A Los Angeles mansion has become the latest ‘dark tourism’ hot spot

LOS ANGELES   -   This week in travel news: why true crime buffs are heading to Beverly Hills, a look at the world’s only Michelin-starred ice cream restaurant and the reaction to a “makeunder” of one of Italy’s star attractions. A new Netflix series about Lyle and Erik Menen­dez, brothers who were convicted of murdering their parents Jose and Kitty in 1989, has resulted in tourists flocking to the Beverly Hills mansion where the crime took place. “The Menendez Broth­ers” series, which revisits the famous case and fo­cuses on the abuse the two men say they suffered at the hands of their father, has spurred calls to resentence the Menendezes and offer them parole. On a recent Wednesday in October, CNN spoke with tourists from Argentina, Guatemala, Colombia and Sweden who traveled to the former Menendez home during their vacations to the United States. Tour buses and cars playing songs “Blame It on the Rain” and “I’m Gonna Miss You” from the Netflix show’s soundtrack slowly drove by, while dozens of onlookers parked nearby to look at and film the house. Toni Ricci, an owner of a local dance studio, said she came to visit the mansion with a group of five work friends who had all been following the case. Neighbors, though, are less than thrilled with the influx of gawkers. “We’re probably now going to have to wait another decade or two for it to calm down again, and hopefully there won’t be another documentary in 20 years’ time,” one local told CNN. We all scream for ice cream — and “we” includes the Michelin guide, which recently awarded one of its cov­eted stars to Minimal, an ice cream restaurant in Taiwan.

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