SPORTS TOURISM HIGH ON THE SCORECARD FOR CANADIANS

With the hockey playoffs and baseball season now in session – and the Summer Olympics and EURO 2024 only a few calendar page flips off – Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) says its research show that nearly one out of every two Canadians say they are likely to plan a trip focused on attending sporting events. MORE

HOTELS THAT PLAY BALL FOR SPORTS FANS, AND OTHER ROAD TRIP TIPS

Baseball’s back! And for some, that means summer road trips to fun cities or famous diamonds like Fenway Park or Wrigley Stadium, sometimes paired with following their favourite teams, or perhaps just the love of the game. After all, sports and travel go together like peanuts and Cracker Jack. MORE

PARIS PREPARING FOR INVADER
He comes, he glues, and disappears into the night

For the Paris Olympics, it could almost be a new sport: Score points by hunting down mosaics that a mystery artist who calls himself “Invader” has cemented to walls across France’s capital, the world, and even had carried aloft to the International Space Station. MORE

THE SERIOUS DEBATE OVER DAVID’S DOODLE

Michelangelo’s David has been a towering figure in Italian culture since its completion in 1504. But in the current era of the quick buck, curators worry the marble statue’s religious and political significance is being diminished by the thousands of refrigerator magnets and other souvenirs sold around Florence focusing on David’s genitalia. MORE

THE GREATEST SHOW ON SNOW
Never boring, meet the quirky sport of skijoring

Nick Burri clicks into his ski bindings, squats to stretch his knees and scans the snowy racecourse. Moments later, he’s zipping past a series of gates at high speed and hurtling off jumps. But it’s not gravity pulling him toward the finish line: It’s the brute force of a quarter horse named Sirius. MORE

MAD ABOUT TRAD
Delightful Dublin is music to our ears

Since the age of four, when my mother first played the irrepressible song “Off to Dublin in the Green” by an obscure group called The Abbey Tavern Singers, I’ve been hooked on traditional Irish folk music. MORE

SEVENTH HEAVEN
The world’s most luxurious shopping streets

When holidaying in the some of the world’s top cities, travellers can find themselves with an opportunity to take in (and load up on) some of the world’s most luxurious shopping streets – names that resonate on the big screen, in the pages of glossy magazines, and maybe in our dreams.  From the Champs-Élysées to Rodeo Drive, here are seven sensational streets where one can shop till they drop, and, with a little luck, maybe even mingle with the rich and famous. MORE

FAMED NYC MUSEUM CLOSES NATIVE AMERICAN EXHIBITS

New York’s American Museum of Natural History is closing two halls featuring Native American objects starting Saturday, acknowledging the exhibits are “severely outdated” and contain culturally sensitive items. MORE

DOING THE RIGHT THING
UK museums return artifacts to Ghana

The British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London are returning gold and silver artifacts to Ghana under a long-term loan arrangement – 150 years after the items were looted from the Asante people during Britain’s colonial battles in West Africa. The arrangement sidesteps UK laws that prohibit the return of cultural treasures to their countries of origin (famously including the Elgin Marbles to Greece). MORE

FIDDLE ME THIS
Future Four Seasons Rome finds elusive Nero Theatre

Rome’s next luxury hotel has some very good bones: Archaeologists say that the ruins of Nero’s Theatre, an imperial theatre referred to in ancient Roman texts but never found, have been discovered under the garden of a future Four Seasons Hotel steps from the Vatican. MORE

DISCOVERY CASTS MONA LISA IN A NEW LIGHT

The next time you’re gazing at the “Mona Lisa” at the Louvre in Paris, consider that beneath the subject’s exquisitely enigmatic smile, a new secret has been uncovered about the Leonardo de Vinci masterpiece. MORE

THE BEAT GOES ON
Liverpool museum celebrates birth of Beatlemania

The phenomenon of Beatlemania screamed itself into existence 60 years ago in October 1963. Sixty years later, Liverpool’s The Beatles Story has released a new video that explores the phenomenon with first-hand accounts of those frantic fanatical days. MORE

INDIGENOUS GROUP OF SEVEN
Morrisseau monument boosts N. Ontario tourism

Canada’s most famous indigenous artist, Norval Morrisseau, has a new monument in northwestern Ontario in the region he was born and raised. The installation at Nipigon's Bridgeview Lookout is part of the Lake Superior North Shore Tourism Project and consists of an interpretive panel below a metal bird airbrushed with photos of Morrisseau, which all stand on a wooden platform. MORE

SEOUL WITH SOUL
Contiki launches first Korean trip

With Korean culture, from TV shows to pop music, Korean culture is at all-time in in interest around the world. With this mind, Contiki has announced its first ever trip to South Korea. The nine-day “South Korea Soul” itinerary begins and ends in Seoul and includes a high-speed rail journey to Busan, plus a stopover at Jeonju – the UNESCO World Heritage town known for its traditional ambience and local hospitality. MORE

TWO VOICES STILLED
Tony Bennett and Sinéad O’Connor

Two wonderful voices have been silenced. Tony Bennett was just weeks short of his 97th birthday, and Irish singer and musician, Sinéad O'Connor who was just 56 died on Wednesday. Both thrilled audiences creating magic with their music and both were globally celebrated. MORE

SOUNDS GOOD
Britain’s summer music festivals

Music festivals are synonymous with Britain, both singular and annual, and cover a wide spectrum from electronic music to classical and classic rock and roll. Some notable events, like Glastonbury, are in the books for 2023, but there are still plenty of tunes to come at a number of music fests across the country this summer. MORE

NEW WING WOWS AT NEW YORK MUSEUM

The American Museum of Natural History in New York has a new building, a sweeping piece of architecture designed to connect visitors with their place in the natural world. MORE

IT’S CURTAINS FOR PHANTOM, POTTER

The final curtain came down this week (April 16) on New York’s production of “The Phantom of the Opera,” ending Broadway’s longest-running show with thunderous standing ovations, champagne toasts and gold and silver confetti bursting from its famous chandelier. MORE

BIG EASY FESTIVAL GETS READY TO ROULER

New Orleans’ 40th annual French Quarter Festival, billed as Louisiana’s largest free showcase of music, food, and culture, is set to let les bons temps rouler in April with a line-up of more than 270 acts. The festival launches three weeks of musical festivities in the city, with the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival taking place the last weekend of April and first weekend of May. MORE

IRELAND ON ST. PATRICK’S DAY
It’s more than leprechauns and green beer

St Patrick’s Day in Ireland isn’t just a celebration of the patron saint, it’s also a demonstration of the pride of being Irish and a source of joy that helps to kick off the spring season. Around the world it might be all green beer, dressing up like leprechauns and donning ‘kiss me I’m Irish’ hats – but it’s not quite like that if you live in Ireland. MORE