April 23, 2007

US & Canada, US, Santa Fe | Europe, Italy, Rome

Tea for Two Hotels

By Nicole Cotroneo

The definitive spot for afternoon tea in coffee-crazed Rome.

view map

A Japanese proverb says, “If man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty.” Perhaps such wisdom is behind two new tea happenings, in Italy and New Mexico. Throughout April and May, the Cavalieri Hilton Rome is hosting Tea with Tiepolo. Famed for its Michelin three-star restaurant, La Pergola, the hotel’s afternoon tea in the lobby showcases a trio of mythical-themed paintings by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. You’ll need a strong brew, though, to stay focused on the artwork’s beauty and not its cash value. Purchased at auction last year for $8 million, the paintings are reportedly worth more than $28 million outside of Italy.

True tea fanatics might want to make Sunrise Springs, in Santa Fe, their destination from July 16 to 22. The weeklong Tea Immersion Program accompanies the American premier of Chinese composer Tan Dun’s Tea: A Mirror of the Soul, performed by the Santa Fe Opera, July 21. Guests can participate in traditional tea ceremonies in the resort’s own Japanese teahouse, throw Raku tea bowls in the pottery studio, and visit with noted tea author James Norwood Pratt. And if that’s not enough, you can have the stuff slathered all over your body in a green tea spa treatment.