A Los Angeles mansion has become the latest ‘dark tourism’ hot spot
By Lilit Marcus, CNN
(CNN) — This week in travel news: why true crime buffs are heading to Beverly Hills, a look at the world’s only Michelin-starred ice cream restaurant and the reaction to a “makeunder” of one of Italy’s star attractions.
Gawking at the Menendez mansion
A new Netflix series about Lyle and Erik Menendez, brothers who were convicted of murdering their parents Jose and Kitty in 1989, has resulted in tourists flocking to the Beverly Hills mansion where the crime took place.
“The Menendez Brothers” series, which revisits the famous case and focuses on the abuse the two men say they suffered at the hands of their father, has spurred calls to resentence the Menendezes and offer them parole.
On a recent Wednesday in October, CNN spoke with tourists from Argentina, Guatemala, Colombia and Sweden who traveled to the former Menendez home during their vacations to the United States.
Tour buses and cars playing songs “Blame It on the Rain” and “I’m Gonna Miss You” from the Netflix show’s soundtrack slowly drove by, while dozens of onlookers parked nearby to look at and film the house. Toni Ricci, an owner of a local dance studio, said she came to visit the mansion with a group of five work friends who had all been following the case.
Neighbors, though, are less than thrilled with the influx of gawkers.
“We’re probably now going to have to wait another decade or two for it to calm down again, and hopefully there won’t be another documentary in 20 years’ time,” one local told CNN.
Ice, ice baby
We all scream for ice cream — and “we” includes the Michelin guide, which recently awarded one of its coveted stars to Minimal, an ice cream restaurant in Taiwan.
Arvin Wan opened the restaurant, which has a seven-course dessert tasting menu, in Taichung in 2021.
“Desserts often aren’t the most important part of a meal in a restaurant,” he told CNN. “They’re more like a finish, a supporting act. I really only love ice.”
Good news if you can’t score a reservation: Minimal also has a takeout window where you can try ice cream flavors such as biluochun green tea with sugarcane and Angelica herb or pine needles with Camellia seed oil and green Taiwanese herbs.
Taiwan is also famed for being the home of bubble tea, one of the world’s most popular beverages.
And it’s the birthplace of gua bao, a fluffy steamed bun filled with pork, pickled mustard greens, and powdered peanuts.
Not-so-bella vista
The Trevi fountain might be the most famous tourist attraction in a city packed to the brim with tourist attractions. Local legend has it that if you toss a coin into the Trevi, you are destined to return to Rome again someday.
However, recent visitors to the famous fountain were less than impressed with what they found.
The fountain is undergoing repairs and upgrades, and the water is currently not running. Instead, a small temporary pool has been set up so there’s somewhere for visitors to toss coins — all of which are donated to a local Catholic charity — without getting in the way of renovation work.
Criticism was swift, with one online commenter calling it a “small children’s pool where they pee in the water in the summer.”
And that’s not all. A proposed plan would charge tourists 2 euros to get close enough to the Trevi to toss their coins into the water.
The new wellness
From India to Costa Rica, luxury resorts are catering to women going through menopause or perimenopause, with specialized exercise and sleeping plans on the schedule alongside the usual spa basics and beauty treatments.
It’s all part of a bigger wave of erasing public stigma about discussing “the change of life” and addressing a lesser-studied aspect of women’s health.
Still, one doctor tells CNN that while it’s fine to go to a spa to relax and destress, be wary of any place that says their treatments are a substitute for medical attention.
“There’s no extra lotions and potions that are going to be transformative for you because of perimenopause or menopause,” she says. “At least not today.”
If you’ve been struggling to sleep at home or on a plane, our friends at CNN Underscored, a product reviews website owned by CNN, have tried and tested the best sleep masks.
In case you missed it
Move over, Moo Deng.
There’s a new baby pygmy hippo in town.
It’s a famous resort area where George Clooney hangs out.
And now you can buy “fresh air” straight from Lake Como.
Jaywalking is officially legal in New York City.
But you should still look both ways before you cross the street.
The-CNN-Wire
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