A very pricey cocktail in progress on the roof of the new-ish DOM Hotel.

The DOM Hotel, a five-star luxury retreat, opened on Via Giulia in central Rome a little less than a year ago. The place is a good value, in relation to its category, and the location is hard to beat. I weigh DOM’s pros and cons in this Sunday’s NYT Travel section (or read online here).

Rome’s rapidly growing trend, “lo street food”, seems unstoppable. I’m not talking about food trucks, which really really don’t work or exist here the way the do in other cities, nor the ubiquitous pizza by the slice joints. I’m referring to a different approach to marketing food in which takeaways, cafes and restaurants peddle (relatively) inexpensive, portable snacks.

Of course, Rome has a long history of pizza by the slice, panini, supplì and other small bites that might be collectively called cibo da strada. But “lo street food” is something else–a new impulse in food production and distribution. Even its English moniker sets it apart from Rome’s established, indigenous models.

While the city’s street food movement is in full swing, even its pioneer is getting in on the action. Stefano Callegari invented the trapizzino at his pizza by the slice joint, 00100, in 2008. 00100 shuttered this past winter and reopened and rebranded under the name Trapizzino, referring to its main offering.

The name trapizzino is a play on words, combining tramezzino (a triangular sandw

This is the second leg of a truly fun week. There are adventures to get each morning when we land somewhere else, but also fun time on the boat itself.

The Club Med 2 has an open bar. Yes, that means free flow of pretty good things...all day long. So being on a French boat, you have Ricard for aperitif at lunch time if you are on the boat at lunch time...and pina colada by the pool before sunset, and obviously wine during meals. We are in the North Hemisphere end of November, so sunsets are early at around 5.30pm each day...with some pretty cool views from the swimming pool bar on the back deck. By 6pm, it's champagne time...all night long. Well, first it's shower time and getting change for the evening obviously...this is still a French place! And as we all now that mixing different alcohol drinks is not a great idea, I found a fun group of people ready to go on the champagne all night long, each evening, for great and fun time! More in the next entries of this truly fun group of people.



Little warning, Club Med 2
Club Med 2Club Med 2
Club Med 2
is French, and it feels. Out

A villager in Kenya was herding animals one day recently when he came upon a head-turning sight. A ghostly creature with a mighty long neck was grazing off in the distance.

Upon closer inspection, the vision was revealed to be a female reticulated giraffe — tall, majestic and preternaturally white — and she was accompanied by a smaller apparition: a pale baby giraffe.

The sightings in June, in Garissa County near the Ishaqbini Hirola Conservancy, sent the villager scurrying off to tell rangers,the founder of the Hirola Conservation Program said on Thursday. The news has been ricocheting across continents and making headlines ever since.

Conservationists who hurried to the site managed to capture what is believed to be the first known video footage of white giraffes, said Abdullahi H. Ali, who founded Hirola and has been working to conserve the critically endangered hirola antelope in the eastern part of the country.

Listen to two different forms of fusion concerts that make up this year's One World Many Musics, the annual Indian contemporary music concert series organized by the National Center for the Performing Arts, on Friday October 17 and Saturday, 18 October. Stringstruck, the band-fusion classic of India headed by Purbayan Chatterjee, will be presented at the NCPA Tata Theatre on Friday, from 19:00. Chatterjee plays the DWO, amended the sitar in the band, which also features percussionist Taufiq Qureshi, surfer Fazal Qureshi, Manas Chakrabarty bassist, keyboardist Atul Raninga, Tapas and oud player and guitarist Sanjoy Das rabab. Assamese folk-fusion band singer Papon and the East India Company will perform at the same venue on Saturday from 19:00. Tickets are priced at 300 rupees, 600 rupees and 900 per head each day. National Center for the Performing Arts, NCPA Marg, Nariman Point. Tel: 2282 022 4567.

• Move to the next heartbeat, the series of concerts organized by electronic Bhavishyavani Future Soundz in Bonobo, on Friday, October 17, at 22:00. Troja aka Roy and own Spacejams Trideep BFS aka Yohann J