The Curation: Volume 44
A preview of my trip ahead, 15 additions to the Portugal Hotel List, a South Africa itinerary for May, good hotel sales, and a special spa hotel in Tuscany
Last year, I spent Christmas solo because I had COVID. This year, I spent Thanksgiving solo because I had a very bad stomach bug. You win some, you lose some! At least, I’m one of the freaks who doesn’t even like Thanksgiving food (except for the potatoes in all forms and pumpkin pie). This year keeps teaching me that expectations really are the thief of joy. Luckily, I got dumped by my live-in (long story) high school boyfriend on Thanksgiving morning in 2009, so I’ve had zero expectations for this particular holiday for 15 years. A silver lining! Maybe I am too much of an optimist.
Anyway, I hope everyone had a great week. It’s December? Wild. It was just January. At least I’m off the rice and Saltine diet. And Christmas decorations can officially come out in full force without neighborhoodly judgement. There’s a lot to worry about right now, in particular, but I hope to keep Happy Hoteling your safe space. I, for one, love it here.
Today’s Agenda
A preview of my trip ahead (wheels up, T-2)
15 additions to the Portugal Hotel List (8 that are so good they deserved a trio of photos each)
Reader’s Request: A 10-day itinerary for South Africa in May (feel free to put your own itinerary request in the comments)
A cool, under-the-radar spa hotel in Tuscany with a thermal pool worth going out of your way for
Good hotel sales
The Shopping Section
I was a good girl this sale season (saving for trip, mostly) - but I have been eyeing this perfectly-hued pale yellow coat for quite some time and now it’s coming to Italy (only a few sizes left, I’m very small but got a size Small, and it’s perfect with a sweater underneath)
Also for Italy, I got this balaclava (of sorts) to channel both Veruschka and Audrey Hepburn in Charade
I posted this on Instagram, but in case you didn’t see, the world’s most chic weekender bag is on major sale
You know I love a novelty Staud purse, and this is the latest obsessssssion (have I already shared it? If I have, you know I really love it)
If you haven’t already gotten a J. Crew cashmere sweater on sale, it’s time (get a fun color, why don’t you?)
These are the sunglasses coming with me on my trip – perfect for people watching with low sun and a classic but just-different-enough silhouette
This Monarch butterfly hair clip seems like a lovely small indulgence
My favorite eyeshadow is on sale (the only eyeshadow I really wear, Space Cowboy is the shade)
Content I Consumed of (Potential) Note
This video of New Yorkers during the Marathon brought me such joy also made me miss the one-of-a-kind communal energy of New York
This story about discovering long-lost photos of Nazi-occupied Paris was both enlightening and haunting, but also reminded me of the cyclical nature of life and resilience of humans
This video shares a sentiment I’ve been feeling about how kids are raised these days (although, I should stay in my lane, I’m not yet a parent) and made me think of all the things that are so different from that time, but how it is possible to retain elements of it today
This is for anyone with an elderly parent – it’s crucial to help your parents know how to fall safely (both my dad’s and my entire lives would be different now if only we had known)
What I’ve Read, Recently
I just finished Julia Fox's memoir, Down the Drain, and it was fantastic. Interesting and enlightening and sad and eye-opening and really well written. 5/5.
The Lake of Lost Girls by Katherine Greene was a solid 4/5 thriller, but maybe keep it for a beach vacation or summer. 4/5.
I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue had such high praise and so many fans, but I found it lagging too often. 3/5, although I loved the characters.
Behind Every Good Man by Sara Goodman Confino is light historical fiction of a woman who’s a powerhouse in DC, way before her time. Funny and also, it made me more optimistic. 5/5
On the Horizon
Hotel reviews for everywhere I stay on my trip
Destination guides for everywhere I go
In fact, absolutely everything about the upcoming trip, including the full itinerary how I booked 13 nights of Special and luxurious hotels for about $1500, and got a roundtrip (good) ticket for less than $500
40+ additions to the Italy Hotel List
20+ additions to the African Safari List
A curation of 100 Special Rentals in Italy
The best rentals on the Greek island of Patmos
10 unconventional honeymoon itineraries
My top picks for new hotel openings of 2024
The hotels I’m most looking forward to opening in 2025
All the magic I’m forgetting or haven’t yet thought of
*As always, this post is likely too long for email, in which case, please click at the top to view in browser.
Thank you so much for being here! The fact that I’m going on a work trip and it’s a dream trip all happened because of you. I’ll never get over your support.
Talk here in two weeks (probably)!
A Preview of My Trip Ahead
My bags are packed, just when I really need to get out of town. Really, really.
The scouting trip begins this week. Italy and a Swiss lake. As I mentioned about a month ago, I’m intending to take the next two weeks as my yearly PTO (instead of during the holidays), but there will be lots of Train Time, so who knows. I much rather post a happy surprise than let anyone down!
As I like to treat all of these scouting trips, this is an adventure, designed to fill gaps in the Happy Hoteling puzzle. I’m insanely excited. Perhaps it’s because of the hellish process I’ve gone through all year with my dad, perhaps it’s post-election despair, perhaps it’s the fact that I had a stomach bug on Thanksgiving, but I feel like I’m six years old going to Disneyland.
In planning, I love having one destination or activity per trip that’s a non-negotiable – for no reason besides gut instinct and heart murmur (the good kind). This past summer, that was Andrea Bocelli’s 30th anniversary Teatro del Silenzio in Tuscany. It was so worth going way out of my way for, I’ll never forget it.
This trip, it’s a hotel and restaurant, in the Po Valley of Emilia-Romagna. It’s closest to Parma, but not particularly close (at least in the Italian sense) to much else. It has hosted Anthony Bourdain and royalty, celebrities, and the world’s best chefs for hundreds of years. Because of their culatello, a cousin of prosciutto. It’s the Claridge’s of cured meats, in an ancient castle. I got my dream room and I’m going to report back on whether my inclination is correct – that this is a uniquely Italian gastronomic hospitality experience, worth going out of your way for.
But then, I also have planned some city time. I’ve never spent time in Torino (Turin), and the Paris-like Northern city has been calling to me (loudly) the past few months.
Something I’ve been picking up on, over the past year or so, is a collective tiring of the crowds and the desire to experience la dolce vita more easily. If there is a city in Italy associated with the ease of life, it’s Torino. It’s clean and neat, pretty and almost-Parisian. It’s home to many of the great Italian luxury brands with factories nearby – the Torinese have always intrigued me. But above all, it’s the cafe culture that calls to me. So many beautifully ornate, jewel box storefronts still operating with the traditions that made their names over a century ago. All with different specialties. All so beautiful.
To know me is to know I love a cafe, I love to sit and people watch and I go out of my way for a beautiful, historic one. I have 16 on my list to visit and tell you which are the Special of the special. And the bicerin! I’ve never had one and I would be shocked if I don’t love it (it involves espresso and cream and chocolate, without mixing). Plus, any of the pasticceria specialties I’m not allergic to.
I’m very curious about the hotel in Torino too – stay tuned. I’m not going to disclose hotel names until after I’ve left, for obvious reasons.
And then, it’s time for a Happy Hoteling Guide to Venice. My last trip was June 2021, and I cemented a lot of the places that will make the list, but now I must return to capture them and make sure everything shines as brightly year-round. Plus, there’s a hotel I’ve been so curious about for far too long and I have to know whether it’s as lovely as I think it is (it won’t be for everyone, that I know). I’m optimistic, and again – excited. (I exist because my mom lived in Venice at the time she met my dad in Florence, where he was living – I really love it)
Of course, it will be December and thus, the Dolomites must come in to play this trip. Because this is a train-driven journey (minus the very important detour to the Po Valley, which I’m renting a car for), Bressanone (Brixen) was bound to be my destination.
First off, there’s a hotel I’ve had on my bucket list that I can easily check off. Single-occupancy rooms! It’s fascinatingly old and modern at the same time. And cool. I can’t wait. Plus, Bressanone a very cute town that I’ve only ever passed through, as most do (especially with Forestis nearby), but it has a charming Christmas market, great history, a unique blending of cultures, and a great position within the Dolomites. Worthy of some real time.
And then, I end the trip with a few days at a hotel that I will most definitely not leave until I check out. I stayed with my dad as a kid and have faint but glowing memories – I’m thrilled to return. The goal here is to reinforce my notion that this is the hotel where you go when you want the Grand Budapest Hotel experience, in real life, today. The kind where you dress up and befriend people over cocktails and backgammon and spend time in sitting rooms reading and take naps in the afternoon and maybe even forget a bit about the internet. The kind where you don’t leave the hotel for dinner, because it’s only really reachable by cable-car. A celebration of the type of hospitality that enjoys a bit of theater, an art which has largely been lost along the way, but I believe still exists at this hotel. Rest assured, I will be dressing up for dinner, party of one.
I’ll report back, mid-December. Instagram will be my visual diary in the interim, but all the details will be kept for paid Substack subscribers. The hotel reviews and city guides and journals and restaurants of note and places to shop and museums to meaner. Everything. The Special Stuff. The stuff you come to me for.
I’m also planning on doing voice note vlogs of sort, which I’ll also share here. Don’t hold this to me 100%, there’s a chance it won’t turn out like it does in my mind.
Thank you so much for respecting the next two weeks as my PTO! It’s a new world to traverse, and I really appreciate that not a single person unsubscribed after I announced I would be doing this. I’m so grateful for you – I know not everyone has it this good. The trip is planned entirely with you in mind. I can’t wait to share.
Additions to The Portugal Hotel List
On December 13 of last year, I posted The Portugal Hotel List, 1.0. I was, and still am, super proud of it. A lot of gems! It’s fun to see how far Happy Hoteling has come in a year. A lot more context, a lot more photos – a lot better, but man, a whole lot more work. Hard work is good work, that I know.
All the below additions have been added to the OG list as well, so they’re all in one place. These are the 15 new additions. 8 are Must Stays for me, and thus, have photos.