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Celebrate 15 years of Eat Pray Love with a journey through Naples, Varanasi, and Bali. Discover how indulgence, stillness, love continue to define luxury travel experiences today
Eat Pray Love at 15: How travel, food, and soulful escapes still inspire luxury journeys
Fifteen years ago, Julia Roberts bit into a simple margherita pizza in Naples and somehow, it wasn’t just a film scene. It was a moment that changed how we thought about travel, about joy, about saying yes to life. Eat. Pray. Love wasn’t just a movie; it became a manifesto, indulgence, stillness, connection not as luxuries, but as life itself. Elizabeth Gilbert’s journey across Italy, India, and Bali gave millions permission to believe that the road could, in fact, lead us back to ourselves. And while the credits rolled long ago, the spirit of that journey is still alive this time, not on screen, but in some of the world’s most beautiful corners.
Close your eyes for a second and picture this: you’re at a tiny table in Naples, the winter sun soft on cobbled streets, and the scent of dough and woodsmoke curling up around you. A pizza lands in front of you blistered from the woodfire, with mozzarella stretching and tomatoes bursting bright against charred bread. You take a bite and realize indulgence isn’t about extravagance at all. It’s about being here. Present. Saying yes. And where better to feel that than at the very pizzeria where that scene was shot, one of Naples’ oldest, where pizza is less food and more memory?
But in Italy, indulgence doesn’t stop at the plate. Take Rome’s Piazza Navona, once an arena for fierce athletic contests, now a sun-drenched square humming with cafés, artists, and centuries of stories. Sit with a glass of wine, watch Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers come alive in sunlight, and let the world slow down. Sometimes, joy is as simple as people-watching with a Roman backdrop.
From Italy’s cobblestones, the path winds east to India’s sacred heart. Varanasi doesn’t just greet you, it seeps into you, slowly, like the faint ring of bells in the distance until you’re surrounded, consumed. Colors swirl, sandalwood smoke curls into the morning air, the Ganges glimmers with secrets. Somewhere between the chaos and chants, peace finds you. Gilbert came here for prayer and even now, stillness feels like the truest luxury this city offers.
At Taj Ganges, that stillness isn’t rushed. It’s offered gently, with warmth. A garland sculpted from the river’s clay greets you, a symbol meant to last forever. A Spiritual Concierge doesn’t just hand you an itinerary; they help you slip into the rhythm of the city guiding you to the right pause, the right moment of quiet. And when evening comes, there’s no need to fight for space at crowded ghats. Within the gardens, the aarti unfolds under an open sky, flames flickering, chants rising, sandalwood thick in the air. It feels intimate, unhurried a rare kind of luxury today.
And then, Bali. Often painted as a party island, but for Gilbert, it was about love and rediscovery. That same spirit lingers at The Oberoi Beach Resorts in Bali and Lombok, where connection isn’t built on grandeur, but on simplicity.
In Seminyak, villas open into tropical gardens, stone carvings quietly watching over frangipani trees. The sea is ever-present, setting the day’s rhythm. You breathe with the horizon during sunrise yoga, let words fall away during a couples’ massage under whispering palms, then share a private beachfront dinner with only the waves for company. Evenings bring Balinese dance and culture not as a show, but as part of the island’s heartbeat.
Across the waters in Lombok, things grow even quieter. Here, love might mean a barefoot walk, or simply solitude. It’s not a place that asks you to escape, but one that gently reminds you how to return to yourself. The truest luxuries? Stillness, simplicity, and presence.
Swati Chaturvedi, a seasoned media and journalism aficionado with over 10 years of expertise, is not just a storyteller; she’s a weaver of wit and wisdom in the digital landscape. As a key figure in News18 Engl…Read More
Swati Chaturvedi, a seasoned media and journalism aficionado with over 10 years of expertise, is not just a storyteller; she’s a weaver of wit and wisdom in the digital landscape. As a key figure in News18 Engl… Read More
