Photo Credit: Bulgari

Bulgari Boas

Handbags as high-value assets have a new entrant – move over Hermès. LVMH’s Bulgari celebrates its Serpenti jewellery range’s 75th birthday with six calfskin handled bags from three global designers. Two, Ocean and Forest, above, are by Chinese abstract artist Zhou Li. Iconic snake-head closures, metal handles. Limited editions, 75 per bag, and to increase value, NFT videos included.

Paved in Gold

Book Bulgari for your bag. Think The Bulgari Resort Bali, hillside on the southern tip of the Jimbaran Peninsula. A 3,229 sq ft Premier Ocean View Villa comes with a private pool. The resort’s spa’s steam room is lined with 24-carat gold tiles. At Bulgari Milano, by Contraste, spa tiles are gold and green: at this central-city lush oasis, a former convent, designer Antonio Citterio’s incorporated numerous Bulgari memorabilia.

Knickerbocker Glory

There’s a Martini Suite at New York’s The Knickerbocker. In 1904 a hotel barman, Martini di Arma di Taggia, blended dry gin, vermouth and orange bitters for John D. Rockefeller. The 15th floor suite overlooks Times Square. Dine in, for The Knick restaurant’s Charlie Palmer dishes. Work calories off with Knickerbocker partner Larry Johnson (New York Knicks).

Green Fingered

Plan Peru, centred on food from former botanist Virgilio Martinez. His Central, Lima, is top restaurant in the 2023 San Pellegrino/Acqua Panna World’s 50 Best Restaurants. Even more enticing is a trip on to Cusco. Stay in one of the air-purified rooms at Belmond’s Monasterio del Cusco (Gregorian chants at breakfast). After recovering from the 11,207 ft ASL altitude, go 30 miles for a day-long food immersion at Martinez’s Mil Centro Food Lab and Interpretation Center. Tomorrow, perhaps Belmond’s Hiram Bingham train to Machu Picchu and back.

The Stolen Scream

Don’t Scream. As Oslo’s memorable Munch Museum shows, highly troubled Edvard Munch, 1863-1944, left tens of thousands of artworks, now displayed in the Spanish-designed 13-floor concrete and recycled steel MUNCH, nicknamed the world’s largest collection of guard rails.  That notwithstanding, admire Munch’s versatility. And see ‘The’ Scream, the painting stolen August 2004 (in Munich) and recovered August 2006 (by Oslo police).

Teatime

Shanghai’s Harrods Tea Room opened 2021 at the restored 1920 Cha House. Now a private members club is added. Maximum 250 members, annual fee US$21,000, with bar, lounges, private dining rooms and outdoor terraces. Great for hobnobbing – and shopping for all those goodies available only through Harrods’ invitation-only The Residence personal retail network. (Note, there’s also a Harrods Suite, but it’s in Beijing, a duplex at The Opposite House.)