This Region May be Italy’s Best-Kept Secret

Plus, To Get Into this Stunning Hidden Library You'll Need to Read a Book

Manage newsletters View in browser The entire world in your inbox. Hello all—   I hope you'll have a fun, but safe, New Year celebration this weekend. I myself will be packing as I leave a few days after for a month in Mexico. In fact, I'll be calling one of our 2022 destinations home!   Our lead feature this week comes from our It's Still a Big World series on underrated destinations. Jessica Colley Clarke had always heard from her family about the magic of Abruzzo, but it wasn't until recently that she experienced the Italian region for herself. After reading her touching and insightful piece—you'll no doubt be looking up countryside village cooking lessons too.   For our latest iteration of the World's Most Beautiful Libraries we're sticking to Italy and heading up north to Bologna. It's in this historic city that Alex Sakalis found a spectacular book lovers paradise—but they'll only let you in if you're there to read! This last week the world lost one of its brightest literary lights—Joan Didion. Our late foreign editor, Chris Dickey, was close to Joan and during the pandemic found himself traveling again through her words. You can read that touching tribute here.    Enjoy!   —William O'Connor, Travel Editor This Region May be Italy's Best-Kept Secret When there's no list of archeological sites or religious monuments to check off, what replaces them? In Abruzzo, it's exploring how people live, eat, and traditions they carry on. To Get Into this Stunning Hidden Library You'll Need to Read a Book It's a bibliophile's dream, full of centuries old books arranged in rustic cabinets with such nostalgic genres as mineralogy and 'military art.' California Dreaming With Joan Didion Trapped in my apartment I pulled Joan's books off the shelf. I wanted to learn again from her meticulous observation of detail, character and setting, and her great sense of irony. Wealthy Florida Man Murdered During Luxury Hotel Orgy The body of a 42-year-old American was found in Madrid's Westin Hotel in October with no obvious sign of physical abuse. Cops eventually worked out what happened. "If ancient Egyptian mummies weren't already mysterious and intriguing enough, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced this week that two golden-tongued mummies—one male, one female—had been unearthed at a site in Mimya, Egypt." —historian Candida Moss explains the significance of a major recent discovery. OMG I Want to Rent This House!      Modern Treehouse, Sundance, UT (Vrbo): We don't like to begin a tour of a gorgeous vacation home on a negative foot, especially at Christmastime, but we have to in this case. If this is a treehouse, then our entire childhood has just been exposed as a lie. This is definitely not the wooden platform and vertical slat-with-nails stairs that this author's father passed off as the real deal in our youth. But while we wait for our therapist to return our emergency call, let's move on to happier things: even if you have been forced to delay your holiday vacation plans due to the Grinch that is Omicron, you can still dream of the snowy escape you will make once this variant subsides. And for that trip, we would like to suggest Sundance, Utah, where the skiing is smooth, the visitors are glittering, and, if this rental is any indication, the digs are magical.   The x factor in any vacation planning these days is a little ol' thing known as The State of the World. It's infuriating, it's frustrating, it insists on keeping us on our toes. But we're trying to look on the bright side, and that side is shiny and tempting at the Modern Treehouse. If a winter trip isn't in the cards for you this year, then try your luck next summer, which has the added benefit of allowing you to comfortably use this glorious backyard. Afternoon nap in the tent followed by s'mores and a glass of bubbly around the outdoor fireplace, anyone?   Book Your Stay: Modern Treehouse, Sundance, Utah: $1,100/night via Vrbo   Don't miss previous OMG, I Want to Rent This House posts, which spotlight the most spectacular and unique homes that you can actually stay in.  Check out the full archives.  You've (Probably) Never Seen Paris Like This   If you are feeling nostalgic for Paris don't miss the fascinating Paris: From the Air by photographer Jeffrey Milstein and published by Rizzoli, a standout selection for Just Booked (our series on gorgeous new travel coffee table books).   There is something utterly captivating about seeing central Paris' geometric grid from above—the triangles, trapezoids, and parallelograms of city blocks. But the book also takes us from the ornate dome of Invalides (which we'd never seen up close) to the public parks and gardens that even though they were laid out centuries ago seem as if they were designed for viewers in the sky.   The book also rescues some of the city's less beloved spots, making even the Gare Montparnasse look cool. And while the Pompidou doesn't look like much from directly above, just by moving slightly to the side it positively pops against the rooflines of its more traditional surroundings.   Check out our previous selections for our series on gorgeous travel-related coffee table books, Just Booked. 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