Never Mind Spring Cleaning. We're Spring Dreaming.
Resets, natural pools, Italy.
It’s the plight of every travel journalist: We learn about more places than we could ever visit, even if we spent our entire life on the road. Here are a few we can’t get out of our heads.
Hitting the Reset Button
Because I’m recovering from a months-long health crisis that saw one part (lungs) impact another (back) impact another (leg) impact another (gut), I’ve been thinking about my body more than usual. And because I reject the idea “it sucks to get old” and much prefer “machines break down,” I’m on the hunt for a place that can give my machine the tune-up it clearly needs. I’m not talking about a spa where I can get lavender-infused massages (as nice as those are), but rather a proper health clinic where I’ll be overseen by real doctors — which puts Buchinger Wilhelmi at Lake Constance in Germany at the top of the list. Although it’s known for its fasting therapies, I don’t want to lose any weight (a sentence I have said never). I’m interested in their experts, who regularly collaborate with top universities, and in their programs, which have proven for more than a century to be beneficial for the bones, the muscles, the gut, the skin, and the mind. In other words, the full machine.
Once I get my body back on track, I want to put it out into the natural world. I’ve been dreaming about Norway since deciding at sixteen that a life goal was to eat raspberries in a fjord on a sunny day. No, I don’t know why I haven’t planned a trip yet and I have no idea what raspberries have to do with it. But a-fjording I want to go, starting north on the waters of Storfjord at Storfjord Hotel for the log cabin vibes, burning fireplaces, kayak excursions, and knitting workshops, then down to Sunnfjord to Åmot, a small farm estate in a beautiful valley of rivers and waterfalls. Owner Steinar Garmann Sørli, whose great-grandfather built the farm, spent his childhood summers exploring the surrounding fields and fjords. Those are the footsteps I want to follow.
Ever since reading Steffen Michels’ article about 7 Koppies in OutThere (my new favorite travel magazine), I can’t get it out of my head. For one thing, I’ve never been to South Africa and I’ve been jealously editing stories about Franschhoek and the Cape Winelands for too long. For another, I love any place that Google Maps can’t find (ha ha, technology). And finally because it sounds like another remote farmhouse paradise created with real love. — Pavia
Water, Water, Everywhere
I’m not sure when jumping in the ocean was rebranded “wild swimming;” any aquatic lover could tell you that spending time in a natural body of water is the simplest way to feel free and alive. For the timid, there are stunning in-between options. One particularly gorgeous site sticks out in my mind: Sydney’s Bondi Icebergs, a concrete pool at the edge of a cliff filled with sea water delivered by crashing waves. It’s a spectacle to see and a delight to swim in — a perfect merging of mother nature and human ingenuity, designed with restraint and respect. After that swimming experience, I started making a list of other places where water and architecture work together. I have yet to visit Pritzker Prize-winning architect Alvaro Siza Vieria’s tidal pools of Leça da Palmeira. (Architectural photographer Joao Morgado captures the scene beautifully.) The 1960s modernist public landmark on Portugal’s northern coast has irregularly shaped pools framed with raw cement and filled with fresh sea water. Vieria positioned them in such a way that the built environment fades into the sea and forces the eye toward certain focal points on the landscape.
No waves, but I also love the looks of the Borden Park Natural Swimming Pool in Alberta, Canada. (It reminds me a little of Barton Springs in Austin, Texas.) Architecture firm CH3* designed a chemical-free ecosystem that filters gray water overflow into constructed adjacent wetlands and back into a beautiful community swimming pool that is as poetic as it is pragmatic.
A tarot card reader once told me I need more water in my life. I think about her pouring me a big glass from a pitcher whenever I cold plunge, hot dip, or deep dive into the healing waters. My family (kids, too) loved Ten Thousand Waves in Santa Fe, New Mexico (admittedly, a curious place for a Japanese mountain-spa inspired resort, but don’t sleep on it), and if I ever find myself near Skykomish, Washington (two hours from Seattle), I will absolutely do the rigorous hike through the Cascade Mountains in order to settle into a rock pool at the secluded, onsen-like Scenic Hot Springs. — Jeralyn
You May Have the Universe If I May Have Italy
A lack of a direct bloodline has not deterred me from living my life as an aspiring Italian. At ten years old, I asked my Dad if I could ride on a stranger’s Vespa in Civita di Bagnoregio outside of Rome (I blame Lizzie McGuire). He surprisingly obliged, and we scootered to the dead end of a cobblestone street. I signed up for an Italian language class as soon as I got to college. I lived and studied in Bologna, moving into an apartment with Italians, where I gained a secondary education in the local, and often inappropriate, dictionary of slang. I’m fiercely loyal to Italy’s fashion brands, food, and coffee rules (i.e. no cappuccino after breakfast). This past year, I married the love of my life at the little slice of heaven on Earth, Hotel Il Pellicano. I won’t hold it against my husband that he’s an American — he’s showing promise as a budding Italophile. It’s safe to say that when it comes to my wish list of destinations, I will always choose Italy.
The country truly has all the landscape, food, culture, passion, and adventure that encompasses an unforgettable trip. I honeymooned in the Dolomites in the fall, where the snow began to kiss the striking mountain peaks. I’d love to return for ski season, to carve along the Sellaronda, a 27-mile ski circuit that links the four Ladin Valleys of Val Gardena, Alta Badia, Arabba, and Val di Fassa, all by the Dolomiti Superski pass. The journey is possible to complete in one day, stopping for lunch in one of several charming refugios along the way, and spritzing on the sunny patios. At the end of the adventure, I’d love to clip off my skis for a good night’s sleep at Castel Badia, an eleventh-century castle perched on a cliffside and restored as a 28-room hotel by the team behind Puglia’s Borgo Egnazia.
I’m dreaming of exploring Italy’s coastal islands, in particular Sardinia. The emerald waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea are majestic and every swim feels like a rebirth. I have my eye on the breezy apartment-style rooms at La Tiara Di Cervo, opening this summer within a protected park above Porto Cervo.
As a fellow water baby, I’d love to head to Tuscany’s Grosseto region to dip into Saturnia’s thermal hot springs. The sulfur-rich blue water cascades down big rock formations while visitors lounge around, embracing il dolce far niente. — California
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Sydney is FILLED with so many glorious rock pools. I spent a month at Whale Beach in the very northern part of the city, and those sunrise swims are amongst my favorite memories.