As lazy, sultry, summer Saturday afternoons go, today couldn’t be more perfect. The setting is the Villa Arnica in Lana, Südtirol. The temperature is hovering around 30C but there’s plenty of shade and a refreshing breeze from the Dolomites. The day started with a gentle breakfast and then a seven-kilometre walk through the apple orchards, past guest houses with well-tended gardens, and into the buzzy Kuntrawant for coffee before a retail planning meeting with Pippa and Raffi – wait till you see what we’re cooking up for the autumn season for our shops and website! 

In a couple of hours, we’ll head up to Obermais to ensure that all is in order for our Merano outpost’s annual summer party. Shortly after, readers from near and far will spill out across Dantestrasse to enjoy icy bottles of Forst, chilled weissburgunder, focaccia bites from the Ottmanngut hotel team and the best bellinis courtesy of Martin and Jakob, who popped down from Munich. As gatherings go, it’s Monocle at its smaller-scale best because it mixes local talent and produce with a crowd that comes from Bolzano and Trento – but also Dubai and Hamburg. 

On the more ambitious side, it’s our Quality of Life conferences that embody all we do in a live, pacy format that runs across three days. In case you missed it, we’re heading back to Lisbon this year – where it all started 11 years ago. From 3 to 5 September, we will be turning things up a notch for the 10th edition of the conference but it also becomes the official warm-up party for our 20th anniversary. While the official date is 14 February 2027, why not use sunny Lisbon as a backdrop to get things going? Since our first conference, you might have noticed that the Portuguese capital has become something of an unofficial hub and while we don’t have a shop or office, we do have some ex-staffers who’ve returned home and who will ensure that we have an insider’s edge. It also helps that I have an apartment in town and a capable Portuguese executive assistant – even if he is from Porto!

If you’ve not been to a Quality of Life Conference, here’s what you need to know. First, there are no keynote windbags. Everything is a discussion hosted by Monocle editors. Second, we bring in the audience with real questions, delivered on the spot. None of this submitting your questions on an app. No! Third, it’s a proper crowd who are paying to be there rather than a room full of bored people dispatched by their companies. And while there are many other reasons to go, the key aspect is that we seek to unravel how we can make daily life better in transport, education, media, hospitality, shopping, security and much more. But in case that’s not enough, here are 10 more reasons to join us.

1.
If you’ve not been to Lisbon in the past decade, it’s a changed city. Most of that change is for the better but we’ll also discuss how to remedy some of the kinks.

2.
We’ll be anchoring the conference from the Gulbenkian. It’s one of Europe’s best cultural enclaves. 

3.
Robert Bound will be back on stage. Just you wait!

4.
The mayor is giving us the keys to the city. Well, for a brief moment.

5.
You can lose yourself among some of our favourite bookshops on the continent. Under the Cover and Good Company come to mind first.

6.
You will learn how your feet are linked to how you think and respond to the world. Promise! You might even learn how to walk better. 

7.
Lisbon on the Atlantic. The sea will be perfect. A bracing 17C like it almost is all year round.

8.
We’re going to have some serious conversations about the future of retail.

9.
There’ll be plenty of tips about how and where to invest in Portugal.

10.
It’s going to be the perfect way to wrap up summer and hit Q4 in full stride, possibly with exclusive footwear from a hot new Japanese brand.

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

Paris’s Château d’Eau neighbourhood is a proud theatre district but L’Arlequin – its newest resident – doesn’t rely on a script (writes Claudia Jacob). The restaurant is named after the comic servant from the 16th-century Italian Commedia dell’arte. Restaurateur and DJ Pierre Wolff, formerly of listening bar Bambino, liked the harlequin’s affiliation to both comedy and cuisine. “The character is a bon vivant who loves food and drink,” says Wolff, as we pull up a chair outside his dimly lit modern bistro on a balmy evening in the French capital. “We wanted a name that would reflect these affinities.”

The menu is small but each dish is impressive. When Monocle visits, we enjoy a singular lasagne sheet that coddles morels in parsley butter with a crunchy panko topping and succulent poussin in vin jaune. But the showstopper is the deep-fried boeuf bourguignon croquettes, which sit proudly atop a pool of herby mayo. At L’Arlequin, riffs on French classics are a reminder that the curtains haven’t yet closed on the humble bistro.
larlequinparis.fr

Monocle’s Paris City Guide highlights the restaurants, hotels and galleries that are worth putting on your list.

Further reading:
– Four weekend escapes within easy reach of Paris

– ‘In turbulent times, the bistro is a tonic.’ Can Unesco save this famed Paris institution?

Suzanne Zeidy is an American-Egyptian food writer and co-founder of several Cairo restaurants, including La Bodega, Cilantro and Cairo Kitchen (writes Chloé Pelata). Ahead of the release of Egypt: Recipes and Stories from an Ancient Land, co-written with Rawah Badrawi and published by Watkins Media, she tells us about Bedouin cooking traditions, her shakshuka recipe and why the perfect beach snack still requires cash.

Where do we find you this weekend?
On Egypt’s north coast, near the ancient harbour town of Marsa Matruh, wedged between Alexandria to the east and Libya to the west. It sounds remote – and it is. This summer I plan to visit century-old fig and olive farms and immerse myself in learning about the Bedouin tradition of slow-cooking lamb and goat underground to make mandi, a revered local dish.

What’s on the breakfast table?
A Marsa Matruh shakshuka. Before you say you’ve had shakshuka before, you haven’t had this one. Spring onions, crumbled feta and an almost obscene amount of fresh mint go into the pan. Mint is a speciality here. I finish it with a drizzle of green-chilli harissa – a nod to the Berber influence on local cuisine. I eat it outside on baladi bread.

A weekend art or culture must? 
Alexandria is an incredible city of history and culture. A day trip here is an immersive experience into the city’s Hellenistic past: the Greek Club, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the Constantine Cavafy Museum, not to mention all the tearooms and patisseries from the last century still serving their signature cakes.

What are you reading? Magazines or books?
Anny Gaul’s Nile Nightshade: An Egyptian Culinary History of the Tomato. It traces how the fruit arrived in Egypt, which sounds like a niche premise until you realise that Egyptian cooking is practically built on the tomato today. 

What’s the plan for lunch – any favourite warm-weather recipes?
Grilled dorad stuffed with handfuls of fresh herbs and lemon, cooked over an open fire until the skin crisps. I’d serve salata baladi alongside it – cucumber, tomato and onion in a tangy vinegary dressing – with everything pulled together by tahini spiked with cumin, garlic and more lemon. 

A drink that always reminds you of summer.
Campari soda. There is no wrong time for a Campari soda.

Three beach bag essentials?
Cash. I love eating fresca [wafer-thin biscuits] on Egyptian beaches and they can only be bought with notes. I’ll also bring my Jacques Marie Mage reading sunglasses. Egyptians love to take nibbles to the beach. Mine are sudani [peanuts] and lib [pumpkin seeds].

“The idea began in Tropea, southern Italy, over ricotta crostini and ripe tomatoes,” says recipe writer Ranie Saidi. “What stayed with me was the balance of cool creaminess and bright acidity.” Back in London, Saidi decided to create something similar with sambal tumis, the chilli paste of his Malaysian childhood. His version has wild mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, kumquat and cold ricotta to soften the edges of the bread.

Serves 2 

Ingredients 
Drizzle of truffle oil 
1 tbsp chilli paste 
200g cherry tomatoes, halved 
100g wild mushrooms or shiitake mushrooms, sliced 
A splash of water, if needed 
5g dill, chopped 
5g coriander, chopped 
5g parsley, chopped 
Salt and black pepper 
5 kumquats 
125g ricotta 
2 slices seeded sourdough 

Method 

1.
Warm a little truffle oil in a pan over medium-low heat. Add the chilli paste and cherry tomatoes, cooking for 5 to 8 minutes until the tomatoes soften and release their juices. 

2.
Stir in the mushrooms and cook until tender and well coated. Add a splash of water if needed, then remove from the heat and leave to cool. 

3.
Fold through the dill, coriander and parsley. Season generously and finish with a little more truffle oil. 

4.
Finely chop three kumquats and stir them into the ricotta. Thinly slice the remaining two. 

5.
Toast the sourdough a little longer than your usual for extra crusty edges. Spread the bread with kumquat ricotta and spoon over the mushroom sambal. Finish with the sliced kumquat. 
raniesaidi.com

Watching the sun rise and set is a quintessential summer ritual (writes Annick Weber). And on Ortigia, a small Syracusian island just off the coast of Sicily, a glimpse of the sun at dusk or dawn is never far away.

“Ortigia is a historic jewel that feeds your soul,” says hotelier Ronan Merlin. To understand what he means, you need only to check in at his chic guesthouse, Lùme, and be willing to get up early. In the morning, the streets are at their most atmospheric, empty of people and bathed in golden light. After watching the day break from Forte Vigliena, take a bracing dip in the sea. When the water is calm, you can swim all the way to the limestone-walled Castello Maniace and back.

Then it’s time for granita con brioche, which we’d recommend taking at Pasticceria Nuova Dolceria in modern Syracuse. Stay on this side of town to browse the art books at Zaratan before heading to Farì for the prawn-and-pistachio linguine. By now, the heat will likely have built up, so do as the locals do and retire for a siesta. In the early evening, head out for a passeggiata on the scenic Piazza Duomo, with its Greek temple-turned-cathedral, before stopping by womenswear boutique Laghetti Ortigia. From here, you’re only steps away from Fonte Aretusa, the perfect spot to watch the sun go down.
lume-ortigia.com; nuovadolceria.com; laghettiortigia.com

Monocle’s annual travel special, ‘The Escapist’, is packed with rugged roadtrips and lesser-known getaways. Order your copy here.