Travel

Casu marzu: The world’s ‘most dangerous’ cheese

Feb. 07, 2025

The Italian island of Sardinia sits in the middle of the Tyrrhenian Sea, and it is within these edgy curves that shepherds produce casu marzu, a maggot-infested cheese that, in 2009, the Guinness World Record proclaimed the world’s most dangerous cheese. Cheese skipper flies, Piophila casei, lay their eggs in cracks that form in cheese, usually fiore sardo, the island’s salty pecorino. Maggots hatch, making their way through the paste, digesting proteins in the process, and transforming the product into a soft creamy cheese.

Travel

Plans to move SS United States from Philly to Gulf of Mexico are back on hold – again

Feb. 06, 2025

After a series of delays, everything finally seemed set. The SS United States looked like it was ready to make its last voyage – from Philadelphia to the Gulf of Mexico. But wouldn’t you know it: Yet another postponement for the majestic ship. And a new date for departure has not been set yet. The first leg of the ship’s journey to her new underwater home off the coast of Florida was to be a quite short one — from Pier 82 to Pier 80 in Philadelphia. That was supposed to happen Thursday morning, but the move got delayed to Thursday evening.

Travel

How this American moved to Italy and became the country’s ‘first woman rabbi’

Feb. 05, 2025

When she visited Italy for the first time with her father back in 1975, Rabbi Barbara Aiello, from the United States, remembers thinking, “I’ll live here one day.” Three decades later she was doing just that. Now 77, Aiello, originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, relocated to Milan in 2004 and two years later moved to Serrastretta, a village in the southern Italian region of Calabria where her father hailed from.

Travel

South Korean airport officials confiscated almost 11 tons of kimchi last year

Feb. 05, 2025

Last year, officials at Incheon International Airport (ICN) confiscated a total of 10.7 tons of the country’s must-have side dish from passengers violating the ban on liquid in carry-on luggage, according to the airport. That’s because pre-packaged kimchi often comes in a bottle or plastic bag and is soaked in spicy sauce, meaning it counts as a liquid. Like many other airports around the world, authorities at ICN ban liquids and gels exceeding 100ml in carry-on luggage.

Travel

Schools shut as tremors shake Greece’s ‘Instagram island’

Feb. 03, 2025

The Greek island of Santorini is being rattled by dozens of tremors, prompting authorities to close schools and airlines to announce additional flights on Monday to help people leave the popular tourist destination. Over the past four days, more than 200 earthquakes have been recorded between Santorini and Amorgos in the Aegean Sea, with the strongest reaching a magnitude of 4.9.Tremors, some with a magnitude above 4, continued to rattle Santorini on Monday. Although these quakes are considered minor or light, authorities have closed schools on Santorini, as well as on Amorgos, Ios and Anafi, and advised residents to avoid large indoor gatherings.

Travel

Hidden World War II tunnels to open to public

Feb. 01, 2025

The Kingsway Exchange Tunnels were built in the 1940s to shelter Londoners from the Blitz bombing campaign during World War II. That was the last time they were open to the general public. Their next wartime role was as the home of Britain’s top-secret Special Operations Executive, an offshoot of MI6 and the real-life inspiration for James Bond’s Q Branch. The new attraction will be a memorial to the Blitz, which Angus Murray, chief executive of the London Tunnels, told Reuters will be part museum, part exhibition and part entertainment space. The plan is to open to the public by late 2027 or early 2028

Travel

Chaos as Italian ski resort is overrun by TikTok tourists

Jan. 30, 2025

Not all publicity is good publicity. Especially when it leads to 10,000 daytrippers invading a ski resort, chaotic scenes on the slopes, extreme traffic snarl-ups, accusations of bad behavior and emergency crowd control measures. That’s what happened at Roccaraso, one of Italy’s most popular skiing destinations, on Sunday after viral influencer posts on social media about bumper snowfalls prompted tour companies in the coastal city of Naples to organize cheap tour buses for bored residents to enjoy an outing in the mountains.

Travel

This 200-year-old cottage in the middle of nowhere has been given a Michelin star

Jan. 30, 2025

A year and a half ago, chef Robbie McCauley left behind the swanky kitchens of some of the UK and Ireland’s best restaurants to cook in a remote Irish cottage on a cliff overlooking the Atlantic. The low, whitewashed, flagstone-roofed building surrounded by empty green fields, miles from the nearest town, looks the very definition of rural Ireland. Close by are the Cliffs of Moher. This dramatic, windswept landscape carved by wild oceans stands on the westernmost edge of Europe and has made numerous movie appearances.

Travel

She relocated to Spain in 2022, but after struggling to adapt, this American woman has packed up and returned home

Jan. 30, 2025

After vacationing in Spain a few times, Cristina Martinez, from the US, felt enamoured with the European country and was eager to return — for good. Cristina, who is from a Cuban background and speaks fluent Spanish, eventually decided to relocate there with her husband. “We wanted to be in Europe and live the European lifestyle,” Cristina tells CNN Travel. In 2021, the couple, who were based in Fort Myers, Florida, at the time, sold their home and went on to move to Spain the following year.

Travel

A New Zealand mountain has been granted personhood. Here’s why that matters

Jan. 30, 2025

Mount Taranaki — now known as Taranaki Maunga, its Māori name — is the latest natural feature to be granted personhood in New Zealand, which has ruled that a river and a stretch of sacred land are people before. The pristine, snow-capped dormant volcano is the second highest on New Zealand’s North Island at 2,518 meters (8,261 feet) and a popular spot for tourism, hiking and snow sports. The legal recognition acknowledges the mountain’s theft from the Māori of the Taranaki region after New Zealand was colonized. It fulfills an agreement of redress from the country’s government to Indigenous people for harms perpetrated against the land since.