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Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly

"We pass from one realm of water to another," Brodsky told the author during their late-night walk through the city, which lasted until the first rays of dawn glinted over the sea.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Venice

The City Nobel Laureate Joseph Brodsky Called Paradise

A journalist recalls his witching-hour walk through Venice with the famous poet

Racers warm up before the annual Regata di Murano.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Venice

How to Row Like a Venetian

The art of Venetian rowing has sustained Venice for centuries. Spend the day learning to row from a local expert

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Venice

The Genius of Venice

The seafaring republic borrowed from cultures far and wide but ultimately created a city that was perfectly unique

Director Federico Fellini had Sutherland’s eyebrows removed, built out his nose and chin, and partially shaved his forehead for the role of Casanova.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Venice

Donald Sutherland on Fellini, Near-Death and the Haunting Allure of Venice

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Venice

What to Read, Watch and Download Before Your Trip to Venice

Know before you go

Pacchanta's Maria Merma Gonzalo practices weaving techniques that have changed little in 500 years.

In a Small Village High in the Peruvian Andes, Life Stories Are Written in Textiles

Through weaving, the women of Ausangate, Peru, pass down the traditions of their ancestors

A local girl celebrates her first communion at the main church in Vilcabamba, an Ecuadorian village that retains its small-town feel despite an influx of foreigners in search of Shangri-La.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Inca Road

Hailed as a Modern-Day Shangri-La, Can This Ecuadorian Town Survive Its Reputation?

Vilcabamba is an idyllic little town—and that’s its problem

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Venice

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Venice

Discover Venice anew, from its rich history and many cultural quirks to its delightful, present-day customs and excursions

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Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Inca Road

Handicraft Heaven: Nine Unique Gifts to Buy Along the Inca Road

Leave room in your suitcase for these irresistible items

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Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Inca Road

Photographer Yolanda Escobar Jiménez Captures Ecuador’s Street Scenes

Take a peek inside Jiménez’s visual journals

The Andean cock-of-the-rock display is known for its unique mating behavior and is a favorite of birders.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Inca Road

Why Birdwatchers Flock to Ecuador

Home to the highest density of bird species per acre on Earth, the country is a birder’s paradise

Ancient mummified bodies stand guard over windswept deserts near the Nazca and Ica mountain summits.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Inca Road

The Fascinating Afterlife of Peru’s Mummies

From inside stone palaces and atop sacred mountaintops, the Inca dead continued to wield incredible power over the living

Aymara people prepare an offering to Mother Earth during the sunrise of the winter solstice ceremony in La Apacheta, El Alto, on the outskirts of La Paz.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Inca Road

In Bolivia’s High-Altitude Capital, Indigenous Traditions Thrive Once Again

Among sacred mountains, in a city where spells are cast and potions brewed, the otherworldly is everyday

Airplanes that never flew and a parade of early automobiles now inhabit the grand exhibit hall of the Arts et Métiers museum, once the home of the medieval Saint-Martin-des-Champs monastery.

Europe

The Best Little Museum You Never Visited in Paris

The Museum of Arts and Crafts is a trove of cunning inventions

The Milky Way and moon illuminate a lone tree in the Atacama Desert, Chile.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Inca Road

An Astronomer’s Paradise, Chile May Be the Best Place on Earth to Enjoy a Starry Sky

Chile’s northern coast offers an ideal star-gazing environment with its lack of precipitation, clear skies and low-to-zero light pollution

Stone steps descend as far as 500 feet into the Moray concentric agriculture terraces near Maras, Peru, crossing a temperature differential of some 60 degrees. Ancient innovators may have domesticated and hybridized plant species here, using temperature ranges to simulate conditions found across the far-flung Inca Empire.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Inca Road

What Endures From the Ancient Civilizations That Once Ruled the Central Andes?

To journey here is to roam through almost six thousand years of civilization, to one of the places where the human enterprise began

Taken by ship to North America and Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, the tiny fruit gave rise to all the many tomato varieties enjoyed today.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Inca Road

Why Is This Wild, Pea-Sized Tomato So Important?

Native to northern Peru and southern Ecuador, this tiny and rapidly vanishing tomato boasts outsized influence on world gastronomy

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Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Inca Road

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: The Inca Road

Travel through Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile in the footsteps of the Incas and experience their influence on the history and culture of the region

Rumi Colca gateway, Cusco, Peru, 2014

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Inca Road

How the Inca Empire Engineered a Road Across Some of the World’s Most Extreme Terrain

For a new exhibition, a Smithsonian curator conducted oral histories with contemporary indigenous cultures to recover lost Inca traditions

A champagne toast for all leads into a gourmet meal.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Paris

Eat Like a Parisian in a Parisian Apartment

An Internet-based service allows visitors an authentic taste of food, friendship and culture

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