Cool Vacations, Buckingham Palace Follies, and the Jazzy, Political Mussolini Clan

Here are some gems I've uncovered from the piles of stuff that manages to make my desk look like the remnants of a nuclear winter. Topics include the opening of Sweden's Ice Hotel, an exposé of what really goes on in Buckingham Palace by a reporter who managed to get a job as a footman right before President Bush's visit, and some news on the very active Mussolini family in Italy.

Sweden's Icehotel is opening for the Winter. Located about 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle in the Swedish town of Jukkasjarvi, the hotel began it's 13th season on December 11 and will stay open until the thing starts to melt, usually in April. By the midsummer Celebration in June, the hotel has recycled itself into the Torne River. Double rooms will set you back a cool $250 or so, and you get a warm breakfast and sauna thrown in to warm things up in the morning. Link: Icehotel. If you want, they'll even sell you some of their pristine ice.

The best thing about traveling in Europe is that you have access to European news, some of which is quite different than we suffer through in the US. There's real investigative reporting in Europe. For example, the Mirror's Ryan Parry used bogus references to get a job of footman at Buckingham Palace as the staff prepared for the state visit of George Bush. He reported on all manner of things palatial, like "The queen is served cornflakes and porridge oats for breakfast out of plebeian Tupperware bowls," while at tea time the Queen is tended to by 10 servants, who, by the way, must walk around the edges of a carpet lest they wear it down in the middle. Link: Scandal! And everyone was talking in hushed (and not so hushed) tones about Prince Charles. Why? Well, this little spoof should fill you in.

Big news in Italy in November was that Alessandra Mussolini, the granddaughter of Benito Mussolini, had quit her rightist party over a spat with her party leader's denunciation of Italy's Fascist past. Alessandra is the daughter of Romano Mussolini, who is a very famous jazz musician in Italy, billing himself as "son of Mussolini." I saw him do a concert in Sardinia, and I can tell you that his fame as a jazz pianist and band leader is well-earned. The concert began with "Theme from the Flintstones" played in a way you've never heard it played, and featured a guest singer who sang "New York, New York" in English, then, at the crowd's enthusiastic insistence, sang it again as her encore. Apparently it was the only song she knew.