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Alan’s View

December 2009

ASD Picks: 3 Best Places to Spend New Year’s Eve

Standing in New York’s Times Square as the ball drops is truly a peak experience, but the reward-to-effort ratio (unless you have a press pass!) takes it out of my top three picks:

1. Hogmanay — For those who think that freezing weather and New Year’s Eve are inseparable, this is the go-to celebration. Edinburgh, Scotland is not exactly the first place that comes to mind as the host of the largest celebration in Europe, but the jam-packed schedule covering five days (this year, December 29–January 2) allows the claim to stand. Besides, Auld Lang Syne is Scottish. (edinburghshogmanay.com)

2. Rio — For a more civilized (meaning warmer) celebration, head south of the equator. For sheer spectacle, Sydney is a contender, but a million people, most of whom are dressed in white, partying together on a beautiful beach, makes Rio de Janeiro my second choice. It all happens, including a massive fireworks display, at Copacabana Beach, but beware: Hotel rooms are scarce. (riodejaneiro-turismo.com)

3. Home — This doesn’t have to be a cop-out. Some of my greatest New Year’s celebrations included 10 or 12 friends joining us for a black-tie potluck dinner. Some of the additional touches that can make it special: Start and end late; hire a cook/assistant; have people bring dishes that have some particular meaning to them, which they explain at dinner; play great music videos that get people to sing along; organize a wine tasting (possibly blind) to accompany the meal; discuss the year’s most important, fun or moving events, or have each person give a two-minute spiel about their favorite charitable gift or act; and have a brief (emphasis on brief) TV interlude to watch The Ball drop.

On the Road: Sicily

There are two compelling reasons to put Sicily on your calendar for this spring or early summer. The first is that it remains off the beaten path of tourists, particularly Americans. In fact, Americans haven’t invaded Sicily since 1943. However, my Conde Nast Traveler arrived this morning with a feature story on Palermo, ­which means we can expect traffic to pick up. The second reason to go soon is that sometime in the not-too-distant future the local government is going to get serious about closing off monuments to tourists. I mean, when was the last time you were able to step inside a 6 BC temple?

Most people visit Sicily either by cruise ship, making quick stops at key ports, or on one- to two-week intensive trips. For many of us, it is hard to justify that much time to the exclusion of, say, Venice. So let me offer a solution: Sicily in five days! Your tour will include all the essential highlights, except for the ruins around Segesta and the western tip of the island.

Three things to keep in mind: first, leave your Mafia thoughts at home; second, if you arrive too close to summer, you’ll develop a fanatical appreciation of lemon granita (you might whenever you go); and third, there is no nightlife to speak of, which allows for early morning activities, which doing the trip in five days requires.

Day 1: Arrive in Palermo, a gritty but intriguing city, in time for dinner at Osteria dei Vespri (osteriadeivespri.it), the only destination restaurant in Sicily’s capital. With the exception of the luxe Grand Hotel Wagner (grandhotelwagner.it), hotels are just passable.

Day 2: What makes Palermo fascinating is the mix of Arab, Norman, and Italian influences. Do the tour by foot or with a guide, or best of all, a motobeep, which provides an unbelievably thrilling covered-motorbike experience, with semi-knowledgable drivers. Ideally you’ll fit in the Palace of the Normans (maps.google.com), a 20-minute drive to Monreale (requires a real taxi), lunch at Antica Focacceria San Francesco (afsf.it) and the often overlooked Palazzo Mirto before catching a late afternoon train to Agrigento (90 minutes). Rent a car upon arrival in Agrigento, check into the Baglio della Luna (bagliodellaluna.com) hotel, and then make a night visit (opens at 7:30) to the Valley of Temples (valleyofthetemples.com), truly one of the wonders of the world, and more spectacular than the Parthenon in Athens. You’ll be back at your hotel in time for dinner.

Day 3: Get an early start to see the Valley of Temples in daylight. This is your opportunity to step inside the Temple of Hercules as well as take in the other monuments that stretch out along a one-mile path. If you are going to walk roundtrip, enter from the bottom so that the return is downhill; or walk one-way and get an inexpensive ride in a golf cart back to your parking spot. Agrigento has a lovely beach, a great place to beat the afternoon heat. Then, late in the day, drive to Siracusa. If the new highway is completed, you should make it to Hotel Ortigia (grandhotelortigia.it), in the old town, in two hours. Have dinner at a caffè in Piazza Duomo, one of the most beautiful squares I’ve seen. Afterwards, take a stroll around the old town.

Day 4: You’ll spend the morning at the Neopolis Archaeological Park (worldheritagesite.org/sites/syracuse.html), where the Greek influence is on display. Take some time in the afternoon to absorb more of Ortigia before heading off to Taormina, a spectacular two-hour spectacular, especially as you pass Mt. Etna, and then climb up to the town. Taormina hotels, in fact the whole town, is old-school. There are a number of luxe hotels to choose from, but the fashionistas seemed to be mostly at our hotel, San Domenico (hotel-sandomenico.it), or Hotel Timeo(grandhoteltimeo.com). Walk the town after dinner.

Day 5: Visit the Greek Theater (wikipedia.org/wiki/Taormina) in the morning, then spend the afternoon seeing the town in daylight, reflecting on the incredible four days and 2500 years of history you’ve just experienced.

Last Word: What’s So Great About New Year’s Eve

Travel writing is hard work for low pay, but what makes it worthwhile is the occasional perk the “press pass” provides. Thirteen years ago I went to research New Year’s Eve in New York for my book on the world’s greatest events, The Fun Also Rises. I had determined that the way to celebrate was not to fight the crowds in Times Square itself but to enjoy the comfort, view, and party at the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel. The hotel was kind enough to give me a press pass for the evening, and I diligently did my work checking out the logistics and the crowd. However, by 11:40 pm, I felt I had what information I needed, but I was not capturing the excitement of the moment. So, my wife and I decided to take a chance on braving the crowds and the below-zero weather to watch the ball drop from the street.

As we exited the hotel we were blocked by hundreds of people stranded on 45th Street who were not being allowed into Times Square (because it was “full”). With nothing to lose we flashed our press passes, catching the eye of one of the policeman, who, to our utter amazement, shouted, “Let them through!” The crowd was not happy about this, but without incident allowed us to pass through. And there we were, smack dab in the middle of Times Square, five minutes before midnight!  And we were virtually alone—one tv news reporter, two policemen, and us. The intersection of 45th Street and Broadway had been cleared of people (they were confined to sidewalks) because Mayor Giuliani was stationed on a platform on the north side of the intersection, no more than 10 feet from us, getting ready to signal the drop of the ball. I don’t know if it was the fact that we only had to wait five minutes, or the excitement of the moment, but we couldn’t even feel the cold. There was a practice countdown, then the real thing, and then the place erupted with cheering, horns blowing, lights flashing, and confetti dropping. We could see thousands of people scrunched together (thrilled, nonetheless), but my wife and I had room to dance!

That was an experience not likely to be repeated. Yet every year we’re faced with the daunting challenge of finding the right way to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Many people pretend it is not a big deal (like Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day), but many more rise to the challenge. In this regard, hopefully we at Night+Day can provide some guidance (see ASD Picks or the Events Calendars for each of our 18 cities).

An even bigger challenge is coming up with New Year’s resolutions that we can actually keep! I’m thinking about trying something different this year: My win-win resolution is to gain weight. If I do, it will be the first resolution I’ve ever kept. If I don’t, I’ll be a happy thinner camper and know that next year I get another chance at making a resolution I can keep.

Celebrating and resolving are two legs of the three-legged New Year’s Eve stool. Reflecting is the third. What really makes New Year’s Eve special is that it is the one time that much of the world marks as an end and a beginning, reflecting on past events and plans for the future. I like to formalize the process, discussing and writing down with my wife the highlights of the year, the developments, accomplishments, and peak experiences, and then compose our goals for the coming year. Goals tend to be more detailed and grounded than resolutions, but somehow many of the goals suffer the same fate. Nonetheless, creating a review and a plan is both fun and helpful. Even now, 30 days before we actually sit down to make our lists, I know that one of my most important goals will be to have as many wonderful experiences with family, friends, and staff next year as I have had in 2009. Thank you, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!