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Walk the long shop-lined Via Capodimonte (or, if you are feeling particularly industrious, climb the 921 Phoenician Steps to the very top) to reach the former home of the Swedish physician and author Axel Munthe. This 20th-century mansion, now a museum with magnificent gardens, sits almost 1000 feet above the sea and offers unbelievable views over Capri and toward Naples and Mount Vesuvius. During your visit, follow tradition and make a wish with your left hand touching the ancient Egyptian sphinx statue. There is a café at the top of the gardens and occasional live music on summer evenings.

“What better way to understand yoga than to travel to its birthplace?” says Katie Christ. Two years ago, the food stylist put her life in San Francisco on hold to spend two months studying at the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMYI) in Pune, India. “It was the biggest luxury I have ever allowed myself.” Katie had been practicing Iyengar yoga, a style of hatha yoga that focuses on alignment and uses props like blocks and belts, for more than 10 years when she decided she wanted to study in India.

She applied to RIMYI, where the venerable B.K.S. Iyengar (above), the founder of Iyengar yoga, occasionally teaches with his son and daughter. “It’s not for the faint of heart,” says Katie. “There’s no music. No incense.” RIMYI requires each applicant to have eight years of Iyengar experience plus a letter of recommendation from his or her yoga teacher. Acceptance can take up to two years. The year before she attended, Katie traveled to Pune for two weeks to experience life in the city.

That first visit happened to coincide with B.K.S. Iyengar’s 90th birthday. “I had no Indian garb appropriate for the festivities, so I went shopping, and in one afternoon I saw so much. A woman making a rangoli, a traditional folk art design, let me try to draw one with colored powder on the street. At the market I saw a man whose sole job was to peel garlic bulbs. I tasted the most amazing chai, made by a chai wallah who used pliers to crush fresh ginger into a pot of milk with tea leaves and ground spices. I knew I wanted to stay. [On my second trip] these experiences would become part of my everyday routine.”

The institute doesn’t provide housing, so Katie used her first visit to find a flat to rent for her two-month stay. “I had the perfect commute: a 10-minute walk through a public garden where I would watch teens flirting on benches and women in saris and sneakers taking their morning power walks.” Classes were held six days a week: two-hour sessions led by a member of the Iyengar family and three hours of open practice each day, and an hour of pranayama (controlled breathing) once a week. “In open practice, I experienced incredible generosity from students who were advanced teachers,” says Katie. “If someone recognized that I was struggling, they would come over to help me achieve better alignment. Several times Geeta Iyengar [the daughter of B.K.S. Iyengar] called out to give me specific instruction.

I felt incredibly fortunate, considering there were up to 120 students in a class.” When she wasn’t in class, Katie and her Australian neighbors, all senior Iyengar teachers attending the institute, would hit the markets and seek out the best chai, Indian sweets, and chappals (sandals). On Sundays they took trips to sights like the ancient sculptures and paintings in the Ellora and Ajanta caves. Katie felt her body becoming stronger and her head becoming clearer with each passing day. “The goal of yoga is to calm the chatter of the mind. When I arrived I had tons of chatter,” she says. “After practicing so intensely every day for two months, the chatter became a murmur.”

From $450 for a one-month program, not including meals and accommodations. 91/(0) 20-2565-6134, bksiyengar.com. This story appeared in the January/February 2012 issue.

The giant ferris wheel on the south bank of the Thames is made up of 32 futuristic glass capsules - all of which are sealed, air-conditioned and big enough to house 25 guests. Riding the attraction is effectively being stuck in a bubble, albeit one that offers 40km views in all directions (see if you can spot Windsor Castle in the farthest distance on a clear day). This is the wheel that never stops turning, and while views at the top are stunning, you won’t feel the ascent/descent: the Eye does one full rotation every 30 minutes, and turns so slowly passengers walk on and off at ground level. Curiously there is no capsule 13; since the number is thought to be bad luck, its been replaced in the lineup by the infamous no.33.

A classic Plaka hotel close to Syntagma Square, the Electra Palace checks all the boxes for convenient location, rooftop restaurant overlooking the Acropolis, comfortable rooms, plus niceties like a gym, spa, and pool. Spacious suites feature views of the Parthenon, marble bathrooms with Jacuzzi tubs, and handwoven carpets. A Greek breakfast buffet is served in the downstairs garden, and drinks and food are served all day on the fifth-floor rooftop. Hydrating facials, body wraps, and Cretan olive oil massages are given at the spa, which also has a heated indoor pool and jacuzzi. For spring and summer visitors, an afternoon at the outdoor pool overlooking the city’s monuments and neoclassical archicture is practically a requirement.

A devastating fire on April 15, 2019, has closed the interior of the cathedral to visitors. Plans to rebuild and reopen the structure are being made, but at present, visitors are not allowed near the site.
For a first-time visitor to Notre Dame, investing in the audio guide is essential to understand this overwhelmingly significant Paris icon. There’s a lot to see and absorb—history, architecture, artifacts, theology—and the audio guide gives a much-needed sense of direction and context. Even without spiritual ties, the awe-inspiring grandeur of the cathedral is not to be missed from every angle—tour the naves, stroll around the entirety of the exterior, take in the city from the top of the towers, walk along Quai de Montebello to view it from across the water, or admire it from a river cruise down the Seine. The Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris is everything everyone says it is and more.

Surely the world’s only museum to showcase the phalluses of an entire nation’s mammalian wildlife, Iceland’s Phallological Museum is somewhat unique. Despite its obvious quirk factor, the museum is actually an interesting and—for the most part—fairly serious establishment. It offers guests the chance to inspect almost 300 penises (including parts of penises) that together represent pretty much all the land and sea mammals to be found throughout the country. A quarter belong to various types of whales, but there are also samples from polar bears and seals, as well as a letter from a local human pledging his own personal specimen posthumously. There are also elf penises, though you’ll need special psychic powers to see them.

Originally laid out during Spanish rule, the Alameda Central was Mexico City’s first municipal park, at one time reserved for the elite. Today it’s a well-manicured garden for all, especially popular with working-class crowds on Sundays. Its willow-lined lanes lead to old-fashioned statuary, fountains, and a gazebo (where something’s always going on), as well as a rotating calendar of contemporary sculpture exhibitions. On the park’s western edge and occupying a beautifully restored art deco structure, the shopping and design center known as Barrio Alameda houses edgy boutiques, a chic guesthouse, and trendy restaurants whose outdoor seating is a people-watcher’s delight. Duck in for a glimpse of how the city center continues along its gentrifying course.

Wander through the six acres of gardens surrounding this historic manor house, which is now home to Caribelle Batik, a shop selling handmade batik products. And don’t miss the massive saman tree on the grounds—it’s believed to around 400 years old.

Near Shinjuku Station you’ll find Takashimaya Times Square, which includes the Takashimaya department store and a large branch of Tokyu Hands. The depachika, or basement food floor, at Takashimaya has some excellent food counters for sukiyaki and both Japanese and Western sweets. Home cooks can pick up all of their pantry staples at Kinokuniya supermarket, which also has a colorful variety of prepared foods and seafood counters with takeout sushi, and the wine and spirits department hosts jizake vendors who offer samples of local sake. The rooftop garden has seating for impromptu picnics, so you may want to pick up some sake—just remember to ask for a small cup.

The wonderful thing about the medina in Marrakech is the way in which it endlessly reinvents itself. Barely a week goes by without some hip, new trailblazer shimmying onto the scene and giving you just one more reason to love the place. When La Famille opened a couple of summers ago, it was like one of Ibiza’s secluded countryside restaurants had dropped in from across the Med. The leafy garden, driftwood furniture, herb- and flower-infused waters (no alcohol here, dears), organic salads served in Kilner jars, vegetarian quiches, and healthy cakes attract the city’s most beautiful groovers and shakers, who waft about in designer kaftans plotting their latest interior design projects for their riads. Drop in for an hour, but like all the best places, don’t be surprised to find you’re here for at least three.

A who-knows-how-happily-married Diego Rivera commissioned this three-residence compound from Mexican artist and architect Juan O’Gorman in 1931. Jarringly Bauhausian for its time (especially in comparison to the surrounding San Ángel neighborhood’s mission revival gentility), it included separate buildings for Diego and his wife, Frida Kahlo, connected by a slender bridge (as well as a third dwelling for O’Gorman). Visits lead to interiors, showcasing Rivera’s studio and its fascinating collection of artworks, creative infrastructure, and amazing windows. Take time to wander the garden and pause to appreciate the property’s tableaux; then re-tox from all the aesthetic purity across the road at the San Ángel Inn, a gloriously indulgent hacienda bar and restaurant that takes you straight back to the country club—flawless margaritas and all.

If you’re keen on buying moderately priced tea sets and a variety of Chinese teas, this massive indoor market is the place to come. Charming it’s not—it can be crowded and the stalls are fluorescent-lit—but hundreds of teas from across China are sold here. Sip malty pu’er tea from southern Yunnan Province, vegetal longjing green tea from the fields of Hangzhou, and floral jasmine from Fujian Province. Most shops sell teas in quantities of 100 grams, though you’ll get a better price if you buy half a kilo. Although Beijing is easy enough to navigate on your own, this is one place where, if you don’t speak Mandarin, a guide is extremely helpful.

Long the heart of the Condesa district (even during the dark days following Mexico City’s devastating 1985 earthquake), today’s Parque México is the quintessential urban park. Well-manicured with ample seating and a recently refurbished open-air forum that plays host to groovy neighborhood events as well as perennial skateboarders, the park’s venerable trees provide shade to the area’s easy-on-the-eyes crowd of joggers, dog walkers, cute old folks, and amorous teens. Along the garden’s perimeter, some of the city’s smartest apartment houses (often in flawless art deco style) share space with cool cafés, kicky boutiques, and crowded restaurants. Few city pleasures surpass Parque México’s people-watching (and pooch-watching) over coffee or cocktails, as golden sunlight streams through branches onto lively, see-and-be-seen sidewalk venues.

Located at the luxe Six Senses Laamu, Sip Sip has an ever-changing menu made up of dishes that are the result of collaboration between the chef and resort gardeners, who tend an organic garden of 40 different herbs and vegetables. Using only fresh ingredients, the culinary team creates a different starter, salad, pizza, and dessert every day, all served poolside in a sunken bar area—more farm-to-pool than farm-to-table. Favorites include the panfried goat-cheese salad with mango compote and juicy cherry tomatoes, and the crispy Thai fish cake on a peanut-and-green-mango salad.

Foodies (and those simply interested in local color and a good meal) should head to San Lorenzo and its covered Mercato Centrale. Florence’s main market for edibles is housed in a 19th-century glass-and-iron building. On the ground floor, delis, stands, and butcher counters sell a fantastic array of local fruit and vegetables, cheeses, dried porcini mushrooms, baked goods, balsamic vinegars, and olive oils plus fresh fish, poultry, and meat. Upstairs, a modern food hall has opened: Stalls sell prepared foods and meals for happy and immediate consumption at a central seating area.