Pennsylvania Main Street named best in the nation by USA Today
Wednesday, the outlet announced the winner in its 10Best Best Main Street category.
Pennsylvania gets third UNESCO World Heritage Site
'These 10 places with charming main streets offer more than just a road,' USA Today writes. 'These streets are living history, have a vibrant culture, and serve as the hearts of their communities.'
Coming out on top is a city in the heart of Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, the 'Christmas City,' Bethlehem.
The former steel hub's Main Street, thanks to its namesake Bethlehem Steel, is described as 'super walkable' with plenty of dining options.
The city is also home to one of the largest music festivals in Pennsylvania, Musikfest.
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Other communities on the list include Emporia, Kansas; Ogden, Utah; and Winchester, Virginia.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Condé Nast Traveler
3 hours ago
- Condé Nast Traveler
In Lamu, Kenya, Dhow Sails Are Fluttering With New Life
For centuries, these boats were central to the Indian Ocean trade, carrying goods like mangrove timber and ivory from East Africa to Oman and India, and returning with cloth, dates, and porcelain. This trade transformed the Swahili coast into a meeting point of cultures and influences—a maritime thread linking continents through wind, wood, and water. That enduring legacy is one of the reasons that Lamu is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The island is made up of several villages, each with its own character, but Matondoni is one of the last bastions of its traditional boatbuilding. In this quaint village, just a 20-minute boat ride from Lamu Old Town, life remains rural and artisanal. It is a patchwork of simple stone homes with thatched palm roofs, clustered along narrow sandy paths. Donkeys roam freely, and children chase each other barefoot. Life here is simple, but behind the simplicity lies a long history of craftsmanship. As trade along the Swahili coast peaked in the 1930s and '40s, nearly every household here was linked to the trade: as a fundi (craftsman), sailor, or supplier of mangrove timber. The air is thick with sea salt and sawdust, and the sound of wooden frames creaking softly as builders move with the quiet patience of men who know you can't rush a craft that has lived for centuries. This is where dhows are still made the Swahili way: slowly, by hand, by memory, and with a blessing from Allah. Today, only a handful of yards operate. Fiberglass boats—cheaper, lighter, and faster to build—have largely replaced traditional dhows. Handmade vessels take months; fiberglass boats are ready in days. Many old boats now sit abandoned on the beach, their sails traded for motors. Still, a few master builders press on, choosing memory over machinery in a tender act of resistance. Omar Sharif, a dhow builder and fisherman in Shela At Lulu Stories, a boutique in Lamu, handmade decor by local artisans include salvaged pieces from old dhows. Lulu Stories, Shela - Lamu Shelali Shee Mohammed—known locally as Fundi Shelali—has been building dhows for 45 years as part of a celebrated lineage of master builders that dates back to his great-great-grandfather. 'Mashallah, there have been too many dhows to count,' he says proudly. 'I leave my name on most of them—Fundi Shelali—like an artist signing their work.' But he fears the craft will end with him. 'Allah gave me only daughters, so I've tried to train young boys in the village, but they have no interest. They want easier jobs.' The rising cost of materials and strict logging regulations have made dhow building increasingly difficult. 'At the peak of my career in the 1980s, timber was free,' says Shelali. 'Now, cutting even one tree needs government permission.' Builders are required to source hardwoods like mvule, mahogany, and African teak from expensive licensed suppliers, making this craft even more inaccessible. Many old boats now sit abandoned on the beach, their sails traded for motors. Still, a few master builders press on, choosing memory over machinery in a tender act of resistance. Luckily, the dhow's story is taking on a new life beyond the high seas. In Nairobi, 500 km inland, Kenyan designer Roky Gambo—founder of Swahili Chic Interiors—is giving these vessels a new purpose. Roky is from the Chonyi Tribe, one of the smaller Swahili tribes native to Kenya's Coast, that are historically known for their woodwork. Determined to preserve his own heritage, Roky rescues abandoned dhows and repurposes their wood into modern furniture.
USA Today
11 hours ago
- USA Today
Chef Richard Blais' latest concoction may make your skin crawl
Chef Richard Blais is pretty adventurous when it comes to food. 'I've always been like that. If it sounds a little weird, it's cool for me,' the Top Chef All-Stars winner, restauranteur, James Beard-nominated cookbook author and 'Next Level Chef' judge said with a smile. But his latest project may make some people's skin crawl. Blais partnered with Orkin on series of recipes incorporating insects for a video called 'Bug Bites' debuting on Orkin's website on Aug. 18. 'One of our best recipes was a mealworm pesto, which was great because Orkin is the best in pests and I'm the best in pesto, so it was a match made in heaven,' he joked. However, it wasn't all easy to stomach, even for himself. He spoke with USA TODAY about facing his fears, why It's important for chefs to travel, the surprising thing he's done on planes and more. This interview was edited and condensed for clarity. Question: What inspired your involvement in this particular project? Richard Blais: Just up for the challenge. Also for me, if you would have asked me a question a couple years ago: what are some foods that you might not like? I would say insects, to be fair. I got to eat some on different shows, etc., so it was sort of overcoming my own mental hurdle to do this. And I'm so glad I did because I learned so much, and besides that, it was just a lot of fun. Like, "Hey, do you want to eat a tarantula on camera?' Yes. Let's see how that goes. Have you previously tried insects on your travels? Not on my own, like, hey, I'm in a restaurant, and I'm going to order. But in my reality show career, I have been tasked with a few, eating some insects. And in my travels, I have seen them in markets and stuff like that and always been amazed at their aroma or flavor and how it's not just, oh, it's just another protein source, but how every ingredient has its own flavor. That goes for meal worms and ants as well as it goes for octopus and sea urchin. Food can have a stigma when it's something that people are not familiar with. And this video may help break some of those barriers and let people know, it's OK to try all sorts of things. One-hundred percent. I always preach to my kids, "Hey, try it. You don't have to like it, but it's good to try things." And I think "Bug Bites" was great for me for that because it forced me to try some of these things. Am I going to be on the tarantula of the month gift club? Probably not. That still freaks me out, but I'm glad I did it and I overcame some fears. It's really, really important to realize that different people and different cultures eat different things and one's not better than the other. They just happen to be different. In other parts of the world, this is part of their diet. I've been to Thailand and seen grasshoppers and grasshopper wings and all sorts of things, and again it is normal. I think what really it came down to (is) at some point you're like, it's a scorpion or it's a crab, They're similar. We often call lobsters, the cockroaches of the sea. Once you wrap your mind around it, that it's just another food source – it is a normal food source, depending what that ingredient is and where you are in the world – it does make it a little easier to grasp. But we do have the skittishness, squeamishness, of which I had as well and still have a little bit. How did you come up with ways to make it more palatable so you even could enjoy them as much as possible? You know, I love being in front of the camera and producing things now, too and writing my own stuff, so one of the challenges was yes, I would like to be able to get through this challenge. I'd like to keep raising the ladder and the stakes as we eat each insect. So yeah, let's toss it in some sauce or let's ground it up there. There's that way that you could approach it, and I did with some recipes, but the other end of it is no, I want this to be hard for me, and I want to see a tarantula leg sticking out of this sushi roll, and I want the ants to just be whole on this ice cream cone. So it was kind of a balance – also knowing, I think for the viewer, you want to see, hey, is he going to eat a whole scorpion? They're little, by the way. Spoiler alert. Did anything surprise you? The mealworm pesto. Speaking to the entomologist about meal worms, that they're in grains and you sort of get into this you taste like what you eat. You know, like if a pig's eating acorns, they taste like acorns. And then using it, they have a nutty flavor. Replacing pine nuts in a pesto with the meal worms, that was one of the cheffy moments where I'm like, OK, this makes total sense. If I'm cooking on a competition show, or even in a restaurant quite honestly, and that was a recipe, you would think it was delicious and you would advance in the show. I'm still pretty excited about it. How does food influence you when you travel and how do you approach food when you travel? I'm a chef because I love to eat ... And it's a big part of all of my travel. If I'm traveling, I'm pretty simple when I'm alone on a business trip. Not to lose my chef credentials here, but you can find me at the local fast-casual salad pickup spot pretty frequently, if I'm traveling domestically by myself. When my wife is involved, she's much more of the planner and we'll set a lot of things up and we'll read a lot of publications and find out what the cool, hip behind-the-scenes ramen spot is or what's the taco shop that we have to go to or what's the fine dining restaurant wherever we're at. But it's definitely a big part of travel for us, even if it just happens to be like we're going to go to the local market, we're going to buy a bunch of things, and we're going to come home and cook. We just spent a week on the island of Nevis, and it happens to be mango season there, so when you accidentally fall into one of those moments – you have all these beautiful, ripe mangoes – making a nice, easy salsa at the house on your vacation, that's perfect. It's a part of vacationing. How has your travel influenced the way that you cook? I think you are a sum of all of your experiences, so I think every cook and every chef goes someplace and comes back with an ingredient that they found or a technique or a flavor profile or even as a restauranteur, a concept you've seen that you want to riff off of. So I think it's probably the most important thing for a chef is to travel. Do you have a favorite travel memory? Not one specific memory, but I think just collectively, my family loves going to Hawaii. It's become a really special place for us, and even on the food and the cuisine side, it's just some of my favorite foods. And because we travel there somewhat regularly, one of my daughters, on like a third-grade questionnaire, the question was, what's your favorite food, and she wrote luau. Internationally, our family's first trip to Paris, the first trip to Rome. For me, as someone who studied a lot of European cuisines and then to be on the ground with your family and – kind of getting back to "Bug Bites" – introducing escargot to your daughter for the first time and she's like, yum. What is your preferred way to travel? I spend so much time in the air ... It is becoming now, in my life, more of a chore than it used to be. Used to love to lock in and watch five hours of movies and now it's more just like transportation, but I do like flying. There is something also really wild about being on the open ocean in a boat, if you're up for it. My whole family isn't, so we would do a lot more of that if it wasn't for some seasickness. When you fly, aisle or window seat? I am the middle on the family flights, where it has to happen. I'm taking one for the team. I prefer a window. Even though with all the all the time I've spent in the air, I love a good Instagram story of take-off or landing. There's something still just very entertaining to me about looking out a window and seeing the world from 30,000 feet. Is there anything you splurge on, on vacation? Depends, on the type of vacation. I think food for sure. I think we're always looking for one or two meals, and that might mean a Michelin-star restaurant or a really nice restaurant. I think for me, as someone who likes sports, it might be an expensive tee time at a nice golf course or hanging out at the spa. All of those sound great, by the way. If you can do all of those things on one trip, check it off: spa, a little golf, a Michelin-star restaurant, then go find like that local hole in the wall place, that works for me. And then as parents, just being able to sit in a hotel bed and watch TV for two hours uninterrupted is pretty fun. Disney's Michelin-starred restaurant: What to expect at Victoria & Albert's Is there a travel must-have that you always take with you? I've run six New York City Marathons – sorry, that's a weird flexy brag – and the first one I ran ... I have the bag from that marathon, and I still travel with that bag. You can't see that it says New York City Marathon. All the letters have just dissolved off of it. It's just a backpack, and now it's just like a security blanket sort of thing. I always travel with this bag. It has served me well. Do you have any travel pet peeves or maybe an unpopular travel opinion? It's a weird one. You know what, if I have enough time, I'm a big fan of the (airport) lounge shower, which not everyone is a big fan of. I'm just being very authentic here. And if I have a 2-hour layover and the shower is available, why not just try to smell your best at all moments? Does anything grind your gears, that other travelers do? If you're on a phone call or on your iPad or whatever and you're just playing it loud or we're literally rolling down the taxi (way) and you're on a phone call, I don't need to hear your business. No one needs to hear all of your stuff. But another pet peeve that a lot of people have that I'm up for is making your tuna fish salad sandwich on the plane. Go for it. One time I had a little black truffle that I was gifted at an event, and I started traveling with this little black truffle. I would get the eggs on the air flight meal, but I would pull out my own little black truffle and shave it on the eggs. I think if you can cook and like you're making a sandwich or a little charcuterie board and we're in the air, hey, listen, go for it.
Forbes
17 hours ago
- Forbes
Italy Hopes Growing Chinese Passion For Winter Sports Leads To Olympic Business Gold
When it comes to ancient culture, few countries rank with Italy and China in influence and depth. Italy has the most UNESCO World Heritage sites – 61, followed closely by China with 60. In the here and now, the two cultural superpowers are finding a new common interest: winter sports. Italy has longer-standing success when it comes to ski visits. Last year, it had 32 million, ranking No. 4 in the world. Interest and investment in skiing in China has taken off since the country hosted the 2022 Winter Olympics, however, turning it into one of the fastest-growing ski markets in the world. From May 2023 to April 2024, the number of skier visits at domestic ski resorts was 23 million, a year-on-year increase of 16% and more than double that of decade ago, according to the China Ski Industry White Book. The number of ski resorts open to the public in 2023-2024 rose by 22 from a year earlier to 719, the report said. With Italy poised to host the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina on Feb. 6-22, businesses from the southern European country are looking to seize upon growing Chinese interest in winter sports to promote commerce related to tourism, skiing and travel at home, said Lorenzo Riccardi, chairman of the China-Italy Chamber of Commerce in a recent Zoom interview. The Beijing-headquartered business group has about 800 members. 'We know that China really focused on the Olympics in terms of communications, brands and company exposure' in 2022, Riccardi said. 'We believe it is a very important opportunity.' The push comes at a time when changes in global trade are leading countries to look for new partners and common bonds. New U.S. tariffs of 15% on most imports from Europe are 'significantly' impacting the Italian economy and 'Made in Italy' exports to the U.S., Riccardi said. 'The Italian government is looking to new markets and emerging regions,' mainly in the Far East, to offset the blow, he said. The disruption to Italian companies already invested in China is less than it might be for newcomers because they have already adjusted supply chains and flows of goods in recent years, Riccardi said. Italian investment in China is increasingly for China or regional Asian markets – not aimed at shipments to the U.S., he said. Italian businesses benefit from the locally well-received centuries-old travels of businessman Marco Polo along the Silk Road, and more recent ties between the European Union and China, which this year marked 50 years of diplomatic relations. Two-way trade between Italy and the EU was $36 billion in the first half of 2025 – little changed year-on-year; the EU is China's largest trading partner after the ASEAN block. High-profile visits by Italian government leaders have also helped. Italy's Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini visited China in July to give a boost to businesses ranging from machinery makers to fashion brands; he also highlighted the convenience of domestic travel within Italy on the country's high-speed rail system, and complemented China on its advances. 'China is an innovation giant that cannot be ignored,' Salvini reportedly said. Italy Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni traveled to Beijing last year and reached an agreement on a three-year action plan. China's interest in winter sports took off after the government embraced the industry ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics. Chinese athletes rose to the moment, winning a record 15 Winter Olympics medals including nine gold (Italy had 17), attracting a large social media audience and new skiers and snowboarders to the slopes. 'If the (Beijing) Olympic Games in 2008 were relevant, the Winter Olympics (in 2022) were even more interesting in generating new trends in terms of the Chinese market and the experience of Chinese consumers,' Riccardi said. This year, 'luxury and fashion brands traditionally not into sports or the mountain economy are now focusing on this segment as a new niche market,' he said, including Prada and Georgio Armani. Italian companies know from home how winter sports such as skiing can help regional economies and business due to the popularity of those activities in the Italian Alps and earlier Olympic experience. The country first hosted the Winter Olympics in the ski town of Cortina d'Ampezzo (abbreviated as Cortina) in 1956; Italy then hosted the Summer Olympics in Rome in 1960, and the Winter Olympics again in Turin in 2006. Businesses have 'excellent' experience in sports, tourism, hospitality and lifestyle pursuits, Riccardi said. One Italian company, TechnoAlpin, had a notable presence at the 2022 games in China as a supplier of the artificial snow. 'We believe it is an opportunity to attract Chinese tourists, consumers and travelers, and an opportunity to promote cooperation between Italian and Chinese companies,' he said. The China-Italy Chamber itself will focus on the Olympics, winter sports and culture at its annual gathering in Beijing, 'Notte Italiana,' in November. Chinese corporate sponsors to the 2026 games include Alibaba, Mengniu and TCL. To be sure, business is China remains challenging for Italian and other foreign firms. 'Competition with local and international companies in the Chinese market is the No. 1 challenge for Italian investments into China,' Riccardi said. Geopolitical instability, changing global tariffs, new trends in economic relations with other major economies, rising operational costs and supply chain disruptions 'are considered the major challenges for Italian companies in China' by Chamber members, Riccardi said. And yet the opportunities remain at a time when China's GDP growth of 5% is among the world's best. Based on a member survey in July, Riccardi said Italian companies – as a group the second largest manufacturers in Europe -- see industrial innovation as an opportunity to show 'Made in Italy' technology. 'The rising demands of the Chinese middle class can create opportunities for Italian quality products and foreign brands looking to this giant market that is China,' he said. Partnership with Chinese groups is considered an avenue for expansion into the market by Italian firms, Riccardi continued. 'Italian companies consider that it is necessary to have a long-term and stable presence in the market' that often involves one or more local partners, he said. Italians in Shanghai first formed a chamber-like organization to advance local exchanges in 1903, Riccardi noted. 'Not only Marco Polo is a symbol,' said Riccardi. 'We have had our business community long present.' Cultural heritage between the two ancient cultures 'is very relevant for companies' even today, he said.
