Decoding Italy’s menu mysteries

The search for common ground between food lovers and weight-watchers, bargain-seekers and luxury-lovers ends in the most unlikely place: Italy. The country has reached the end of the reign of culinary extremists like chef Elena Fabrizi, whose restaurant sign on Rome‘s Isola Tiberina commanded non solo primi (no first courses only) as mercilessly as any emperor’s edict at an ancient Roman bacchanal. Tourist menus may still try to convince novices that pasta, mains and dessert are essential to the Italian restaurant experience, but Italians are no longer buying the three-course mandate.

Italy’s modern meal plan

Never fear, Italy has not gone on a diet – che orrore! the horror! – only become a bit more practical over the past decade. In Italy’s urban centres, tighter budgets have made ordering ample first courses such as pasta or risotto a decadent yet sensible choice. Many modern Italian workplaces are following Milan‘s trend-setting example of reducing the traditional three-hour pausa (break) between noon and three to a more literal lunch hour (well… hour and a half). This abbreviated lunchtime is good for shopping, and bad for sobriety. Beware Milan’s stylish Quadrilatero d’Oro, where Franciacorta and espresso imbibed in rapid succession with a light pasta can induce a woozy, giddy state that make psychedelic Pucci-print halters seem like must-haves with Missoni zig-zag tuxedo pants.

Travel Guides 2012

Lonely Planet hosts a weekly travel photography competition on our Flickr page. The themes can be anything from great hats you’ve seen on your travels to moments of adventure.
How it works: Each week we accept entries for a new challenge and vote on last week’s entries. You don’t need to enter a photo to vote (just be a member of the Flickr group), so come along and vote for your five favourites. The first-placed winner, selected by popular vote, gets a guidebook of their choice.
This week’s competition theme: Dance. Last entries accepted on Monday 17th July.
Previous winners:
Check out all the photos in the Hectic challenge

Check out all the photos in the Clothing challenge

Check out all the photos in the Exploring challenge

Check out all the photos in the Neon challenge

Check out all the photos in the Freedom challenge

Travel Guides 2012

Malaysia Travel Guide

Reefs and rainforests, mountains and minarets, skycrapers and sampans; Malaysia more than lives up to its official slogan ‘truly Asia’.
One of the great cultural melting pots, Malaysia is a nation where Chinese joss-houses, Hindu temples and gold-domed Malay mosques jostle for space with bustling markets and towering skyscrapers. Away from the cities, untamed nature awaits, in the form of jungles dripping with rare and exotic species and coral reefs teeming with turtles, sharks and rainbow-coloured tropical fish.
Malaysia offers two countries for the price of one – Peninsular Malaysia, bordering Thailand at the southern end of the Malay peninsula, and East Malaysia, the northern half of the island of Borneo, which pushes up against Indonesia and Brunei. The peninsula is where people come for bustling cities and colonial history, but the states of Sabah and Sarawak on Borneo are the gateway to a mysterious world of coral islands and lush rainforests inhabited by isolated indigenous tribes.

Gourmet Traveller: A taste of Wales

Explore Wales for its stunning landscapes and culinary delights
iStockphoto / Thinkstock

Wales is renowned for its beauty but its culinary delights are attracting more attention, thanks to a growing number of producers  focusing on locally sourced, organic fare, ranging from cheese to breads and meat. William David Wilson whets his appetite on a foodie tour of southern Wales.

The mellow taste of cheddar is quickly overwhelmed by a powerful kick from the red chillies and chilli mustard; it’s not named ‘Dragon’s Breath’ for nothing, you know.
Less overbearing is the delicious, award-winning Pwll Mawr cheddar, matured surprisingly at the bottom of the Big Pit mine shaft in the town of Blaenavon, South Wales, a UNESCO World Heritage Site close to the beautiful Brecon Beacons National Park.

Thailand: Hat Phra Nang, Railay

It isn’t fair, really – there are over 200 countries around the globe and Thailand has managed to snag a disproportionate amount of the world’s top beaches.

These aren’t your average stretches of sand; you’re about to uncover perfect powder-soft dunes and dramatic limestone crags that pop straight out of the impossibly clear waters. Robinson Crusoe, eat your heart out!

Hat Phra Nang, Railay

This beauty will shock and awe. Perfect sand, limestone cliffs and caves, emerald water and colourful long-tail boats make this photographic bliss. It’s little more than a cosy nook, and tends to get crowded in high season.

Brunei Travel Guide

Thanks to sizeable deposits of oil and gas, the tiny tropical sultanate of Brunei Darussalam has one of the highest standards of living in the world. Its two non-contiguous territories, situated on the northern coast of Borneo in South-East Asia, are home to some of the region's most pristine rain forest habitats.

The country only gained independence in 1984, but has the world's oldest reigning monarchy and centuries of royal heritage. At the helm of the only remaining Malay Islamic monarchy in the world, the Sultan of Brunei comes from a family line that dates back over 600 years. The current sultan, His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, has been on the throne for 43 years and is one of the world's richest individuals.

Exploring the mysteries of Sicily

Sicily, the Mediterranean’s largest island, has a culture entirely of its own and harbours a sinister history. Lift the lid on Italy’s volcanic island with Lonely Planet Magazine’s guide.

Diverse Sicily: Palermo

Sicily’s indefinable qualities are apparent in the island’s food. A fantastic dish like pasta con le sarde – pasta with sardines and raisins – has its roots in the Arab invasion, with a sweet and sour taste that you will find nowhere else in Italy.
Sicily’s capital Palermo is a layer cake, each tier representing a different outside influence. Walking its streets is like travelling through time. The Cappella Palatina, or Palatine Chapel, is an extraordinary blend of Norman, Byzantine and Arab art, and a few streets away is the castle of La Zisa, built for a Norman king by Arab craftsmen. The post office is a huge, white, Neoclassical fascist temple, now a monument to Mussolini’s failed experiment to destroy the Mafia’s power and popularity. Veering off behind it in every direction is a honeycomb of tiny little streets – so narrow that it would be pointless trying to squeeze through in any vehicle larger than a three-wheeler – each with lines of washing hanging all along them.