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New England state parks

New England has only one national park, Acadia National Park. While beautiful and well worth a visit, Acadia is certainly not the only option if you want to get away for an afternoon or a weekend. Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont are each filled with diverse and beautiful state parks where you can hike along northern stretches of the Appalachian Trail, savor lake-filled landscapes carved by glaciers, fish in plentiful streams, or stroll through leafy, autumn-hued forests. Many of them are also blissfully quiet for much of the year.

Maine
Baxter State Park

Photo: Paul Tessier/Shutterstock

Although Baxter State Park is Maine’s most popular state park, it’s far less visited than Acadia National Park. In fact, this nearly 210,000-acre state park is more than four times bigger than Acadia but gets a mere two percent of the number of visitors. So, yes, Baxter is empty.

But what makes Baxter special is not the lack of crowds. It’s things like some of the best hiking in the Northeast, like creeping along the knife edge to Baxter Peak, the tallest peak on the 5,268-foot-high Mount Katahdin, Maine’s tallest mountain and the northern end of the Appalachian Trail. Besides hiking on some of 215 miles of trails, and perhaps spotting moose or white-tailed deer, adventurers can rock climb and mountain bike. Anyone looking for a calmer experience will appreciate fishing, canoeing, or biking on the park’s collection lakes and ponds. And if you want to stay the night? You’ll have 337 campsites to choose from.

Mount Blue State Park

Photo: KWJPHOTOART/Shutterstock

At 8,000 acres, Maine’s second-biggest state park is considerably smaller than Baxter but is plenty spacious for a state park. Within those acres are the 3,187-foot-high Mount Blue, which you can climb to in a moderate 3.2-mile loop. Up top, you’ll get views of the park’s Webb Lake, a top spot for boating, canoeing, and stand-up paddling. Fishing for trout, salmon, and bass is also popular here. Horseback riding and mountain biking trails beckon in warmer months while snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, snowmobiling, and ice skating are excellent winter options. Those planning on staying overnight can reserve a campsite.

Quoddy Head State Park

Photo: Mercedes Mehling/Shutterstock

With its candy-cane stripes, the easternmost lighthouse in the US is hard to miss. While the lighthouse is the most noticeable feature of this small, coastal treasure, the park’s real rewards lie in its trails that take you through forests of evergreen pines and alongside cliffs that reach as high as 150 feet. You can look out from the bluffs for humpback and finback whales, as well as birds ranging from plover and gannet to sea ducks and sandpipers. Often wrapped in fog, Quoddy Head is also home to one of the few peat bogs in the US.

Vermont
Smugglers Notch State Park

Photo: Jessica Mae Gonzaga/Shutterstock

The park in Vermont’s Green Mountains is not only in a stunning location, but its name also belies an intriguing history. Located just 40 miles from the national border, near Stowe, Smuggler’s Notch was a pass-through point for goods smuggled between Vermont and Canada after the US passed the 1806 Embargo Act. It was part of the underground railroad, which helped escaped slaves find freedom in Canada. Later still, it functioned as a way-point for alcohol smuggled in from Canada during Prohibition. Today, more benign activities include hiking, biking, bouldering, or exploring some of the caves nature built into the granite peaks. Should you opt to stay overnight, Smugglers Notch is also our favorite place to camp in Vermont.

Emerald Lake State Park

Photo: majicphotos/Shutterstock

Named for its sometimes green-hued lake, this park is a hidden wonder located in a valley between the Green Mountain and Taconic ranges. Only non-motorized boats are welcome here, adding to the peaceful feel. Anglers take in pike, perch, and bass while stand-up paddlers take in the views of nearby peaks like Dorset Mountain. You can hike up to Dorset, as well as along the northern edges of the nearby Appalachian Trail. Should you choose to stay the night, over 100 campsites surround the 20-acre lake.

New Hampshire
Crawford Notch State Park

Photo: Jay Boucher/Shutterstock

You may think that New Hampshire’s White Mountains are so named because of their wintertime blankets of snow. Two competing theories are that European settlers were impressed with how some of the mountain’s exposed granite peaks shone in the sun or that the white refers to the pale bark of the area’s ubiquitous birch trees. In any case, in summer the White Mountains are anything by white. They’re in fact bursting with green leaves, crossed by rivers, and dotted with deep blue lakes. One of the loveliest state parks in this special region is the 5,800-acre Crawford Notch State Park. Highlights of hiking or mountain biking in this park tend to be arriving at one of 10 waterfalls that cascade over rock faces. Crawford Notch is also our choice for camping in the state.

Pawtuckaway State Park

Photo: Krista Gazzola/Shutterstock

The biggest draw at Pawtuckaway is its sprawling Pawtuckaway Lake, complete with inlets and coves to explore by canoe, kayak, or stand-up paddleboards, all of which you can rent by the lake. But the 5,000-acre park is also home to the Pawtuckaway Mountains and several beautiful trails leading to such destinations of diminutive Round Pond and other, even smaller bodies of water. The glacier-carved area also has a big marsh where you’re likely to spot beavers, herons, and deer. While warm weekends may see people out on Pawtuckaway Lake, this park, one of New Hampshire’s largest state parks, is blissfully quiet most weekdays — even in summer.

Connecticut
Sleeping Giant State Park

Photo: Chuck Hayden/Shutterstock

A state park for nearly a century, Sleeping Giant is named for the two-mile stretch of mountain peaks that look, from a distance, to be a giant in slumber. Of its dozens of hiking routes, perhaps the most popular is to the top of Mount Carmel, from the top of which you can look out to New Haven and the handsome buildings of Yale University and, beyond that, the Long Island Sound. Beyond hiking, fishing for trout, and picnicking with a view are favored activities of the few Connecticut residents who know about this lovely little state park.

Lover’s Leap State Park

Photo: Tomaz Kunst/Shutterstock

Lover’s Leap is a sweet little park with lovely views of the Housatonic River. Legend has it that a Native American princess in love with a white man paddled in her boat towards a waterfall here rather than be forced to marry a man in her tribe. When the white lover saw her boat, he jumped in to reach her and both died. The story is in fact not true, but the name remains. To confuse things more, the park’s scenic span is called the Lover’s Leap Bridge — although no lovers are known to have leaped off of that either. The bridge though, built in 1895 by the Berlin Iron Bridge Company, is worth checking out, as is the view of the river from the lookout point.

Massachusetts
Mount Greylock State Reservation

Photo: kvdphotography/Shutterstock

Massachusetts’s first state park, in the far northwest corner of the state, offers hiking on more than 50 miles of trails. Some of these trails, among a northern stretch of the Appalachian Trail, lead up to the state’s highest peak, Mount Greylock. At 3,491 feet, it’s not exceptionally high, but high enough to afford wrap-around views of five states. Mount Greylock is most photogenic in the fall, when its leaves of yellow birch, beech, sugar maple, and hemlock take on the golden, crimson, and ochre hues of autumn. In the winter, it welcomes cross-country skiers and snowmobilers, who follow trails all the way to the peak.

Mohawk Trail State Forest

Photo: Nina Alizada/Shutterstock

Named for a trading route between Native American tribes in the Atlantic with those located much further inland, this 6,000-acre park in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts shows off some of the most beautiful nature in Massachusetts. It’s packed with trails through the maple, oak, hemlock, and pine woodlands that take you up to stunning viewpoints overlooking mountain ridges.

Rhode Island
Colt State Park

Photo: Meghadeepa Maity/Shutterstock

The loveliest state park not far from Providence allows you to walk along the water on paths flanked by trees and lovely low walls made of rocks. This park is not necessarily uncrowded. In fact, its Stone Bridge by the Mill Gut is a favored spot for wedding photos. It’s also less rustic than the other parks on this list as it features lovely fruit trees and flower gardens, as well as carefully tended lawns. But if it’s a bit of nature’s healing power that you want, you’ll certainly find it walking or biking along the Narragansett Bay or having an outdoor meal at one of the many groves with picnic tables.

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TikTok cloud bread cooking trend

The short-lived era of the craze has officially ended. Social media has moved to a new viral cooking trend: cloud bread. This fluffy confection is closer to cotton candy than it is to a starchy loaf, but it might have its roots in the many styles of East Asian bread, popular from Japan to Korea, which are defined by their cloud-like texture.

Cloud bread found viral fame on the TikTok account of Abigail Hwang-Nable, @abimhn, where it racked up nearly 20 million views. Hwang-Nable’s recipe doesn’t include any of the traditional bread ingredients like yeast or flour. Instead, it involves simply briskly whisking together egg whites, corn starch, and sugar, making it closer to a baked meringue dessert than a bread that could support butter, jam, or a runny egg.

@abimhn

cloud bread!!! dope recipe from @linqanaaa ##cloudbread ##MyBFF ##foryou ##fyp ##bakingrecipe ##homemade ##homechef ##clouds ##avatar ##cake ##meringue

♬ Steven Universe – L.Dre

However, cloud bread does bear a close resemblance to many East Asian bread styles, including Japanese shokupan, also known as Hokkaido milk bread. Shokupan is famous for its super light, pillowy texture. Another characteristic that cloud bread borrows from shokupan is that it’s lightly sweetened with sugar. Hwang-Nable (who features many other East Asian inspired dishes on her TikTok channel, including boba, ram-don, and mochi) also adds a dash of food coloring to the mixture to give her cloud bread a kawaii twist — the Japanese aesthetic of cuteness.

The secret ingredient to Shokupan is a roux called tangzhong, which locks in moisture and keeps bread soft and dense as opposed to the rigid sourdough that you might find in America. Also known as water roux, tangzhong is a paste made from either water or milk and mixed with flour. The paste is then cooked, which allows the gluten strands in the flour to become more elastic. The tangzhong has an almost gelatinous texture, which when added to the rest of the ingredients, allows the bread to retain moisture rather than drying out during the cooking process. The result is a chewy, not crunchy bread, that has a delicate, almost melt-in-your-mouth texture. The smooth surface also differentiates itself from many American sourdoughs.

Cloud bread might take some of its inspiration from shokupan, but it’s certainly not as practical as the Japanese bread, which is soft but also sturdy enough to hold up under the demands of a sandwich. Cloud bread seems like more a novelty dessert that drew so much attention because of its almost foam-like appearance. But it comes down to it, cloud bread is simply whipped, sweetened egg whites.

Asian-inspired snacks with adorable designs tend to perform well on social media, perhaps because the ingredients seem novel to a Western audience or because the aesthetics are so satisfying — just check out these beautiful shaved ice desserts or Taiyaki ice cream for a taste of the hype surrounding Asian treats. When the latest iteration goes viral on a platform like TikTok, there’s usually very little context included for the original recipe or its inspiration. Often these suddenly viral creations aren’t new, and their origins sometimes are obscured or entirely overlooked in the rush to jump on the viral bandwagon. When these TikTok and Instagram cooking trends pop up, it’s important to consider who gets credit for creating food trends — or if we’re simply appropriating a more palpable version of a dish that’s been around in a non-Western culture longer than social media.

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Eurovision Song Contest in the US

Before American Idol, there was the Eurovision Song Contest. The European singing competition has been a phenomenon since the 1950s, and now it’s finally coming to the US. “The American Song Contest” is scheduled to take place during the 2021 holiday season, but rather than pitting nations against each other, it will be representatives from different states.

According to a news release, “The American version of the Eurovision Song Contest will, as it is currently conceived, position the artists head to head against other states’ representatives in a series of 5-10 televised Qualifier Competitions, leading to Semi-Finals and the ultimate primetime Grand Final.”

The legendary contest has helped launch the careers of some of the world’s most popular artists, including previous winners Celine Dion and ABBA. To usher in the US version, an American Song Contest Academy will be formed of music professionals, who will create juries of artists and music industry figures to select the top talent from all 50 states.

Martin Österdahl, executive supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, said in a statement, “It’s time for America to experience this spectacle…Love of music is universal and celebration of music in different genres and styles can transcend boundaries and unite people. We are excited to have found the right partners to offer another series that our fans across the globe can fall in love with and to share this unique competition with the American people.”

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COVID-19 spread on planes study

Given the tight quarters, it might seem like airplanes would be prime locations for COVID-19 to rapidly spread. But when you look into the factors involved, and the probability of actually coming into contact with the virus given airlines’ safety measures, the odds of becoming infected are much lower than you may have thought. Arnold Barnett, a professor of management science at MIT, set out to determine the actual odds of contracting COVID-19 while flying. While his findings don’t account for airports or other aspects of travel, they should give you some peace of mind the next time you board a plane.

Barnett considered a range of variables, including sitting near a contagious person, the odds that masks (required on the vast majority or airlines) fail to provide protection, advanced air filtration systems, and empty middle seats. Barnett figured out that we have approximately a one in 4,300 chance of catching COVID-19 while flying on a full two-hour flight and a one in 7,700 chance if the airline leaves the middle seat open.

Going even further, he determined that the odds of dying from a case contracted inflight were about one in 400,000 or one in 600,000, depending on your age group, risk level, and other health factors. Barnett himself has said that despite the low-sounding odds, he wouldn’t feel comfortable flying right now given his age, 72 years old.

His findings are supported by University of Massachusetts biology professor Erin Bromage, who confirmed that air exchange systems in planes are even better than in hospitals, completely replacing the cabin air 30 times per hour. To keep your risk as low as possible, however, both Barnett and Bromage suggest choosing airlines that always keep the middle seat open.

Data from Australia further validates these findings. According to the country’s contact tracing system, while several infected people have boarded planes in recent months, no one has become infected on the plane itself.

The results of Barnett’s research haven’t been peer reviewed, but they were published in preprint form online.

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Accidentally Wes Anderson, The Book

Over a year ago, as I was traveling back to my hometown on the Atlantic coast of France, I unexpectedly found myself on one of the rare, old-fashioned regional trains that still run in the area. It was not one of the slick, bullet-shaped trains that speed down the tracks. It was a hulking and boxy piece of machinery, gray with big mint green doors that passengers pulled open with a handle rather than a button. You had to walk up three tiny, steep steps to get into a second-class car, and once inside, it was a two-tone interior designer’s dream. Mint green ceiling, plastic gray flooring with an oval motif in relief, pleated mint curtains on every window, gray carpet on the wall, and large and cushy striped gray and mint seats. Standing in the middle of the aisle gave me a perspective view of the car that looked like a 1970s advertisement for the French Rails. It was a picture that would make anyone with an ounce of taste want to ditch their car to ride the rails forever. It was a picture that belonged on the Accidentally Wes Anderson Instagram account.

Photo: Takashi Images/Shutterstock

The Accidentally Wes Anderson Instagram account (also known as AWA) is full of nostalgic snapshots like the one I experienced in real life that day. It’s a return to the past but not the black-and-white or sepia kind. It revisits a world filled with vibrant colors that give scrollers the impression they’ve been plucked from the 21st century to be dropped back to the time period between 1920 and 1980 where they can see the very best of global architecture, art, and design.

Photo: Accidentally Wes Anderson + Valentina Jacks

The Instagram account struck a note with users of the platform, but not just with fans of Anderson. That’s because AWA could be the dictionary illustration for the term “Instagrammable” — The photos featured are bright, colorful, fun, perfectly framed, and they enable followers to visually travel through time, cultures, and countries. With one million followers at time of writing, it’s clear they have found the recipe for Instagram success.

And that success is taking them beyond people’s screens to their bedside tables and sitting rooms. In October, they’ll release Accidentally Wes Anderson, The Book, a coffee table book compiling photographs submitted by followers. They’ll use some of the images that have already been shared on the Instagram account, but most of the photographs that will be featured have never been seen before.

Although not run by Wes Anderson himself or by anyone on his team, Accidentally Wes Anderson honors the director’s aesthetic to perfection — bright color palette, symmetry, and a hefty dose of quirkiness. Anderson’s famous creation, The Grand Budapest Hotel, set in a fictional pink and white building of flawless proportions and surrounded by majestic snowy mountain peaks, is a model example of his preferred aesthetic. But Moonrise Kingdom, Darjeeling Limited, and The Royal Tenenbaums, three more of Anderson’s movies, also deliver the artful and impeccable imagery that is unique to the director and that is successfully replicated on AWA.

Photo: Accidentally Wes Anderson + Frida Berg

Angelo Zinna — Matador Network contributor, traveler, and photographer extraordinaire — is one of the members of the AWA community whose photo was chosen to be in the book.

“I tagged them [AWA] in a photo of a train in Almaty, Kazakhstan, last year,” Zinna says. “They shared it and then got in touch and asked me to submit more photos.”

He sent more photos to AWA, some of which have been shared on the Insta account; others are likely to appear on the upcoming website. The train photo first shared will make it to the book. (AWA loves train and tram pictures while there are no airplane photos on the account — another element that anchors it in the past.)

Angelo Zinna’s photograph will appear in “Accidentally Wes Anderson, The Book.” Photo: Angelo Zinna

In the book based off of the Instagram account, 200 pictures taken in as many locations will be featured. Zinna explains that AWA wanted to be as inclusive as possible and chose images that reflected the entire world rather than a few select locations.

Zinna has a passion for architecture and a talent for photography — the perfect combination to appear on AWA. He is not a hardcore fan of Anderson, but as someone who likes art in all its forms, he enjoys the singular style that defines the director and AWA.

“The color scheme is always vibrant and every shot is full of details,” Zinna says. “Each capture evokes going back to a simpler time, but not very far back — only a recent past. It triggers a powerful sense of nostalgia and comfort.”

Personally, I feel like I’m back in my grandma’s house when I scroll through the account, or at least I feel the same emotion as when I’m looking at grandma’s photo album. There’s a sense of cheerfulness and beauty in those images that seems to only exist in the past — it’s powerful.

Photo: Accidentally Wes Anderson + Jack Spicer Adams

Zinna also applauds those at the helm of the AWA account. “It’s a great community. The social media managers always praise the photographers, tag their accounts, answer comments, etc.” In short, AWA is openly grateful for those who made the account so prosperous and don’t shy away from thanking them for this success, and the likely triumph of the book. Credit where credit is due.

Zinna won’t be remunerated for his contribution, but he’ll receive a copy of the book, and he is excited to see his art in such a well-known and loved project.

“Architecture coffee table books are making a comeback,” Zinna says. “I see them a lot these days. I think it’s because they’re easily read. They’re just made of large photographs — it’s like Instagram, but on paper.”

Angelo Zinna’s photograph of Samarkand has been shared on the AWA Insta account. Photo: Angelo Zinna

One thing we know for sure is that the foreword of the book will be written by Wes Anderson himself who is said to be thrilled by the project. Those who pre-order the book can win a copy signed by the director who inspired it all. And those who pre-order by September 30 run the chance to win all sorts of amazing prizes — all colorful and beautifully detailed, of course.

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Positive sustainability news

The guiding principle of the Climate Win column is this: Increased awareness of sustainability developments shows that progress on the climate crisis is possible. My hope in writing this column each week is that by purveying the good news, instead of the usual destruction and devastation that generally catches headlines, readers will be encouraged to take steps towards sustainable living in their own lives and demand further action from businesses and government officials — because, as we’ve shown, it is possible to make a difference.

There’s no denying the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic has sidelined, delayed, or otherwise set back many environmental initiatives around the planet. The increased use of styrofoam take-out containers is proof enough of that. Hopefully, these prove to be short-term setbacks. But a long-term win appears to be emerging in regards to renewable energy. We’re going to do some basic stock market talk here, so get ready for percentages and numbers, but the gist is easy to grasp even for the non-investor: Renewable energy is winning the stock market during the pandemic.

On March 9, as the pandemic’s hold increased across the United States, the DOW fell 7.79 percent in a single day, according to financial site The Budget. On April 20, oil prices actually went negative, meaning sellers were paying buyers to take barrels of crude oil off their hands. Many stocks have since rebounded, many haven’t. The climate win here is in the details. London-based oil company BP reported a quarterly loss of $16.8 billion dollars this week, according to a report in the New York Times. Though BP lost a ton of money, its stock price rose over seven percent after the announcement as its CEO promised a shift towards increased renewable energy production over the next decade. The company pledged to invest $5 billion per year into renewable energy development.

And many solar firms are performing even better on the markets. Barron’s reported Tuesday that SolarEdge Technologies hit a record high trading price on Tuesday. Invesco Solar’s ETF, which stands for exchange-traded funds and refers to a fund being traded rather than an individual stock, is up more than 50 percent from the beginning of the year and over 140 percent since December 2018.

This shows us that consumers want renewable energy — for their travels, their homes, their cars — and are increasingly willing to put their money where their mouth is. And as Matador has noted time and again, decision-makers listen when the public speaks up.

More Climate Wins

General Motors and EVGo, a producer of electric vehicle charging stations, announced this week they would triple their cross-country network of EV charging stations. The plan is to add 2,700 fast-charge stations over the next five years to highly trafficked areas — like apartment complexes, commercial centers, and places frequented by ride-hailing vehicles — across 40 metro areas in the United States.

Paris’s 15th Arrondissement is now home to the world’s largest urban farm. The Porte de Versailles opened its massive farm in May with the intention of growing produce for Parisian citizens and restaurants. Should you visit, you won’t have to travel far to experience its harvest — a restaurant has opened on the terrace of the complex, literally serving “farm-to-table” meals.

We close with something of particular interest to vagabonding Matadorians. Tuk-tuks, the three-wheeled, open-air cabs popular in many Asian and Latin American countries, are a rarity in the United States. This could change in a post-pandemic world, however, as commuters increasingly want open-air ride-hailing solutions. As such, electric tuk-tuks could be coming to a city near you. Many cities including San Francisco and Denver already have electric tuk-tuk services, which are more eco-friendly than gas-powered cars. Here’s to hoping for stateside rickshaw stories to tell in the near future. We sign off here, as an overbearing craving for freshly prepared street food has just kicked in.

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Best stargazing spot on Earth

Everyone is always looking for the ideal stargazing location to catch a glimpse of a meteor shower event or take a good look at the Milky Way, and according to scientists, this spot in Antarctica might be the best in the world. Dome Argus (or Dome A) is located on a high plateau 746 miles in inland Antarctica. When an international team of scientists ventured to Antarctica to study three sites, and determine which one was the best site for a telescope, Dome Argus emerged the victor.

Photo: Xiaoping Pang and Shiyun Wang, Chinese Antarctic Center of Surveying and Mapping

The scientists measured the dome’s stargazing capacity by using a specialized telescope placed at the site. According to Live Science, Dome Argus’ key distinguishing feature was the fact that the stars “literally twinkle less” there. Stars twinkle due to atmospheric turbulence, and since Dome Argus is 2.5 miles high, the turbulence is significantly less.

Michael Ashley, an astronomer with the University of New South Wales who was involved in the study, said in a statement, “Dome A is the highest point in the central plateau region of Antarctica, and the atmosphere is extremely stable here, much more so than anywhere else on Earth. The result is that the twinkling of the stars is greatly reduced, and the star images are much sharper and brighter.”

Dome Argus also experiences a seasonal “polar night” — a phenomenon wherein night lasts for more than 24 hours — making it an optimal dark-sky location. Since it has extremely cold, dry air, the night skies are also much clearer than anywhere else in the world.

Although a clear victor has finally been declared in the stargazing community, it’s not exactly readily accessible. Most people will just have to settle for their run-of-the-mill local park with low light pollution.

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Critterpedia app is like Shazam

Usually, when you’re on a hike and a massive spider drops down in front of you, the first impulse is to draw back and wave your arms frantically in fear. More hardened explorers, however, may stay perfectly relaxed, while calmly taking out their phone and researching the spider. If you have the presence of mind to stop and Google any creatures in front of you, you’ll probably be excited about this new app called Critterpedia. The AI-driven app allows you to take a photo of snakes and spiders and immediately learn more about the species.

The app was developed by an Australia-based duo Murray and Nic Scarce, in collaboration with CSIRO, to help people better understand and identify the many species of snakes and spiders that exist in the country.

Australia is well-known for being home to more venomous snakes than any other country in the world and for being inhabited by some of the most venomous spiders out there, but not all its creatures are dangerous.

Murray told 7News, “We realise that many people don’t understand some of our beautiful wildlife and so react with fear. But it comes down to education as well.”

Her partner Nic added, “The creatures aren’t the problem, we are the problem. We need to change mindsets to safeguard the animals and our environment.”

So far, Australian experts have contributed over 200,000 images to the app’s database. As more users add photos, the app will be able to more accurately identify species.

The app’s ultimate goal is to include as many species as possible, and incorporate location details, safety information, and first-aid advice.

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Italy’s ‘wine windows'

Reviving old traditions from the days of the Black Death probably isn’t the mood-booster we need right now, but here’s one tradition that’s not all bad. When the bubonic plague reached Italy during the 1600s, “wine windows” rose in popularity in Tuscany. These small hatches carved into concrete walls of wineries and shops allowed merchants to serve customers while maintaining a safe distance. Now, these wine windows are making a comeback in Italy.

Photo: Buchette del Vino/Facebook

According to the Wine Window Association’s website, “Everyone is confined to home for two months and then the government permits a gradual reopening. During this time, some enterprising Florentine Wine Window owners have turned back the clock and are using their Wine Windows to dispense glasses of wine, cups of coffee, drinks, sandwiches and ice cream — all germ-free, contactless!”

There are over 150 wine windows in Florence alone, and more scattered throughout the broader region of Tuscany. Restaurant and bar owners in Florence are now getting creative and reviving the old tradition, reopening wine windows that have been shuttered for centuries.

A full list of wine windows in Florence and northern Italy can be found on the Buchette del Vino website.

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New Vancouver Island Trail

A new long-distance hiking trail spanning British Columbia’s Vancouver Island is nearly complete. The Vancouver Island Trail will run from Victoria in the southeast to Cape Scott on the island’s northwestern tip. The route has been under development since 2009 and will bring together nearly forgotten logging and mining access roads with sections of freshly cut trail that will require both solid navigational skills and a proper backpacking setup.

En route, hikers will summit peaks, trek through old-growth forests, explore old railway and mining sites, and take in both ocean and valley views. They’ll also cross the land of 49 First Nations bands and have the chance to experience the history of Vancouver Island. For maps and other information, visit the trail’s website.

At nearly 480 miles in length, thru-hikers should allow between two and three months to complete the entire trail. For those not ready to commit to the entire trail, access points for day hikes and shorter backpacking trips will be located at numerous points across the island.

The Victoria Island Trail Association originally hoped to open the trail in 2017 for Canada’s 150th birthday, but the extensive process of bringing together multiple parties to plan and route the trail, on top of the massive task of organizing volunteer crews to actually build it, pushed the opening back to 2020. The trail is currently more than 85 percent complete.

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