THE 33

Hotel Il Pellicano

Porto Ercole, Italy

The Slim Aarons photograph you can actually check into.

Go in late September. Same sea, half the boats, better rate.

The Fife Arms

Braemar, Scotland

A Highland inn art-directed like a private museum. Tartan, Picasso, peat fire.

Book the Bertie's whisky bar table before dinner, not after.

Príncipe Real

Lisbon, Portugal

The neighbourhood to base yourself in — gardens, concept stores, no tuk-tuks.

Stay at Memmo Príncipe Real for the pool terrace over the city.

Les Roches Rouges

Saint-Raphaël, France

Mid-century Riviera without the Cannes pricing or the posturing.

The seawater pool cut into the rock is the entire reason to come.

Casa Polanco

Mexico City

A restored 1940s mansion, nineteen rooms, walking distance to everything.

Fly in Thursday. CDMX is a four-day city, not a week-long one.

Borgo Santo Pietro

Tuscany, Italy

Working farm, thirteenth-century villa, one of the best kitchens in Italy.

Ask for a garden room. The main house is grander and noisier.

The Calanques

Marseille, France

White limestone fjords, twenty minutes from a city with actual grit.

Boat from Vieux-Port at 9am, lunch in Cassis, back for a Marseille dinner.

Hotel Esencia

Riviera Maya, Mexico

A former duchess's estate on a private beach. No swim-up bar in sight.

The Caribbean, but quiet — which is the only version worth flying for.

Bar Basso

Milan, Italy

Birthplace of the Negroni Sbagliato, served in a comically enormous glass.

Stand. Order one. Then go eat somewhere else. That's the whole ritual.

Clamato

Paris, France

No reservations, all seafood, the best oysters in the 11th.

Arrive at 6:45pm, put your name down, drink next door until they call.

Contramar

Mexico City

Tuna tostadas and the long lunch that eats your entire afternoon.

Two o'clock. Order the pescado a la talla and a bottle of something cold.

Sessions Arts Club

London, UK

A crumbling Georgian courthouse turned dining room. Peeling plaster on purpose.

Go for lunch when the light comes through the tall windows.

Da Enzo al 29

Rome, Italy

Nine tables in Trastevere. Cacio e pepe worth queueing for.

They take a short reservation list by phone. Call. In Italian, if you can.

Bar Termini

London, UK

Thirty seats, Italian aperitivo discipline, the best negroni in Soho.

Espresso standing at 4pm, negroni sitting at 7. Same bar, different woman.

Lilia

Brooklyn, New York

Missy Robbins' wood-fired pastas. Still the hardest table in the borough.

Reservations drop 30 days out at 9am. Set an alarm like it's a ticket sale.

Totême Wool Blazer

The camel blazer that ends the search for a camel blazer.

Size up one. Wear it over a tee at lunch and a slip dress at nine.

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Polène Numéro Un

The bag that reads like it cost four times what it did.

The Nano for dinner, the full size for a work day. Both, eventually.

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Mejuri Bold Hoops, 14k

40mm. Big enough to be a decision, small enough for a Tuesday.

Solid gold, not plated. You will wear these for twenty years.

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SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic

The vitamin C serum dermatologists actually use themselves.

Morning, on damp skin, before sunscreen. Non-negotiable order.

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Vintner's Daughter Active Botanical Serum

Absurdly expensive. Lasts six months. Worth the standing order.

Press, don't rub. Three drops is the whole face.

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La Ligne Marin Stripe

The Breton that fixes jeans, white trousers and a bad morning.

Buy two. One navy, one black. Retire everything else.

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Rimowa Essential Cabin

Aluminium is for photographs. Polycarbonate is for actually travelling.

Lifetime guarantee on the shell. It outlasts the trips.

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Oura Ring 4

The only wearable that tells you something you'll act on: sleep and temperature.

Ignore the readiness score on day one. Watch the 30-day trend instead.

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Momentous Whey Protein

Thirty grams before 10am. The 3pm crash was never about willpower.

NSF Certified for Sport, which is the only label that means anything.

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Lift heavy three times a week

Bone density, mood, and the ability to move your own furniture.

Start with a trainer for four sessions. Learn the hinge properly, once.

Loop Quiet earplugs

The cheapest upgrade to a hotel room, a red-eye, or a snoring husband.

Under twenty pounds. Keep a pair in every bag.

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All Fours — Miranda July

The novel about a woman blowing up her own life at forty-five.

It's the book your group chat is arguing about. Join the argument.

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Wiser Than Me

Podcast

Julia Louis-Dreyfus interviewing women who got older and got better.

Start with the Jane Fonda episode. Then do the whole first season.

Feed Me — Emily Sundberg

Newsletter

Culture, money and media, reported rather than vibed.

The one newsletter worth paying for this year.

Put your name on the deed, the account, the LLC

Not for the divorce. For the clarity.

Financial autonomy is the least romantic and most romantic thing.

Fondazione Prada

Milan, Italy

Rem Koolhaas gold-leaf tower, serious art, Wes Anderson's Bar Luce downstairs.

Late Thursday opening. Espresso in the bar, then the tower at dusk.

Art Basel Paris

October, Grand Palais

The art fair the whole city rearranges itself around for a week.

Buy the Thursday ticket, book dinner before you book the flight.

Say it out loud: chronological age is terribly overrated

The number went up. You did not change. Act accordingly.

This is the whole thesis. Everything else is logistics.