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☆ Strasbourg for Book Lovers
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-10 | by ( Seth Sherwood | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Attention, bibliophiles: Put Strasbourg, the largest city in eastern France, on your radar. Once home to the godfather of publishing — the 15th-century printing-press pioneer Johannes Gutenberg — the city is the UNESCO World Book Capital for 2024. The annual Fête des Imprimeurs on June 29 and 30 in Place Gutenberg will showcase all of the trades involved in bookmaking, including through interactive workshops. But the UNESCO events aren’t the only reasons to visit. Strasbourg has many spots for the literary-minded that are permanent fixtures, from comic shops and indie book emporiums to historical libraries and antiquarian specialists.

Persons: Johannes Gutenberg, Gustave Doré —, Julie Doucet, Gutenberg Organizations: UNESCO, Capital, Imprimeurs Locations: Strasbourg, France, Quebec, Gutenberg, Mainz, Germany

☆ Finding Great Coffee in Ho Chi Minh City
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-23 | by ( Seth Sherwood | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Other than Brazil, no nation produces more coffee than Vietnam. Introduced by French colonists in the 19th century, the country’s coffee crop is now a $3 billion business and accounts for nearly 15 percent of the global market, making Vietnam the java giant of Southeast Asia. Quality, however, has only recently begun to catch up with quantity, mainly because farmers have begun augmenting Vietnam’s longtime cultivation of cheaper, easy-to-grow robusta beans with a connoisseur’s favorite, arabica. A major beneficiary has been the cafe scene in the country’s largest metropolis, Ho Chi Minh City (a.k.a. Thanks to direct crop-to-shop supplies, the retail business of coffee is booming as increasing numbers of indie roasteries and specialty coffeehouses sprout up around the city’s French colonial opera house, amid the megamalls and boutiques of fashionable Dong Khoi Boulevard, and in the shadows of the high-rise towers in District 2.

Locations: Brazil, Vietnam, Southeast Asia, Ho Chi Minh City, Saigon, Dong, District

☆ 36 Hours in Marrakesh, Morocco
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-08 | by ( Seth Sherwood | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

Leave Jemaa el Fna — the huge, chaotic, carnivalesque marketplace seen on every postcard — to the cobra charmers, hustlers and package-tour throngs. In the early 20th century, Thami el Glaoui, the onetime ruler of Marrakesh — known as the bacha in local Arabic — was a legend. The Islamic decorative arts find dazzling expression inside the Medersa Ben Youssef, a centuries-old religious school adorned with some of the finest craftsmanship in Morocco. Follow the buttery scent of leather to a passage called Derb el Hammam in Souk Smata, the leatherworking area of the medina. Sunlight filters through the overhead slats of the stalls, illuminating belts, bags, jackets, ottomans and slippers known as babouches — a favorite Morocco souvenir (prepare to haggle).

Persons: Fna, You’ll, Bab Doukkala, Malak Nafy, It’s niched, Hassan Hajjaj, Andy Warhol, Thami el, —, Rue Fatima Zahra, Maison Reine, Naelle, Ben Youssef, el Fna Organizations: Bab, Rue Dar el, of Confluences, Rue Fatima, Franco Locations: Medina, Bab, Rue, Moroccan, Marrakesh, el Bacha, medina, ”, Algerian, artfully, Morocco, Hammam, Souk Smata

☆ 36 Hours in Turin, Italy
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-01 | by ( Seth Sherwood | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

11 a.m. Find yourself in the center of historyA panorama of Turin history unfolds around Piazza San Giovanni, a central square. To the north, see the Porta Palatina, a red-brick Roman-era gate to the city. To the east, and down some stairs, the ruins of a Roman amphitheater (free admission) hide in the shadow of the Galleria Sabauda (€15), a Neoclassical museum that houses art collected by the dukes and kings of the House of Savoy, a historic royal dynasty. Next to the museum, the tall bell tower of the Renaissance-era Cathedral of St. John the Baptist soars over the unattached main building, whose chapel holds the Shroud of Turin, a 14-foot cloth bearing the faint image of a bearded man that some believe to be Jesus Christ. The cloth is not displayed to the public, but the Museum of the Shroud (€8), a short walk away, explains its history and some of the scientific studies done to determine its origins.

Persons: Piazza, of Savoy, John the, Jesus Christ Organizations: Piazza San Giovanni, of Locations: Turin, Piazza San, St, of Turin

☆ Paris Is Packed in the Summer. Here Are Six Ways to Dodge the Droves.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( Seth Sherwood | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Northeast of Paris, Pantin is the base of the Hermès luxury brand and some cultural powerhouses as well, notably the Centre National de la Danse and an exhibition space from Thaddeus Ropac, one of Paris’s most well-known art gallerists. Staying in Pantin also offers quick access to top cultural venues in Paris’s 19th arrondissement. The Philharmonie de Paris complex includes a Jean Nouvel-designed concert hall and music museum, while the nearby Grande Halle de la Villette hosts exhibitions and performances. You get the same kitchen, cooks, dining room and savoir-faire, but the whole package is easier to reserve — and to pay for. Such a deal makes the restaurant “the perfect place to discover haute cuisine for a small price,” in the words of the French newsweekly Le Point.

Persons: Pantin, Thaddeus Ropac, Jean Nouvel, King Louis XIV, Claude Debussy, Maurice Denis, Nobuyuki Akishige Organizations: Philharmonie de, la Villette, Germain, Michelin Locations: Paris, Paris’s, Halle, St, Laye, Automne, Le

☆ 5 Restaurants in Naples Where You Can Forget About Pizza
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-14 | by ( Seth Sherwood | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The worldwide culinary fame of Italy’s third-largest city boils down to one word: pizza. But a slew of top-notch trattorias, osterias and ristoranti exist right alongside pizza titans like Sorbillo and Da Michele. Drawing on the cornucopia of livestock and produce from the fertile fields and coastal waters of the Campania region — cattle, goats, shellfish, wheat, artichokes, zucchini, figs, citrus fruits and more — these eateries dish out local inventions from mussel soup to homegrown pastas to limoncello. So when you’re ready to foray beyond the overcrowded dens of dough and red sauce, here are five addresses in five neighborhoods offering both traditional and creative takes on beloved Neapolitan recipes and ingredients. Buon appetito.

Persons: Da Michele, appetito Locations: Campania

Vanish into the vaporThe hammam treatment (380 dirhams) at Azur Art & Spa is like a journey into some mythological wellness underworld. Nearly naked, you are led into a hot, dark room flickering with candles, where an attendant washes you and leaves you to absorb the heat and moisture. The ritual instrument is a rough glove that the attendant rubs forcefully all over your body to remove dead skin. It can be painful, but purgatory soon gives way to paradise. After an invigorating massage, you emerge an hour later from the darkness, don a white robe, drink restorative tea and climb a set of white stairs into the sunlight.

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