We start this Sunday with a warning or two or five. First, you’re in for a bit more from Portugal as our Quality of Life Conference approaches. Second, our stage is likely to introduce you to some amazing new voices. Third, I want to get you behind the wheel or in the passenger seat of Amble. Fourth, Na Praia is going to be a name that you need to know. And finally, it’s going to be an exciting dash to the year’s end with a host of new Monocle projects on the go.

1.
We’re less than two weeks out from the start of QoL in Lisbon and it will be our biggest, buzziest and chicest yet. Alongside lessons in retail big and small, there will be a discussion about the future of drones from a global leader in the space. You’ll even learn how to walk and we will be staging a very elegant auction of fine items. Most of this will take place at the Gulbenkian, with plenty of sideshows along the way. At the time of sending this newsletter, we have 10 seats left. Drop us a note and see you there. 

2.
I just touched down in Zürich from Lisbon, en route to Tokyo. There is so much happening and the city just gets better and better – on almost all levels. There are still some kinks but the homegrown talent mixed with newcomers is a heady creative and entrepreneurial cocktail. I daresay that it’s globally unique.

3.
Did you catch our story on Amble? If not, it’s right here. On Thursday, I had the chance to sample this rugged four-wheeler and I’m lobbying hard for a special edition to mark Monocle’s 20th anniversary. You will want one for all your residences and short-range commutes.

4.
For coming on two decades, we’ve been following José António Uva on his ventures. Zé, as he’s known to his dearest, is behind São Lourenço do Barrocal in Alentejo, is a founder of Amble and will soon unveil Na Praia, an enclave north of Comporta. Full disclosure here, my colleagues at Winkreative did the brand work on both properties and I’ve had a Na Praia preview over the past few days. Yes, I’ve been very involved but it’s beyond anything that I could have imagined. We will reveal much more over the coming months but start planning for next spring. Opening is planned for May.

5.
A bumper October issue, new Konfekt, a Konfekt book, more newspapers, The Entrepreneurs and plenty of events. Clear the coffee table and the diary for the months to come. The season has officially started. Let’s start by playing in Lisboa.

Enjoying life in ‘The Faster Lane’? Click here to browse all of Tyler’s past columns.

Ibiza’s Cala Llonga is one of those easy-to-picture scenes from a postcard (writes Liam Aldous). The beach is blanketed with sunbeds and thickets of pine trees swallow the cliffside, where gigantic hotels jut out like postmodern megaliths. Every day, people gaze at the boats bobbing on the water, wondering whether they will ever be so lucky. It has been this way – on different scales – for nearly six decades. The first major pioneering hotel, Playa Dorada, opened its doors in 1969.

Along Carretera Cala Llonga, the town’s main street, order a couple cañas (small beers) at the Madisson bar or sit down to a paella at Sonrojo. New developments around Cala Llonga have mirrored the island’s wider embrace of high-end holidaymakers, thankfully the seaside town’s prevailing sense of solidarity remains untrammelled.

In 2023, the 154-key Mondrian Ibiza opened on the site of the Hotel Playa Dorada, which had since become a three-star establishment. Its arrival and the more well-heeled guests who came with it have spurred similarly stylish restaurants to open along the shoreline, such as the beachfront Nūn. For those who savour salted air, sand underfoot and turquoise water to dive into, this playa is the place to be.

There are few better ambassadors for the Amalfi Coast than Carla Sersale (writes Florian Siebeck). From her perch at family-owned Positano hotel Le Sirenuse, she has had a front-row view of the town’s transformation into one of the Mediterranean’s most storied summer addresses. This year, Le Sirenuse celebrates its 75th anniversary while also looking ahead to the opening of Le Sirenuse Mare, its new seaside outpost in Nerano, a leisurely 30-minute boat ride away. We caught up with Sersale to talk about Venice’s cultural riches, her penchant for white peaches and why the Amalfi Coast can still cast its spell over visitors.

Where do we find you this weekend?
In Positano, of course! Though we have just returned from Venice, where we went for the Biennale and the hundred other art shows taking over the city. We stayed at the newly opened Les Airelles Palladio hotel. Magnificent.
 
What’s on the breakfast table?
Fresh white peaches with oranges, a double espresso with cold milk on the side and a small sweet treat from Le Sirenuse’s buffet. Every year I wait impatiently for the arrival of white peaches, my favourite fruit. Finally, sometime in June, they land on our breakfast table.
 
Now, talk us through a perfect summer’s day.
A Megaformer class in the gym, then breakfast on the terrace. After that, make your way to Le Sirenuse Mare – on our shuttle boat, preferably – and spend the day there. Later, an ice-cream cone at the Dolce Far Niente Bar, some shopping at Emporio Sirenuse and back to the hotel by 18.00. Drinks and a light dinner at Aldo’s Bar, then music by vinyl DJ Paolo Shabù at the Don’t Worry Bar.
 
A weekend art or culture must?
Venice was incredibly generous during the three days we were there. Apart from the Biennale itself – at the Giardini and the Arsenale – there were art shows everywhere. I strongly recommend visiting Fondazione Prada, Palazzo Grassi, the Dries Van Noten Foundation and the Matthew Wong show at Palazzo Tiepolo Passi, which is next door. There is also the Glass Museum and Amoako Boafo’s exhibition at Palazzo Grimani.
 
What are you reading? Magazines or books? 
While in Venice, I was given an issue of Everything, a new magazine by Marcantonio Brandolini about Venice’s cultural and artistic world. It’s also a communication platform for various projects led by his group of companies, which includes a glass atelier from Murano, Laguna B.
 
What’s the plan for lunch? Any favourite warm-weather recipes?
An easy pasta. Chop up some ripe tomatoes from Sorrento – the very red, large kind that you find on the Amalfi Coast. Add garlic and extra-virgin olive oil, then cover and let everything sit at room temperature for at least an hour while tossing it from time to time. Then cook the pasta al dente and, just before mixing with the tomato, remove the garlic and add salt, pepper and fresh basil. Serve while warm.
 
A drink that always reminds you of summer.
A bellini. My love for white peaches naturally draws me to this simple drink. Made with champagne and white-peach purée, it was invented by Giuseppe Cipriani in 1948 for Harry’s Bar in Venice. An evergreen.
 
Talk us through your summer wardrobe – which brands do you reach for when the mercury rises?
Shorts, shirts and sandals during the day; a long cotton skirt, espadrille wedges and a blouse at night. Once again, I recommend our brand Emporio Sirenuse, which was born in Positano and inspired by Le Sirenuse.
 
We’re sending you away on a sunny weekend. Where are you going and why?
We recently visited friends in Capalbio, in the coastal Tuscan region of Maremma. It’s close to Monte Argentario, a large area set among olive groves and gardens near the sea where beautiful private villas were built during the second half of the 20th century. There’s a nice hotel that I’d recommend, La Locanda Rossa.

Umeboshi, or pickled Japanese plums, are great at cutting through floral botanicals – making them perfect for a gin and tonic. Monocle’s Japanese recipe writer shows us how.

Serves 1

Ingredients 
1 small umeboshi plum, stone removed and muddled into a paste
A handful of ice cubes
30ml gin
150ml tonic water
1 shiso leaf (optional)

Method
1.
Use a small knife to remove the stone from the plum and scrape off all the flesh still attached to the stone.

2.
Finely chop and muddle the flesh to make a paste.

3.
Place the resulting paste in a tall glass, then top with ice.

4.
Pour in your gin of choice, then gently top up with tonic water. Stir gently and garnish with a shiso leaf, if you have one.

According to Japanese chef Hiroki Odo, New York’s dining scene is moving away from three-to-four-hour-long tasting menus in favour of a more casual model (writes Chloé Nakao-Pélata). His answer to this shift is Odo East Village, a space designed by Shinichiro Ogata that reinterprets Japan’s most formal and codified dining style, kaiseki, through the warmth and conviviality of an izakaya snack bar. The chef’s pedigree comes from opening his restaurant, Odo, at Paris’s Ogata, which also houses a tearoom, concept shop and gallery. 

Odo East Village retains a multi-course structure but presents its dishes as shareable plates based around the binchotan grill. In the intimate 24-seat dining room, guests create their own menu, moving between bluefin toro, Hokkaido uni-topped tofu and braised wagyu tongue. And in the spirit of playing with traditional Japanese dining concepts, there is a distinct absence of soy sauce, panko and miso.
odoeastvillage.nyc

Mélanie Masarin’s most prized possession is a notebook filled with her grandmother’s handscribbled recipes and magazine cutouts (writes Annick Weber). It’s what inspired the French-born, New York-based founder of Ghia – a brand of nonalcoholic aperitifs made in Los Angeles – to branch out from drinks and write her first cookbook, Riviera, published by Harper Collins. “My grandmother Mymo’s kitchen in the south of France is where I learnt to cook,” says Masarin. “Not in a technical way but she taught me that a good meal comes from the heart and that the season should decide the menu. The recipes are a way for me to stay close to home.” 

Alongside her southern French heritage, Masarin’s Italian roots come through in a section dedicated to fresh pasta, including ricotta gnudi with sage butter and cavatelli al pomodoro. As you would expect from someone in the apéro business, the book closes with a drinks chapter – entirely nonalcoholic, of course. “My book and Ghia come from the same place,” says Masarin. “Both are about the table, about gathering people and giving them a reason to stay a little longer.”
harpercollins.com

Hungry for more? In Monocle’s new summer newspaper, ‘Med, Mountains & More’, we sit down with Albania’s prim