at the Old Absinthe House in the French Quarter, sazerac at Pat O'Brien's, Negronis at the Hot Tin bar on the roof at the Pontchartrain Hotel (a block from the Henry Howard Hotel), and Pimm's Cup at Napoleon House.  Cane & Table is also an excellent bar (and restaurant) near Jackson Square.  There are so many specialty drinks in the city that you really have to plan out your evenings or you can end up drinking the equivalent of a Long Island Iced Tea and be quite unwell the next morning.  I regret we didn't make it to Bacchanal in Bywater, which had been highly recommended by a friend who is from the New Orleans area.  So many bars, so little time.  

Bourbon Street is fine to walk along exactly once, though it's hard to escape entirely as you often have to cross it to reach somewhere else you want to go.  Frenchmen Street is far preferable, especially for The Spotted Cat club.  The highlight of the visit for me was a performance of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, which was awesome.

Without doubt, the very best preparation for a trip to New Orleans is the outstandingly wonderful book Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas by Rebecca Solnit and Rebecca Snedeker (University of California Press, 2103).  This edition is one in a small series (other editions feature San Francisco and New York) that I wish would grow into a very large series.  Solnit and Snedeker are joined by 40 other  contributors to create a thought-provoking compendium that is an all-encompassing picture of New Orleans.  Each themed chapter is introduced with a map that illustrates that particular theme and how it's relevant to the history of the city.  Readers discover so much here, some really good and some really awful, shameful things; but as the two Rebeccas explain in the Introduction, "fathom" is an Old English word that originally meant outstretched arms and an embrace by those arms, and it came to mean a measurement of about 6 feet, the width a man's arms could reach, as well as the embrace of an idea.  "To fathom is to understand...New Orleans is all kinds of unfathomable, a city of amorphous boundaries, where land is forever turning into water, water devours land, and a thousand degrees of marshy, muddy, oozing in-between exist; where whatever you say requires more elaboration; where most rules are full of exceptions the way most land here is full of water...No matter how deeply you come to know a place, you can keep coming to know it more."      

      

Decorations on Saint Charles.

 

For my birthday, in September, I spent a night at the TWA Hotel at JFK Airport.  That might sound a little crazy - I mean, I live about 39 miles from the airport and I wasn't flying anywhere - but trust me, the hotel is incredible!  The entire experience is meant to evoke 1962, the year the TWA Flight Center, designed by Eero Saarinen, opened.  The website is very thorough (and is really hard to leave) so I won't fill this post with many of the same details.  Before you even enter the hotel, you have an inkling of what's in store: outdoor speakers are playing '60s tunes and a vintage turquoise camper van is permanently parked on the sidewalk.  Parking attendants are nearby so if you arrive by car (like my husband and I did), you will need to pay $60 for the night, which is a little less than the regular airport parking.  Once you enter the hotel, the check-in area is to the left and the Food Hall is to the right.  The '60s soundtrack is on continuous loop and is great (though I suspect the hotel staff must tire of it). The Sunken Lounge is directly ahead up a flight of stairs and there is a fake flight board displaying arrivals and departures - not digitally (how dull) but with flaps that make a clickety-clack sound when they adjust, the way airports and train stations once displayed this information.  Also on the Sunken Lounge level is the TWA Shop (don't miss it), the Photo Booth (also don't miss), TWA Fitness, the wall of pay phones (remember them?), and the Twister Room.  Yes, a giant Twister Room!  This is also the level where you access the hotel rooms (Saarinen Wing on one side, Howard Hughes Wing on the other).  If you haven't figured out by now, you have to make a plan in order to see everything...   

...because there's a lot: Connie Cocktail Lounge (in an actual plane), Camp TWA (with giant Jenga, corn hole, bumper cars, and a runway rink), the rooftop pool (open year round), the Ambassadors Club (with a number of secret alcoves!), and the exhibits (Historic TWA Ground Crew Uniforms, The World in 1962, Howard Hughes's Office, 1962 Living Room, Eero Saarinen's Drafting Table and Office) which are all terrific and were curated in conjunction with the New York Historical Society.  

    

                                    1962 Living Room

As the hotel connects with the Jet Blue Terminal 5 and the Airtrain, people are coming and going all the time; some have layovers (like a former TWA flight attendant we met), some are just walking around, and some are there to attend a wedding (like the one we saw in the Sunken Lounge).  As a result, many people also have luggage, and our friends Pat and Linda, who had stayed at the hotel previously before an early morning flight to Jamaica (and who are the inspiration for my visit), had the brilliant idea of bringing a small bag on wheels and filling it with ice cubes, gin, wine, tonic, slices of lime, and snacks.  We made no secret of making our own drinks out in the open and no one seemed to care. It's especially fun to hang out in one of the secret alcoves with a portable bar!  Without one, there are food and drink options aplenty, including at the Paris Café by Jean-Georges and the Lisbon Lounge.

The wedding party left the Sunken Lounge for the Constellation Ballroom, an entire wing of the hotel that I didn't see due to this party.  Apparently there is a section called the Fab Four because of course The Beatles flew on TWA when they came to New York in 1965. 

For anyone who lives in the New York metropolitan area, going to the TWA Hotel is a great day out (you don't really need to spend the night, but the guestrooms are worth mentioning because while basic, the beds are comfy; the bathrooms have great showers; and the bar has real glasses and glass ice buckets).  There is no fee to walk around the whole hotel, including the exhibits, but there is a fee for the rooftop pool (worth it).  And if you have friends or family who are flying into New York via Jet Blue, meeting them at the hotel will be a long lasting memory.  [Note that there is one more night of Pickleball for the season, on the tarmac near Connie, this Friday the 11th.]  It's all a reminder that airplane travel used to be an event itself - passengers used to dress up for a flight, and getting to a destination was part of the excitement of a trip.  Flying may no longer be as novel and thrilling as it once was, but spending time at the TWA Hotel reminds us that decades ago, it truly was remarkable.      

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