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      5 Places to Visit in Tucson, Arizona, With Singer Linda Ronstadt

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      In the course of becoming a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner and the subject of a forthcoming biopic set to star Selena Gomez, Linda Ronstadt has packed theaters around the globe. But her favorite sits on a one-way side street in Tucson, Ariz.Ms. Ronstadt in Tucson in September 2022. She still makes occasional trips to the city, where she was born and raised.Cassidy Araiza for The New York TimesWith a courtyard draped in vines and string lights and a main stage the size of “a good little opera house,” the 1927 Temple of Music and Art is “just magic,” said Ms. Ronstadt. Before the onset of progressive supranuclear palsy — a Parkinson’s-like disorder that ended her singing career in 2009 — she could fill the auditorium with her unamplified voice (little surprise to anyone who’s ever heard her belt out “Blue Bayou” or “Long Long Time,” for the legions who may have just discovered her on “The Last of Us”). She also loves the theater’s proscenium: a stage-framing arch that instantly focuses the eye — “like that fireplace,” she explained, gesturing toward a wall near the sofa where we chatted in her cozy San Francisco living room.At 77, Ms. Ronstadt now lives in the Bay Area, close to her kids, but the Sonoran Desert borderlands where she was born and raised will always be home. And despite the changes she sees when she returns every six months or so, plenty of familiar local pleasures remain, for starters: bubbling-hot cheese crisps at El Minuto Cafe, ice-chilled shrimp cocktail at Hotel Congress, giant saguaros at every turn and live entertainment of all kinds at the Fox Tucson Theater, where her father — a businessman with a renowned baritone — used to perform as Gil Ronstadt and His Star-Spangled Megaphone.The Ronstadts have been part of the Tucson music scene since her grandfather arrived from Mexico in 1882 and helped found the Club Filarmónico Tucsonense civic band. And perhaps no place highlights the family’s cultural legacy like the former Tucson Music Hall, rechristened the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall in May 2022. The naming ceremony took place during a mariachi spectacular that featured Jesús “Chuy” Guzmán, who’d recorded with Ms. Ronstadt on the 1987 “Canciones de Mi Padre” — still the best-selling non-English album in U.S. history. This ode to the borderland classics she’d grown up on was remastered and rereleased last fall, and there may be no better soundtrack for exploring her hometown.Here are five of her favorite places to visit in Tucson:1. Barrio BreadMs. Ronstadt always stops at the artisanal bakery Barrio Bread on her way from the airport when she visits.Cassidy Araiza for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?  More

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      A Pilgrimage to the Land of Giuseppe Verdi

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      I was 15 when I went to my first Verdi opera, “Il Trovatore,” at the Met, the old Met, in 1964. I could barely figure out what was going on but didn’t care. Leontyne Price sang Leonora, and I was in awe of her plush, beautiful voice. The singing, the chorus, the orchestra, the emotional drama, the music with its mixture of soaring melody, intensity and structure (though I couldn’t have expressed this back then) all hooked me. Two months later I was back at the Met for Verdi’s “Otello” starring, no less, Renata Tebaldi as Desdemona. I still remember the poignant warmth and uncanny bloom of her voice as she sang the sighing refrain of “salce, salce” in the “Willow Song.”I would go on to hear, and eventually review, most of the Verdi operas in productions around the world. I studied the scores in music classes and on my own at the piano. I read biographies that emphasized his deep ties to the rural region of northern Italy he came from and never really left. To me, that devotion seemed of a piece both with Verdi’s character — he was a crusty, principled man with a built-in hypocrisy detector who was suspicious of urban elites — and his respect for the heritage of Italian opera. If Wagner brought a radical agenda to remaking German opera, Verdi was a reformer who worked from within the traditions and conventions of Italian opera while subtly, steadily introducing ingenious innovations that would, over time, transform it. So I wanted to see for myself where he came from, and how his roots shaped his life and art.This fall, at long last, I made my Verdi pilgrimage, retracing his steps from his birthplace in Roncole to the crypt where he is buried in Milan. More

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      36 Hours in Joshua Tree, California: Things to Do and See

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      7 a.m.
      Hike to the site of a real-life Western drama
      California’s high-desert scenery often feels like the backdrop of an old western (in Pioneertown, northwest of the park, a set used for many films of the western genre still stands). For the nonfiction version of Wild West-like drama, enter the park via the west entrance and hike to the site of a showdown near the Wall Street Mill, once used to process gold mined in the area. In 1943, two neighbors entered into a fatal duel over a property line disagreement along what’s now the trail. On the path, a sign commemorating the shootout reads, “Here is where Worth Bagley bit the dust at the hand of W.F. Keys.” The sign is a replica of the original one that Keys, the mill’s owner, made and installed himself. At the end of the path, you’ll reach the ruins of the mill, flanked by rusted-out antique cars. The relatively easy hourlong round-trip feels like traveling back in time. More

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      36 Hours in Melbourne, Australia: Things to Do and See

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      12 p.m.
      Explore a lane that’s gone from rags to riches
      Flinders Lane was the center of Melbourne’s rag trade, as its textile industry was known, until production moved offshore starting in the 1960s. Today, it’s home to a number of gorgeous shops and restaurants. The city’s most beautiful retail space must belong to Alpha60, a local brother-sister fashion label (think boxy shirts and breezy culottes), whose store inside the Chapter House building occupies a cathedral-like space with lofty, vaulted ceilings, pointed-arch windows and a baby grand piano. Across the road, Craft Victoria, a subterranean gallery and store, features experimental Australian ceramics and textile art. After your shopping, drop into Gimlet at Cavendish House, a glamorous restaurant where crisply dressed waiters sail by with caviar and lobster roasted in a wood-fired oven, but you don’t have to go all out: Squeeze in at the bar right after the doors open at noon for an expertly made gin martini (29 dollars) before the lunch rush. More

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      36 Hours in Acadiana, Louisiana: Things to Do and See

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      10:30 a.m.
      Time travel to a historic village
      When the British forcibly removed the Acadians from parts of Canada in the mid-18th century, an event known as Le Grand Dérangement, the French-speaking Acadians started making their way down the Mississippi River, creating settlements in South Louisiana. Vermilionville was the name given to Lafayette when it was established in the 1820s as one of those settlements. Today, Vermilionville, a 23-acre, open-air living history museum along the banks of the Vermilion River, tells the story of that migration and how the Acadians’ mingling with Creole, Spanish and Native American traditions created the unique culture of today’s Acadiana. Visitors can embark on a guided boat tour of the grounds, be entertained by costumed actors and historical reenactments, or join Cajun dance lessons and jams. The on-site restaurant, La Cuisine de Maman, also hosts an all-you-can-eat Sunday brunch. Adult admission, $10; handicap-accessible. More

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      Dark Hedges: 6 ‘Game of Thrones’ Trees Will Be Cut Down

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      Six of the Dark Hedges beech trees, a tourist destination in Northern Ireland for fans of the HBO fantasy series, will be cut down because they are in poor condition, officials said.Six trees with long branches that twist up to the sky that were made famous by the series “Game of Thrones” will be cut down in the coming weeks, officials in Northern Ireland said on Monday.The trees are part of the Dark Hedges, an international tourist attraction for fans of the HBO fantasy series. As many as hundreds of tourists visit each day. The beech trees, which form an arch over a road, have become one of the most photographed spots in Northern Ireland.Northern Ireland’s Department for Infrastructure said that the six trees, in bucolic County Antrim, needed to be cut down because they were in poor condition and posed a risk to the public. An additional four trees will require remedial work and a fifth will be assessed, the statement said. The work will begin on Nov. 20.Essential public safety works, including removal and remedial works, to a number of trees at The Dark Hedges on Bregagh Road, Armoy will start on Monday 20 November 2023.More details: https://t.co/DLvlOTHzMQ pic.twitter.com/Vl4sjT3SOb— Department for Infrastructure (@deptinfra) November 13, 2023
      “This decision has not been made lightly and whilst the amenity value afforded by the corridor of trees is acknowledged, the safety of road users is paramount,” the Infrastructure Department said. The government said it would engage with the landowner and others to determine a strategy for protecting the other trees.“Game of Thrones” is based on the first five novels in George R.R. Martin’s series “A Song of Ice and Fire.” The Dark Hedges appear in the first episode of Season 2, when Arya Stark, disguised as a boy, escapes from her enemies in a cart, traveling north on the Kingsroad.“Game of Thrones” was filmed in locations around Northern Ireland, including at Titanic Studios in Belfast. Popular tourist locations for fans include Cushendun Caves, the beach where the priestess Melisandre gives birth in a cave to a supernatural assassin, and Ballintoy Harbour, built in the 1700s. There were more than 20 “Game of Thrones” filming locations in Northern Ireland, including medieval castles, harbors and coastlines, according to the country’s tourism board, which advertises of “Game of Thrones” tours.The Dark Hedges were also featured in “Transformers: The Last Knight.” There were originally about 150 trees, but today just 86 remain, with some having been damaged in storms or by rot.The trees that make up the Dark Hedges, which sit on privately owned land on Bregagh Road, were planted by the Stuart family in the 18th century. They were arranged to impress visitors as they approached the entrance to a Georgian mansion, Gracehill House. According to local lore, the area is haunted by a ghost known as the Grey Lady.A line from one of Martin’s books, “A Storm of Swords,” gives readers a sense of how foreboding the Kingsroad could be: “I’d stay well clear of that kingsroad, if I were you,” a peasant says. “It’s worse than bad, I hear. Wolves and lions both, and bands of broken men preying on anyone they can catch.” More

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      Five Places to Visit in Dakar, Senegal, With Singer Baaba Maal

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      Had everything gone to plan, the singer-songwriter Baaba Maal’s move to Senegal’s capital from the northern hinterlands would have ended up differently — specifically, with a law degree. “When I first came to Dakar, I was supposed to study at the university because that was the wish of my parents,” he said, while a pair of sculptures, as if on cue, eyed him sternly.I met Mr. Maal — the “voice of Wakanda” to fans who know him from the soundtracks of “Black Panther” and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” — at Dakar’s Museum of Black Civilizations. As we roamed the galleries, he explained that he loved this place for its efforts to repatriate plundered African treasures and its power “to make the young ones interested in arts.” Now 70, he recalled being an artsy young one himself. “What was really, deeply strong inside me — which is to be a singer, to be a performer — came out when I got to Dakar,” he said. “If I wanted to be an artist, I said, ‘This is where I’m going to start a career.’”Baaba Maal, 70, released “Being,” his 14th studio album, this year.Matthew DonaldsonSo there went his parents’ plan, but his own has worked out nicely. This year alone, he released his 14th studio album, “Being,” to critical acclaim, became a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification — a continuation of the work of his nonprofit Nann-K — and began preparations for his arts and culture Blues du Fleuve festival in early December. While he still travels often, he said, “I’ve always wanted Dakar to be where I start my work, get ready for my tours — and come back.”The appeal was clear. Since he’d moved to Dakar, the city had instituted renowned biennales and fashion weeks. And just the small stretch of the thoroughfare where we stood featured not only the museum, but also the Grand Théâtre National and the restored Art Nouveau commuter rail station. “This is a new dynamic,” he said, pointing out a spot where hip-hop artists now draw thousands of young people to open-air performances. Reveling in the energy, he added, “I often pass by here, open the car window, look at the people coming out of the train and say to myself, ‘Yes, this is the kind of Senegal I want to see.’”Here are five of his favorite places in and around Dakar.1. Daniel Sorano National TheaterMusicians practicing during a ballet rehearsal at the Daniel Sorano National Theater.Carmen Abd Ali for The New York Times“I love to see tradition alive,” said Mr. Maal of the theater, inaugurated in 1965 by Senegal’s first president, the poet-philosopher Léopold Sédar Senghor. “And the tradition is still there — the national ballet, the lyrical ensemble, a lot of traditional African music.” He also loves the theater’s soul: “You can see the portraits of all the artists who passed away a long time ago, and who represent a lot to Senegalese people.”Pictures of artists who have performed at the Daniel Sorano National Theater, which was inaugurated by Léopold Sédar Senghor, a poet as well as Senegal’s first president, in 1965.Carmen Abd Ali for The New York Times2. Amadou Barry StadiumWatching a soccer team train at Amadou Barry Stadium in the suburbs of Dakar, where singing and drumming often accompany games and wrestling matches.Carmen Abd Ali for The New York TimesSports fan or not, any music lover will enjoy a match at this soccer and wrestling stadium, where singing and drumming accompany the action. Mr. Maal has a particular fondness for wrestling, the national sport. “It’s not just the sport itself; it’s the dramas, the singers, the costumes — all the culture around the wrestling,” he said. Amadou Barry is also a music venue, where Mr. Maal is a beloved veteran performer. To visit this suburban stadium, you may want a guide.3. Hotel Sobo BadeThe Hotel Sobo Bade near Dakar features thatched domes, mosaic archways and lush vegetation.Carmen Abd Ali for The New York TimesThe tranquil view of the ocean from the Hotel Sobo Bade, about an hour southeast of Dakar.Carmen Abd Ali for The New York Times“When friends come, it’s their favorite place to stay,” said Mr. Maal of this dreamy hotel — all thatched domes, mosaic archways and bougainvillea blossoms — in the suburb of Toubab Dialaw, about an hour outside Dakar, where the tranquillity-inducing views of the ocean and city lights inspired his iconic song “Dakar Moon.” He also recommends the nearby African dance institute École des Sables, where anyone can attend the performances at the end of each multiweek session.A room at the Sobo Bade. “When friends come, it’s their favorite place to stay,” Mr. Maal said of the hotel.Carmen Abd Ali for The New York Times4. Soumbedioune Fishing Beach and MarketFishermen at Soumbedioune Beach, a traditional fishing area in Dakar.Carmen Abd Ali for The New York TimesAs much as Mr. Maal is an artist, by birthright, he said, “I’m a fisherman.” And his favorite local connection to those roots is Soumbedioune, where the beach and market are “full of life, noise and energy — with all the boats going out early in the morning, the young people pulling them from the ocean and the women waiting to sell the fish in the markets.”Lobsters at the Soumbedioune market. The beach and market are “full of life, noise and energy,” Mr. Maal said.Carmen Abd Ali for The New York Times5. Galle Niwa RestaurantGalle Niwa, a restaurant on Gorée Island, is owned by “a friend who loves to feed people,” Mr. Maal said.Abbie KozolchykGorée Island, about two miles off the coast, was the site of the largest slave-trading center on the African coast for centuries, according to UNESCO, which lists it as a World Heritage site.Carmen Abd Ali for The New York Times“It’s beautiful, and owned by a friend who loves to feed people,” said Mr. Maal of this restaurant that’s part of a colonial estate turned hotel on Gorée Island, 25 minutes off the coast. His song “Fatmata” is dedicated to the proprietor, whose kitchen’s thieboudienne (fish, herby tomato sauce and rice), kaldou (garlicky fish and rice) and c’est bon (grilled fish and seafood with an oniony sauce) are favorites of his. And UNESCO-listed Gorée Island, ringed in aquamarine waters, is considered a must for any visitor, as is its Maison des Esclaves, a testament to the horrors of slavery. While the island’s beauty and brutality feel decidedly at odds, you can, in Mr. Maal’s view, “go from very hard, very sad experiences to see that after all, there is hope, there is light, and we can build something from that.”Gorée Island is considered a must-see for any visitor to Dakar. Its brutal history in the slave trade feels at odds with its natural beauty.Carmen Abd Ali for The New York TimesFollow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2023. More

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      36 Hours in Glasgow: Things to Do and See

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      12 p.m.
      Browse Scandi home goods and woolly Scottish knitwear
      Glaswegians have an appetite for sustainable shopping and for secondhand goods of all stripes. Hoos, next to the Botanic Gardens, stocks chic Scandi home goods, while the Glasgow Vintage Co., farther along Great Western Road from Papercup, has a thoughtful selection of second-hand Scottish knitwear alongside show-stopping coats and dresses from the 1970s. Up the hill on Otago Street, above Perch & Rest Coffee, Kelvin Apothecary sells a nice range of gifts including handmade Scottish soaps and wooden laundry and cleaning tools. In the cobbled Otago Lane is the chaotic Voltaire and Rousseau secondhand bookshop, with teetering, vertical book piles. Unlike many Glasgow shops, this store isn’t the most dog-friendly, because of the resident cat, BB, who supervises from his perch at the till. More