While most of us know what the inside of a McDonald’s eatery looks like, there are some beautiful and unique ones around the world – and one impressive chain has left people gobsmacked
08:00, 16 May 2025Updated 08:05, 16 May 2025
The Italian McDonald’s is more unique than your average restaurant (file)(Image: In Pictures via Getty Images)
People have been wowed by this incredible and unique McDonald’s that looks more like a museum than a fast food chain. When we travel abroad, many of us typically try out the local cuisines and avoid food spots that we can easily get at home. But often some of our favourite big name brands offer different menus in different countries. McDonald’s menus vary by location to reflect local tastes and traditions.
We know how much the Italians pride themselves on good food, so of course they had to join the list with one of the most beautiful McDonald’s in the world. While visit Rome, you will find a unique chain with hand-carved statues in the entranceway.
Located near the famous Spanish steps, this McDonald’s has a sculpture in the entranceway that looks like it could be a rendering of the Roman goddess Venus. Further into the restaurant beyond the classic McDonald’s stills, stands a separate section devoted to decadent-looking cakes, tarts, and donuts.
Fans love taking videos and pictures of the spot – and it has gone viral online, with people tourists making sure they add it to their must-do list while visiting the ancient Italian city.
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TikTok account @moromatour – a page which shares Roman insights and offers tours around the city – shared a look inside the amazing eatery. The video has raked in 1.8million views and has the caption: “This McDonald’s looks like a museum. Rome, Italy.”
“Proud to say I have been there,” commented one. One other wrote: “No matter where you are, got to try Maccies at least once, totally different menus and vibe! We were at this Maccies on Tuesday and it’s actually massive, proper McCafe with pastries and coffee!”
One other who was shocked after seeing the spot, said: “I remember when I was in Rome and stumbled upon this McDonald’s completely on accident”
“I was there, it’s incredible,” insisted one other. Some observed that due to its uniqueness this eatery can get busy fast.
At the Mount Hagen Festival in Papua New Guinea, Janet met a community of people with a living connection to one of the darkest aspects of Papua New Guinea’s recent history – cannibalism
Milo Boyd Digital Travel Editor and Commercial Content Lead
16:39, 13 May 2025
The Asaro Mud Tribe put on an incredible show(Image: Janet Newenham)
A dark tourist who has travelled to the furthest corners of the Earth met a tribe with a cannibal past at one of the “craziest, weirdest” events she has ever been to.
In recent years, Janet Newenham has really been clocking up the miles. The 38-year-old from Cork leads groups of women to strange and largely inaccessible places, including the alien-treed Socotra Island off the coast of Yemen and the ultra-advanced Chinese city of Chongqing.
However, few places could prepare her for the Mount Hagen Festival in Papua New Guinea, where hundreds of tribes from all over the island come together to showcase their traditional clothing, dances and games. It is a riot of colour and movement, unlike anything else in the world.
There, Janet met a community of people with a living connection to one of the darkest aspects of Papua New Guinea’s recent history – cannibalism.
By all accounts, the practice no longer occurs in the country, with the last well-documented incidents taking place in the 1960s. One of the last reported cases unfolded in the malaria-infested swampland of Sepik, a 45-minute plane ride from the city of Mount Hagen.
The country of Papua New Guinea (Image: Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
It “was in 1964 when a group of men raided a neighbouring village for meat – as their ancestors had for thousands of years. All seven offenders were hanged by ‘kiaps’ – Australian patrol officers who were the law of the land until PNG’s independence in 1975,” wrote Ian Neubauer in 2018 following a visit to the region.
One tribe that also partook in cannibalism in the same decade is the Asaro people, who are known as the Asaro Mud Tribe.
“If people did them wrong or tried to steal their animals, often they would kill a member of the opposite tribe as punishment,” Janet told the Mirror following her visit. “They stopped more than 50 years ago. They said all tribes stopped in the 1960s.
“We did also meet other tribes that touched on it. And explained it was only ever to honour their family or to exact revenge on another tribe if they had killed someone.”
The timeline means that there are a handful of older members of the Asaro living today who were involved. “It wasn’t scary (to meet them), but the more you think about it, it is crazy to think that they have eaten people,” Janet added.
The reputation of the Asaro stretches far beyond the borders of Papua New Guinea, and not just because of their unusual past. Their cultural dress has also caught the eye and inspired many copycats. “They are covered in mud and they wear these really heavy masks designed to scare away their enemies,” Janet explained.
The history of the look is mired in confusion, but it is unlikely to be as ancient as one might suspect. In fact, some historians believe it had its origins in the 1950s.
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“According to one theory, some time ago, Asaro people were hiding from their enemies from another tribe near a riverbank of white clay. The Asaro got covered in clay and mud, and their appearance frightened the opponents, as in the traditions of the tribes, only the ghost can be white. But the legends of the Asaro people still do not explain why this tradition became so important for them, or how they got bamboo claws on their fingers,” writes the Journal News.
“Another version says that once, during a wedding of one Asaro, one man came in a strange costume with a terrible mask and clay on his body. Everyone thought he was a ghost, so they fled.”
According to research conducted in September 1996 by Danish anthropologist Ton Otto from Aarhus University, the Mudmen tradition is an invention of the Asaro people. Its current elaborate form evolved from a 1957 cultural fair, when the Asaro debuted the look, Otto claims.
Over the years, the tribe has used events such as Mount Hagen to show off and perfect their costumes and dances. However, this has given others the chance to copy the striking get-up.
Recently 29-year-old subsistence farmer Kori from Komunive village told the BBC of his concerns over plagiarism.
“The government does not recognise or protect our ownership rights and everyone in the highlands is now claiming to be a mud man,” he says. “But it’s our story and the others have copied it from us. It is a big worry for us because we don’t have any copyright protection.”
James Dorsey visited the Asaro five years ago and heard how an older member of the tribe relocated to a different part of the highlands in the late 20th century, which brought him into contact with other groups. From them, he learned the practice of bakime: using a disguise to take revenge on an enemy.
The returning elder introduced the method of covering one’s face with white tree sap as a disguise. This then morphed into girituwai, whereby a light wooden frame with a mud-soaked bag covering it engulfs the entire head. These were a part of the inter-tribe “spearing raids to capture pigs and women” that were common until the mid-20th century, Geographic Expeditions reports.
“In an effort to curb this cultural violence, in 1957 local organizers put on what was called the “First Eastern Highlands Agricultural Show,” and they invited the Asaro to participate. The tribal chairman at that time, Ruipo Okoroho, saw an opportunity to put the Mud Men on the tourist map. Organizing all of the local headmen, he had them wear, for the first time, the prototypes of today’s Papua New Guinea masks, large, surreal, and weighty,” the publication continues.
“The story goes that the day of the first Sing-Sing, as the show is popularly called, over 200 masked Mud Men stalked slowly onto the grounds, driving a screaming and terrified audience before them. No one had seen anything like them, especially not in such numbers. The Mud Men took first prize for tribal representation that year and the following two years, prompting an end to all such competitions in the future.”
In a season which became known as the year of retirements on the ATP Tour, former British number one Dan Evans had his own thoughts about how long he had left playing.
Andy Murray deciding it was the right time to stop dominated the talk in British tennis last year, while his fellow Grand Slam champions Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem also brought the curtain down on their careers in 2024.
At Wimbledon in June, Evans spoke about the awareness he had of coming towards the end of his career and the “stark reality” of not being able to compete at the same level he once did.
So it is telling Evans – who turns 35 in less than a fortnight – is still ploughing on, albeit largely on the ATP Challenger Tour which sits below the main tour.
Less than two years ago, he was ranked a career-high 21st in the world, but is now 190th after briefly dropping outside of the top 200 earlier this year.
“I’m still trying to be a tennis player, although some people are letting it known they don’t think I am.”
Evans, competing in a Challenger event in Bordeaux this week before focusing on French Open qualifying, certainly still is a tennis player.
Dropping down a level demonstrates his clear love for the sport and, perhaps, a determination to spend as much time on court as possible having been banned for a year in 2017 after testing positive for cocaine.
Making the decision to stop playing professional tennis is, for many, the hardest they will make. There is no ‘perfect’ way to say goodbye.
