While Toronto is home to dozens of exceptional art galleries and museums, one of its most intriguing is 40 minutes north of the downtown core.
The Aga Khan Museum is the largest museum dedicated to Islamic arts and culture in North America and outside any Islamic country. It was founded in 2014 by His Highness the Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the Shia Ismaili Muslims, who wanted to improve global appreciation of Islamic art and culture. Thanks to the city’s diverse multiculturalism, Toronto felt like the ideal location.
With more than 1,200 pieces in its permanent collection, much of it sourced personally by the Aga Khan and his parents, the museum features Islamic art dating from the 8th to the 21st centuries, offering visitors an opportunity to learn about the myriad intellectual, artistic and scientific contributions of Muslim civilizations from the Iberian Peninsula to China. Including artifacts, paintings and ceramics, the museum offers some of Canada’s most culturally rare collections.
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While locals venture here to enjoy the collections, like Luke Jerram's spectacular Moon (the centerpiece of the museum’s most successful exhibition to date), others come to immerse themselves in the contemporary architecture of award-winning architect Fumihiko Maki, the formal gardens and reflecting ponds; or to dine at Diwan, their on-site restaurant created by Toronto’s top chef, Mark McEwan, and listed as one of the prettiest patios by the Los Angeles Times.
It’s a place where art and conversation merge, making it one of the best expressions of Toronto: a city that prides itself on its diversity, community and connection.
While you're here
Canada’s first and only national urban park, this nearly 20,000-acre expanse of marshes, ponds, meadows and forests has a storied history dating back 10,000 years. Considered Toronto’s biggest biodiversity hotspot, urban explorers can wander the wetlands with their camera at the ready: Its moody and atmospheric landscape is full of deer, river otters, red foxes, porcupines and the majestic—and engendered—native butternut trees, which can grow up to 98 feet tall.
The infamous Big Slice at Lamanna's Bakery.
On the city’s eastern edge, tucked inside a shopping plaza, Lamanna’s Bakery is drawing fans from across Ontario to indulge in its infamous Big Slice: an enormous 28-inch long pizza slice that can be topped with anything from grilled cheese sandwiches to sprinkle donuts. While the pizza is what has gained the Italian bakery notoriety (with over 150,000 Instagram followers to prove it), the charming family-run restaurant also offers pillowy, home-baked Sicilian pastries like their legendary sfogliatella and ricotta-stuffed cannolis.
