What's Cooking in Italy?

WORTH A TRIP: There is no "Italian food." "In our country," an Italian acquaintance long ago told Gourmet's Ruth Reichl, "there is not one kind of food. There are many. Everyone, everywhere, they eat different." Thus the April issue focuses on Italian regional cuisines, not merely through recipes but by going where the kitchen action is. We travel to Sardinia with writer Robb Mandelbaum to search for fiore sardo ("Sardinian flower"), a legendary cheese ("In every morsel I could taste Sardinia's living history"). Then to the often overlooked Basilicata to sleep in a cave (trust us, that's a good thing) and work with women "who walk outdoors and see food where others see nothing." And, confirming that "chefs do not eat like ordinary people," we follow a quartet of them around Emilia-Romagna as they analyze, savor and pontificate on tortellini, gelato and the magnificent cured meats that make the region famous. Buon appetito !

WORTH A FLIP: How to choose an island -- "a world you can hold in the palm of your hand" -- for a Caribbean vacation? In Conde Nast Traveler , Gully Wells starts with a map: "Any island I could actually see without my glasses was clearly of no use." But the island also had to be interesting. That left her with Terre-de-Haut (off Guadeloupe), where the jail was always closed, but the patisserie was always open; Saba, for a hike in the mountain rain forest (emphasis on "rain"); and Barbuda, where the island's only service station was out of gas, but the hotel was "a cocoon of insane luxury" . . . Per Budget Travel , the Queen Charlotte Islands, off British Columbia, are "Canada's Galapagos." The rich biodiversity (bear, humpback whales, miniature deer) is preserved by the islands' remoteness. Only 300 visitors per day are allowed into the principal attraction, the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, whose fantasy-like forests are "fit for a troll fiesta" . . .

"Gentlemen, destroy your engines." Outside joins 34 teams of "hydrocarbon-fueled lemmings" on "The Banger Rally," a 4,500-mile jaunt from England through the sands of North Africa to Gambia. To make things interesting, the cars have to be junkers, preferably valued at no more than $175 each. In the competition for slots, "complete lunatics go to the top of the applicant pile." . . . Jimi Hendrix was playing Woodstock the last time some of Glen Canyon's cliff faces were visible. That's because, as National Geographic details, they've since been under the surface of dammed Lake Powell. Recent droughts have exposed the parfait scenery and exquisitely eroded rock . . . Meanwhile, National Geographic Traveler recommends "nothing." There's a whole lot of it in northeastern Montana, and it's gorgeous -- "pure and without pretense, as epically proportioned as the sea." It's Lewis and Clark territory, cattle country. "No bosses, no e-mail. Just horses and cows and sky" . . .

It's the wind, says Men's Journal . The high winds that put Cape Verde's 10 islands at the center of shipping in the age of sail now put it at the heart of adventure travel. We rocket along the empty beach of Boa Vista with "the godfather of Cape Verde windsurfing," and hike, fish, dive and stare at "the kind of intricate landscape you could stare at for a lifetime" on Santo Antao . . . Caroline Mytinger, a 29-year-old American painter (and a model herself), journeys to New Guinea and the Solomons to capture images of natives. So? Well, via Smithsonian , consider that the year is 1926 and that she and her female companion carry with them little more than their art supplies and a ukulele. Mytinger's oil portraits of island "primitives" recently were discovered by two Seattle photographers who retraced her travels among the headhunters . . .

In Backpacker , newlywed Michael Finkel and his wife hike the rugged Na Pali Coast of Kauai with gleams in their eyes. Desiring to start a family, they've chosen the location for "its reputation as a place of almost magical fertility." But as Finkel's tender, amusing story reveals, Cupid is repeatedly frustrated: "Short of immaculate conception, there was no chance of any family expansion taking place that night."

WORTH A CLIP: Before you mothball the skis, Ski wants you to know that at this time of year, Vail averages two skiers per acre. Similar solitude can be found at other spring-skiing refuges. Prices are low, and there are few people around to snicker at your technique . . . No one loves lists more than Travel + Leisure, but this month's also may end up in your bookmarks folder. "T + L's Top 28 Web Sites" navigates from airplane interiors at SeatGuru.com to fitness facilities at Healthclubs.com to wireless hot spots at JiWire.com . . . The sexiest places on the planet? GQ's list is headed by Evason Hideaway in Ninh Van Bay, Vietnam, and by Capri. A caveat: This is the same magazine that, in a different article, declares that for Washington women, Wolf Blitzer is the "ideal man."

-- Jerry V. Haines