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Travel News This Week
In travel news this week: the world’s most expensive rice, trouble at Rome’s Trevi Fountain, plus how the hotel bathroom door situation has gotten out of hand.
The World’s Most Expensive Rice
Kinmemai Premium has been certified by Guinness World Records as the most expensive rice on the planet. Only 1,000 boxes of the Japanese grains are made each year, selling for around $73 each.
Top-class, award-winning rice varieties are selected for flavor and texture, before their enzyme levels are tested for vitality and “life force,” explains Keiji Saika, the 91-year-old president of Toyo Rice Corporation.
One chef told CNN the rice grains were shiny like “diamonds,” but read the story to find out how it did on the taste test.
Unusual Cuisine in Hokkaido
Another unusual item is on the menu at Les KaneKIYOs restaurant in Hokkaido, Japan. With fatal bear attacks an increasing problem in the country, Chef Kiyoshi Fujimoto started specializing in bear meat cuisine.
He tells CNN that diners find it “less gamey than expected,” with a “refreshing taste.”
Rome’s Trevi Fountain Fee
There’s a new $2 fee to throw coins in Rome’s famous Trevi Fountain. When the new system started on Monday, not everyone was playing nice. Paying visitors were forced to take cover when some tourists stood behind the barriers and flung coins down on them from above.
Instagram-Famous Church in Dolomites
In a formerly quiet village in the Italian Dolomites, the Instagram-famous church of Santa Maddalena attracts up to 600 visitors per day in high season. Now, authorities are stepping in to slow the flow, introducing new restrictions aimed at curbing day-trip tourism.
Winter Olympics and Coffee Rituals
The Winter Olympics got underway this week in the Dolomites and across northern Italy. One Italian ritual is essential for visitors to understand, be they athletes or tourists: the unwritten rules of Italian coffee. Here’s our video guide.
CNN Sports: Winter Olympic Updates
CNN Sports has the latest chatter from inside the Winter Olympic Village and incredible stories of athletic achievement. Click here to sign up for the Milano Memo newsletter – it’s free!
Great Escapes: A Scottish Castle Drama
In the latest installment from our new “Great Escapes” series, we bring you the story of two American sisters who found themselves trapped in a Scottish castle.
Niki Ghofranian and Ritta Nielsen visited Dunstaffnage in 2019, but never planned to put the 14th-century building’s fortress skills to the test. They found themselves there past closing time, with the gates padlocked shut and their one cell phone with a dying battery.
Ghofranian climbed to the top of the castle walls and spotted a child running out of some nearby woods. “Tell your mom we’re locked in the castle,” she cried out. “Go get your mom!”
Here’s what happened next.
The sisters’ story wasn’t the only dramatic rescue CNN covered recently. Last week, a 13-year-old boy swam for hours to shore to get help for his mother and siblings after the family was stranded in the sea.
