May 28, 2023

restaurantlapeonia

sights and trips

Journey news: exactly where to find your new utopia

Morocco’s theatre of dreams

The gardens at Dar Ahlam, designed by French landscape architect Louis Benech
The gardens at Dar Ahlam, created by French landscape architect Louis Benech © @darahlam
A bathroom in one of the 14 double rooms
A lavatory in one of the 14 double rooms © @darahlam

Guests at Dar Ahlam can enjoy curated experiences such as sunbathing at Sidi Fla
Guests at Dar Ahlam can love curated ordeals this sort of as sunbathing at Sidi Fla © @darahlam

Dar Ahlam – the name indicates “house of dreams” in Arabic and, thanks to the attentions that Thierry Teyssier, the operator of this 200-year-outdated fortified residence in southern Moroccan palmeraie, lavishes on the friends, it is a area of dreams in fact. The layout is, of course, gorgeous – the bedlinen hand-embroidered, the ceramic lamps hand-shaped, the Louis Benech-authored gardens that stretch guiding the residence just unmanicured enough in their splendour. But it is the sense of theatre that dazzles: additional than 100 staff look after only 30 visitors, curating fantastic moments: staging key dinners lit by hundreds of candles, erecting bivouacs on desert-hike routes, and weaving magic into the weft of one’s days. Teyssier has other alluring hospitality tasks – from La Route de la Memoire, a seven-working day road exploration of southern Morocco’s empty reaches, to 700,000 Heures, his travelling “pop-up” hotel, which this summer months alights on the shores of Lake Como (view this area for far more on that). Dar Ahlam, although, resonates prolonged following you’ve left it stays with, and in, you – the greatest journey praise there is, and why it’s truly worth a area on the lengthy-organizing checklist. maisonsdesreves.com from £1,067 a night


Sonoma, so great

The six-room house at Beltane Ranch in Sonoma County, California
The 6-area residence at Beltane Ranch in Sonoma County, California © Lauren Benward
Estate-grown wines and a cheeseboard at Beltane Ranch
Estate-grown wines and a cheeseboard at Beltane Ranch © Lauren Benward

Rebirth, resilience, rebuilding: they’re nothing new to citizens of Sonoma County in California. With its traditions of natural farming and animal husbandry, and its vulnerability to earthquakes and forest fires, Sonoma is a place where by nature’s cycles are writ massive on the land. And what land: the proximity to the Pacific brings yr-round spectacles of ambiance the inland reaches are furred in evergreens and vineyards, though its shoreline is rough, pounded by a frigid ocean. Architecture aficionados will know that coastline via the Sea Ranch community, the seminal mid-20th-century enhancement that sparked a nationwide passion for buildings that discover a natural spot in their placing. An unnamed Bay Spot tech fund procured the 19-home Sea Ranch Lodge in 2019 no renovation programs have nonetheless been announced (here’s hoping they do not sacrifice its lo-fi perfection in pursuit of too a lot of luxurious trappings). Inland, places to remain are those that skew tiny and considerate: just outside Glen Ellen is Beltane Ranch, a farm stay-winery whose 6-place household dates to 1892 and has been run by the same family members for six generations. To the north is The Farmhouse Inn, in which the cottages have curated wine fridges, there’s a gleaming food truck in the travel serving baja fish tacos, and sommeliers from the Michelin-starred restaurant lead private tasting tours.


Tuscany’s blooming heirloom 

The La Foce estate, Tuscany
The La Foce estate, Tuscany © Max Morriconi

In 1924, Iris and Antonio Origo acquired La Foce, a 2,800-hectare estate on a hill higher than Tuscany’s Unesco-safeguarded Val d’Orcia. An English-born American heiress freshly married to a marquis, Iris set about restoring the property’s late-15th-century villa, commissioning Cecil Pinsent to design and style its garden – nowadays, one particular of the most well-liked in central Italy. The Origos introduced optimism and grit to this seriously gorgeous corner of Italy when war erupted, they harboured resistance fighters and refugee youngsters (a harrowing but gratifying interval Origo introduced to vivid lifetime in her basic 1947 memoir, War in Val d’Orcia). The villa, available for holiday break allows and activities, was restored in 2018 by Origo’s daughter, Benedetta (garnering it a multi-website page distribute in The Globe of Interiors). Now Benedetta and her personal daughter, Katia Lysy, have turned their notice to the estate’s cottages, as soon as households to employees who farmed La Foce’s grain and olives. The one particular identified as Montauto – remade with lush textiles, antiques and a joyous color palette, sleeping 10 men and women comfortably – was initially to be renovated the many others are next. May sees this corner of the earth come to outsized lifestyle: the skies mercurial with spring winds, the hills undulating inexperienced with alfalfa, crimson poppies painting the gullies in between them. It is a landscape that lifts the heart, and vantage factors on it really do not get better than La Foce. lafoce.com Villa Origo, minimal three-day rental, from €21,000 Casa Montauto, from €4,500 a 7 days

@mariashollenbarger