The Italian pastry that’s caused a frenzy

When a Doughy Treat Sends Tourists Storming a Mountain Refuge

Goldlaner.com – Italy’s culinary reputation rests on a foundation of gelato queues, truffle-hunting excursions, and long lunches that stretch past midnight. Yet one particular baked-and-fried confection has recently hijacked the attention of a new wave of visitors, turning a quiet alpine shelter into something closer to a pilgrimage site. The pastry in question — called a krapfen in some regions, a bombolone in others — resembles a ringless donut, plump and filled with cream or jam, and it has become the gravitational center of itineraries that were never meant to include it.

The epicenter of this unexpected rush is a rifugio, a mountain refuge tucked into the Val di Fassa valley within the Italian Dolomites. What was once a peaceful waypoint for hikers and climbers now draws crowds of visitors who have followed food bloggers and social-media influencers straight to its doorstep. Locals, accustomed to solitude and the occasional weary trekker, have found themselves overwhelmed by people whose sole purpose is to photograph and consume a single pastry. The phenomenon underscores how quickly a niche regional treat can balloon into a viral destination when the algorithm decides it deserves a spotlight.

Stanley Tucci, meanwhile, sampled pastries of his own choosing during an episode of the streaming series “Searching for Italy,” doing so without triggering any local indignation. US-based subscribers can stream the show through the platform’s catalog.

New Haven, Connecticut: Where Colonial Grids Meet Yale’s Global Pulse

At number two on the countdown of America’s Best Towns to Visit in 2026 sits a Connecticut city that defies easy categorization. New Haven was laid out in the colonial era as a strict grid around a historic town green, yet today it functions as the urban core of Yale University — a global institution whose students, faculty, and alumni inject a restless, cosmopolitan energy into streets that still bear the names of 17th-century founders.

Walkers can spend an afternoon in the Yale University Art Gallery, where works by Auguste Rodin, Vincent van Gogh, and J.M.W. Turner hang without an admission fee. Afterward, the city’s dining scene offers everything from century-old hamburger counters to food trucks, taco stands, and Ethiopian restaurants. Pizza, too, has become a defining flavor of the town’s identity, drawing devotees who treat a slice as both comfort food and cultural artifact.

To borrow the spirit of Nathan Hale — Yale graduate and Revolutionary War martyr — one might say you will regret having only a single weekend to give to New Haven. The remaining entries already published on the list include Roanoke, Virginia (No. 10); Lawrence, Kansas (No. 9); Iowa City, Iowa (No. 8); Juneau, Alaska (No. 7); Burlington, Vermont (No. 6); Fort Collins, Colorado (No. 5); Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (No. 4); and Greenville, South Carolina (No. 3). The number-one selection arrives next week.

The First Foreign Haenyeo: An American Woman Dives Jeju’s Cold Waters

On Jeju Island, off South Korea’s southwestern coast, a centuries-old tradition of female free-divers known as haenyeo has, until recently, been closed to outsiders. That changed when Kylie Genter, an American resident of Youngrak-ri — a small coastal village on the island’s far western shore — became the first non-Korean to earn a haenyeo license. The role demands breath-hold diving without oxygen gear to harvest shellfish and seaweed, a practice passed through generations of women who work, eat, bathe, and rest together in tightly bonded groups.

“As a foreigner doing this, especially as a person who is not a Korean citizen, it’s a big responsibility,” Genter said.

Her presence in the village’s diving cohort marks a rare opening in a tradition that has guarded its knowledge and safety protocols for centuries. The haenyeo were recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage element in 2016, and their cooperative structure — mutual watch during dives, shared meals afterward — makes integration by an outsider both logistically complex and culturally significant.

Lake Ontario Becomes Lake America — and Canadians Take Note

Amid a renewed trade confrontation with Canada, President Trump signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America. The move, widely read as a symbolic jab in the ongoing tariff dispute, has fueled speculation that a fresh wave of Canadian travelers may steer clear of US destinations. The ripple effects are already visible: a stretch of Florida coastline long nicknamed “Little Quebec” has experienced a marked tourism decline as political friction between the two neighbors deepens, and numerous Canadian snowbirds have told reporters they chose alternative winter havens this year rather than cross the border.

Britain’s Gen Z Trades the Pub for the Track

A quiet behavioral shift is underway among young Britons. The traditional post-work ritual of gathering at a local pub is losing ground to something far less convivial: the running track. Surveys and anecdotal reporting suggest that a growing share of Gen Z workers now prefer a lap around a park or a structured run over a pint and a conversation, reshaping the evening economy of British towns and raising questions about the social role of the pub as a communal space.

Other Stories From the Week

In Taiwan’s mountainous interior, a search-and-rescue volunteer known as the “Beast Runner” continues tracking missing hikers long after organized teams have withdrawn, following faint clues through dense forest. In Bangkok, a celebrity-chef-run restaurant has adopted a no-phones-at-the-table policy, asking diners to set screens aside and focus entirely on the meal. Elsewhere, public-health officials are tracking a measles surge, while communities mourn a tragic flood that claimed lives earlier in the week.