u/ResearcherOk6899

In Piazza Prampolini, Catherine was greeted by Reggio Emilia’s mayor, Marco Massari. The Princess greeted the crowds before entering the Sala del Tricolore to receive honours privately.

Mayor Massari held an official meeting with the princess, accompanied by historical figures such as Eletta Bertani and Ione Bartoli, pioneers of the Reggio Children system in the 1960s.

After leaving town hall, the Princess of Wales visited the Loris Malaguzzi International Center, headquarters of the Reggio Emilia Approach.

Pictured: Cannes 2023, at the premiere of “May December,” Natalie Portman in Dior by Maria Grazia Chiuri recreating one of Christian Dior’s most famous designs: the Junon dress, a silk and tulle ball gown originally created for the house’s FW 1949/50 collection.

The dress was named after the Junon, the Ancient Roman goddess, the wife to Jupiter, and was often seen with its equally breath-taking sister, Venus, also designed in 1949 for the same collection (both pictured above).

Venus, named after the goddess of love, takes the petals of the Junon gown, downsizes and carries them to the back of the gown allowing for a large, yet balanced, tulle skirt to carry the gown. Venus was realized in the delicate eighteenth-century gray that was Dior’s signature, frosted with iridescent beading and embroidery.

Junon’s most iconic feature, a skirt composed entirely of layered, ombré silk-tulle petals, evokes the shimmering plumage of a peacock, Juno’s sacred animal. Each petal fades from deep midnight blue to iridescent sea green, creating the illusion of movement even when the dress stands still.

Every petal was hand-cut, hand-shaped, hand-dyed, and meticulously beaded by René Bégué, known as Rébé, the legendary Parisian embroiderer whose atelier produced some of the most sophisticated embellishments of the 20th century.

Both dresses have been on display at multiple museums over the years. Currently, though, they are not on display to the public.

Cesare Lacca bar cart, circa 1950s, Italy. I was expecting a lukewarm breakfast in bed and some flowers... When they rolled in this gem, I knew I was raising them right. 

Was walking around and passed by this stunning necklace by Chopard. It reminds me of a bracelet that Marie Antoinette wore in one of her portraits. Does anyone have any insight into how it’s held together? It seems like there is no metal backing

Pumps by Ralph Lauren, clutch by Forever New, Queen Elizabeth's Bahrain pearl earrings and Princess Diana's Nigel Milne three strand pearl bracelet

One of the newer luxury hotels in China, and one of the newer properties in the Mandarin Oriental portfolio - MO Qianmen opened as a hotel integrated within Beijing’s hutongs back in Sep 2024.

With the MO guaranteed upgrade offer now live, figured it was a good time to write about my stay from last year. This was definitely one of the most unique hotel experiences I had as the property is very different from the usual city hotel.

Location / Property

MO Qianmen is located in the Qianmen district which is one of the best areas for tourists visiting Beijing. You’re a 10 min drive from Tiananmen Sq + Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and also Wangfujing street. It’s also one of the most culturally rich areas of Beijing, and can be quite lively with all the good food and shopping options around. 

One of the biggest draws of the area are the hutongs, little alleys formed by lines of traditional courtyard residences that make it feel like you’ve stepped back into old Beijing. And the most unique thing about MO Qianmen is that the property is built into these hutongs, and each suite is essentially an old residence/address with an inner courtyard. 

There are still local residents that live in the same hutong area as well, so the door to your hotel room will literally be neighboring the home of a local resident who has probably lived there for a very long time. When going from the room to the hotel restaurants, spa, gym, you will be walking through the public alleys where people are doing their laundry, public bathrooms, families hanging out, etc. And yeah being in China, people are probably going to stare a bit, especially if you’re not Asian since there’s always curiosity about foreigners in general. There’s definitely an element of culture shock if this is where you choose to stay on a first time trip to China so it’s important to set the right expectations, but people are always asking for fat hotels that can immerse yourself in local culture, and I can’t think of anything else that is like this.

Being a part of old Beijing, this area also doesn’t feel run down at all. Maybe even a little commercialized. The government allowed for this hotel to be built here only if MO also agreed to do a full renovation of all the hutongs in the area for the community. So everything actually feels quite new and well maintained even outside the hotel rooms and buildings. This is also the reason why this hotel is so expensive (probably the most expensive entry level room in China?), a lot of the money went to the renovation and preservation of the hutongs.

In terms of the rest of the property, there is a main hotel area made up of a couple traditional residences with the lobby, spa, gym and tea house. No pool here, since these are all historical buildings with a lot of limitations on modification. Then like I mentioned previously, each suite is spread out throughout the neighborhood as an individual address/residence. They have little buggies that can take you around the neighborhood but it is very walkable as well.

Rooms

The suites here are absolutely stunning and one of my favorite hotel rooms anywhere. Each of the 42 rooms is a transformed courtyard residence (called siheyuan) and maintains the inner courtyard which is central to this type of housing. A siheyuan is formed by the houses that face a courtyard, making up a square layout with buildings on the north, south, east, and west sides of it. Here they are interconnected to make a square (2-bed) or c-shape (1-bed) suite. 

They’ve done a great job furnishing these suites, the finishes are beautiful. They feel elegant, historic, yet still cozy and home-y. Sometimes historic buildings can be quite dim, but here they’ve made all the windows floor to ceiling so it lets in a lot of light. You also usually have a proper living room, full dining table, soaking tub and complimentary mini bar. 

Food & Bev

F&B was great and honestly always a highlight with hotels in China. Dinner at Yan Garden is really good Southern Chinese food and is opened by Chef Fei who has a 2-star restaurant at the MO in Guangzhou. Tiao is their cocktail bar that serves creative drinks with Chinese ingredients and it was very popular with the locals even before the hotel had opened. It’s a spot that can get very lively at night, and you can text your butler to cut the line if you’re staying at the hotel ;) The breakfast is served in their Italian restaurant and was something I was less impressed with, it’s a mix of a small buffet and a la carte items. I wish there were more Chinese breakfast items. Chinese hotels are still very much dependent on domestic travel for most of their business, so a lot of the hotels are quite focused on western breakfast items since that’s what people want.

Service

Service at 5* hotels in China can sometimes be a bit disappointing, but I will say service level here was in line with the good fat hotels in other parts of the world. Everyone gets assigned a butler for the stay and you can communicate with them through WeChat (China’s version of WhatsApp). The butler team is very responsive and willing to help with any requests. Staff members around the hotel were also very attentive and friendly. I did notice that the English level across the staff was a bit higher than somewhere like Rosewood Beijing where I also stayed on the same trip.

Even though they’re priced like an Aman, I wouldn’t come here expecting that same kind of service style though. I think the staff members could generally recognize faces especially if you are there for a longer stay, but we were asked for our room number quite often and always presented a bill with our meals/drinks.

🦆🦆

China has suffered quite a bit with international tourism since covid, but I am starting to see more interest with travel there recently. It’s such a different travel experience and there are so many interesting and crazy things to see. Went back up to the Great Wall again for the first time in a while on this trip, and it’s always so impressive. 

Overall, I highly recommend MO Qianmen if you’re looking for a unique experience as part a luxe China itinerary. Otherwise, MO Wangfujing is a great property too for a more traditional city hotel experience in Beijing. Feel free to drop any questions about the property, Beijing, or China in general below!

Our family just got back from Rosewood Mandarina and I just wanted to share a quick review from the perspective of staying there with a 11-month old baby. I think most of the reviews I saw are either with no kids or with older kids. When I was booking I was looking for pictures of the baby amenities they provide but couldn’t really find any, so thought I’d pay it forward here. I also included pictures of some of the meals we’ve had at the resort since I haven’t seen too many of those either!

For baby amenities, the property provides a mini crib, a diaper pail, a bathtub, high chair, and baby lotion and soap (though they said they didn’t have any high chair available the first day and brought one by the next day. I also had to ask for the baby lotion and soap.) I didn’t get a picture of the high chair but it’s a stokke clikk. I also didn’t get a picture of the mini crib with the Slumberpod over it but it does barely fit since the fabric is stretchy. The diaper changing table was wobbly and we were afraid our daughter would break that thing so we just changed her at different places in the suite. Also side bar - I would like to propose to all luxury hotels and resorts to PLEASE add a bottle washer to your baby amenities. Standing in the bathroom and scrubbing baby bottles for 15 minutes every night was NOT the vibe 😭

We did go check out the kids club, for kids under 4 (or 5?) they can use the club but the parents have to stay with them. They had a lot of toys for our daughter to play with and the kids club staff were super sweet.

One note about the rooms - we booked a poolside studio suite for its proximity to the restaurant/beach/pool. Upon arrival they told us they upgraded us to a poolsides suite (?) which had at least 5 or 6 flights of stairs to get up to. I turned down the upgrade because I thought it would be too tiring to carry the stroller and the baby up and down the stairs multiple times a day. Turns out, we didn’t really need the stroller for anything so I think the room probably work fine. They ended up upgrading us to a Mountain View Ocean view room which worked for us. Since our baby is not super mobile yet, we just held her for all the buggy rides (which all came super quick like under 5 min). But I can see that being an issue if you have slightly older kids.

The food were all really good - we especially loved La Cocina. It’s right on the beach which is super nice with the ocean view and breeze. Staff were super nice and accommodating to our baby. They had a kids menu which included veggie purée for babies even younger. Our daughter is on solids now and she was crushing the quesadillas everyday. They were really accommodating when we asked for veggies instead of fries and the veggies were so delicious I ate all the leftovers lol.

We had some small mishaps but they were eager to please and fix any problems (we also booked with Alex who was our advocate so I’m sure that helped a lot!). All in all it was an amazing stay and I couldn’t ask for a better first international vacation with our daughter!

Today the Prince and Princess of Wales host guests to recognise their service and contribution to communities across the UK.

Last March my daughter and I spent ten days in Turkey, splitting our time between Istanbul and Cappadocia. We had a wonderful time - we loved the history and architecture in Istanbul and the unique landscape of Cappadocia. Highlights included a hot air balloon ride in Cappadocia, two food tours with Culinary Backstreets in Istanbul, Topkapi Palace, the architecture in general - especially the Iznik tiles (obsessed), and a hike in Red Valley in Cappadocia. Although we did enjoy everything we did. We liked visiting both Istanbul and Cappadocia as they were different experiences. This was our itinerary:

Day 1: Two Markets, Two Continents Food Tour with Culinary Backstreets
Day 2: Basilica Cistern, Blue Mosque, Süleymaniye Mosque, Spice Market, Rüstem Pasha Mosque, and Istanbul Modern
Day 3: Hagia Sophia, The Grand Bazaar, Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum, Galataport, and Beyoğlu District
Day 4: Bosphorus cruise and Anadolu Kavağı
Day 5: Dolmabahçe Palace and Hidden Beyoğlu Food Tour with Culinary Backstreets
Day 6: Topkapi Palace and City Walls and Neighborhoods Walk
Day 7: Zelve Open Air Museum and Pasabag Valley
Day 8: Hot Air Balloon Ride, Göreme Open Air Museum, and Red Valley Hike
Day 9: Morning balloon launch, Ihlara Valley hike, Derinkuyu underground city, and Uçhisar Castle
Day 10: Avanos Ceramics

Loved all the cats and we probably consumed our weight in baklava. Other foods I really enjoyed: kaymak (and a quince with kaymak dessert), pilavcısı, pide, halva, adana kebabs, and a pureed eggplant with beef dish I still think about. On the food tours especially we got to try a lot of foods and overall I really liked everything we had.

Never seen these before! On my walk in the adjacent neighborhood. SE WI

Alex here! Bear with me, this is a long one. But I just got back from FS Puerto Rico, and took as many detailed notes as possible.

Getting there/arrival:

• FS is about 30 minutes east of San Juan. One of us flew direct from Dallas, and the other stopped through Miami. The flight is about 2.5 hours from Miami and 4.5 from Dallas
• Transportation costs: $355 one-way for two guests and $225 for a solo traveler. Alternatively, you can uber for much cheaper.
• At check-in, we were handed a rum cocktail (or a N/A version) for an afternoon check-in. For my teammate who arrived around midnight, she got a water and warm eucalyptus towel.
• We were escorted to our rooms, and our luggage was delivered separately.

Service:

• About 80% of the original staff from St. Regis remained and I can confidently say they were trained to FS standards
• I was expecting service issues, but we only came across one miscommunication the entire stay. We were greeted by the GM, and multiple people knew us by name throughout our stay. It was one of the best FS service experiences I have had, only second to Tamarindo.

Getting around/random facts:

• The resort is expansive and is in a gated community. FS shares this space with Bahia beach club, some private residences, and some condos. Only FS guests have access to the FS areas though (although I was questioning how they would really know if a non-guest went to the pool, for example).
• FS is not open to the public, but they will sometimes open up Paros on open table for reservations during slow season.
• All beaches in Puerto Rico are technically public, but the way the hotel is positioned makes it quite difficult for someone to get to the beach without coming in through the gated community.
• There are no natural predators in Puerto Rico.
• All guests can rent out complimentary bikes throughout their stay to get around. You really need the bikes to get to the farm/dog and cat resue, bahia beach club, fitness center with tennis courts, pickleball, etc. - the lobby, spa, pool, dining outlets and other fitness center are all within walking distance from the rooms.
• 9 out of the 12 buildings have been renovated, so I recommend requesting a renovated room.

Dining options:

• Seagrapes: Main breakfast and lunch restaurant
• Paros: Greek dinner restaurant
• El Bembe: Lobby-level lounge and tapas-style local dining
• Beach Club Restaurant: Casual beachfront dining
• Sand Dollar Beachside Grill
• Turtle’s Nest Beach Bar
• El Cocoteros Grill (golf course small bites)
• 24-hour in-room dining

Our favorite dishes at the restaurants:

• Pizza at Seagrapes
• Bean dip with plantains at Seagrapes
• Shrimp bowl with rice at Seagrapes
• Black garlic shrimp at El Bembe
• Piña colada (El Bembe and poolside)
• Salted caramel tart at El Bembe and Paros
• Chicken orzo at Paros
• Salmon at Paros
• Htipiti at Paros
• Fish tacos and carne asada tacos at the Beach Club

Rooms:

• I stayed in an oceanfront one-bedroom suite.
• Oceanfront suites do not include Queen beds (the pullout couch turns into a Queen bed, though).
• My biggest complaint is that there is no way to open a window or door from the bedroom to get the sea breeze.
• No current rooms have plunge pools, but they are adding some during the renovations to some of the oceanfront rooms.
• The garden view rooms are nice, but I personally think it is worth upgrading to an ocean view.
• The buildings the rooms are in are only two stories tall, so you either get a patio or balcony on the second floor.
• There are dyson hair dryers and Diptyque amenities.
• It was the biggest shower I have ever seen for even the standard room categories.
• The residences are beautiful, but very modern and very Miami-esque. They all have the same decor, but I was hoping for a softer color palette given the rainforest views. The style was not my favorite.

Pool/beach:

• There is a main pool next to the lobby, that is very big and lazy-river like, so even if one part of the pool is busy, you can't see that area from the other side.
• They are adding an adults-only infinity pool right in front of the beach, which I think is needed. Right now, the only adults-only pool is at the beach club, and it is right above the family pool.
• The red flags are always out at the beach, and the current is strong right in front of the hotel. However, if you just walk 5 minutes on either side, there are calmer waters.
• You can surf here, but the best surfing is a few hours away in Rincon.
• The cabanas come with a free bottle of prosseco and fruit, and are around $500/day.

Activites: there is a ton to do here! I think this is one of the biggest selling points comparing it to another FS in the Caribbean.

• Hiking trails
• Rainforest guided hike
• Day trip to Culebra via boat (very much worth it! the bluest water I have personally ever seen)
• Golf
• KFAS program
• Visit the cat/dog shelter and foster during your stay
• Complimentary activity calendar that changes monthly
• Pickeball, basketball, tennis, padel courts
• Full spa
• Driving range access is included with the resort fee
• Turtle preservation
• Bike riding
• Floating obstacle course on the lake
• Windsurfing
• Catch and release fishing
• Bio-bay tours
• Day trips to San Juan
• The list goes on...

Renovations:

• A significant portion of the resort has already been updated, but not everything is finished.
• 9 of the 12 room buildings have been renovated.
• The lobby and select public areas have been refreshed.
• Paros restaurant has been renovated.
• Service has been fully retrained under Four Seasons standards.
• One important callout is that Garden View rooms are only partially renovated in some buildings. Bathrooms and wet bars have been updated, but furniture in certain rooms has not yet been replaced.

What is still under renovation:

• Seagrapes restaurant is set to be fully renovated.
• The spa will undergo a full renovation in the low season of 2027.
• An adults-only infinity pool will be added on the front lawn in 2027.
• Select oceanfront rooms will receive plunge pools.
• Seagrapes will temporarily close and be reimagined in the conference area during construction.
• During part of the renovation, Seagrapes will operate in a partially enclosed format.

Construction is expected to begin in June for the next phase of work.

Construction is visible in certain areas of the property. While it is not overwhelming, it is not fully hidden either. During our stay, we did not experience any noise disruptions, but we could see construction activity near the residences.

There is also the possibility of a temporary operational impact. We were told there may be a two-week window where the main pool could be closed due to construction noise, with guests redirected to the beach club pool during that time.

All major renovation phases are expected to be completed in 2027, although that is always subject to availabilty of course.

Personal highlights:

• Our renovated rooms felt warm and elevated. The marble bar, lighting, and grasscloth-type wallpaper in the bathroom were particularly well done.
• The shower size, water pressure, and bathtub depth all exceeded expectations.
• Food highlights included the soppressata pizza, rice dishes across multiple outlets, and the blueberry pancakes from in-room dining.
• Service was a defining strength. From being greeted by name late at night to thoughtful gestures throughout the stay, it consistently felt attentive and genuine.
• The pool design creates a sense of privacy, even when occupancy is high.
• The beach club is a strong alternative when the ocean is rough.
• Complimentary bikes ended up being a practical and enjoyable way to navigate the property.
• The sustainability efforts feel real and are embedded in the experience.
• Every room comes with a branded, striped beach tote that you can use for the duration of your stay.

Personal drawbacks:

• Birds at Seagrapes: This is the most noticeable day-to-day inconvenience. Because of the nature preserve setting, birds are present during breakfast and lunch service, which can impact the overall dining experience.
• Ocean conditions: The water is consistently rough. This is not a swimmable beach destination in the traditional sense.
• Beach club pool layout: The pool itself is beautiful, but the adults-only section sits very close to the family area. It does not feel fully separated, which will be fixed when the new adults-only pool is done.
• Limited sunset views: The positioning of the resort means you do not get those classic, direct sunset views. There are some beautiful sunrises, though.
• In the one-bedroom suites, the bedroom windows and doors do not open, so there is no way to bring in fresh air. Across renovated rooms, access to the outdoors is through a heavier door rather than sliding glass doors, which feels like a missed opportunity given the setting.

Happy to answer any additional questions! I personally think it will be much more up to FS standards when the renovations are complete in 2027.

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/159292

“It has to be HARDCORE India story”, that was the only condition for Girotra when Diya DMed him to create her look. Diya's Met Gala 2026 ensemble is a sophisticated juxtaposition of textures and regional crafts. The focal point is the ivory, 3D baroque-style bodice. This was inspired by West Bengal’s shola work; a traditional craft using the milky-white, spongey wood of the shola plant. Traditionally used for religious idols and headgear, Mayyur transformed it into an 'architectural ornament' that mimics classical European baroque flourishes but with a purely Indian soul. The structural shola work was placed over exquisite Kanjivaram fabric, grounding the ethereal white carvings with the rich, golden weight of south Indian silk.

Girotra who is no stranger to dressing India's who's who for everything from weddings to red-carpets, says this one was a process of research and a collaborative craft endeavour with Deepak Kumbha and Pintu Molla, Durga Pujo artisans from Kolkata.