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In the course of becoming a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner and the subject of a forthcoming biopic set to star Selena Gomez<\/a>, Linda Ronstadt has packed theaters around the globe. But her favorite sits on a one-way side street in Tucson, Ariz.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n With a courtyard draped in vines and string lights and a main stage the size of \u201ca good little opera house,\u201d the 1927 Temple of Music and Art<\/a> is \u201cjust magic,\u201d said Ms. Ronstadt. Before the onset of progressive supranuclear palsy<\/a> \u2014 a Parkinson\u2019s-like disorder that ended her singing career<\/a> in 2009 \u2014 she could fill the auditorium with her unamplified voice (little surprise to anyone who\u2019s ever heard her belt out \u201cBlue Bayou<\/a>\u201d or \u201cLong Long Time<\/a>,\u201d for the legions who may have just discovered her<\/a> on \u201cThe Last of Us<\/a>\u201d). She also loves the theater\u2019s proscenium: a stage-framing arch that instantly focuses the eye \u2014 \u201clike that fireplace,\u201d she explained, gesturing toward a wall near the sofa where we chatted in her cozy San Francisco living room.<\/p>\n At 77, Ms. Ronstadt now lives in the Bay Area, close to her kids, but the Sonoran Desert borderlands<\/a> where she was born and raised will always be home<\/a>. And despite the changes she sees when she returns every six months or so, plenty of familiar local pleasures remain, for starters: bubbling-hot cheese crisps at El Minuto Cafe<\/a>, ice-chilled shrimp cocktail at Hotel Congress<\/a>, giant saguaros at every turn and live entertainment of all kinds at the Fox Tucson Theater<\/a>, where her father \u2014 a businessman with a renowned baritone \u2014 used to perform as Gil Ronstadt and His Star-Spangled Megaphone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Ronstadts have been part of the Tucson music scene since her grandfather<\/a> arrived from Mexico in 1882 and helped found the Club Filarm\u00f3nico Tucsonense<\/a> civic band. And perhaps no place highlights the family\u2019s cultural legacy like the former Tucson Music Hall, rechristened the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall<\/a> in May 2022. The naming ceremony took place during a mariachi spectacular that featured Jes\u00fas \u201cChuy\u201d Guzm\u00e1n<\/a>, who\u2019d recorded with Ms. Ronstadt on the 1987 \u201cCanciones de Mi Padre\u201d \u2014 still the best-selling non-English album in U.S. history. This ode to the borderland classics she\u2019d grown up on was remastered and rereleased<\/a> last fall, and there may be no better soundtrack for exploring her hometown.<\/p>\n Here are five of her favorite places to visit in Tucson:<\/p>\n Her first stop is a relative newcomer: a 15-year-old artisanal bread<\/a> company that earned its owner, Don Guerra<\/a>, the James Beard Award for Outstanding Baker in 2022<\/a>. \u201cI always go there straight from the airport,\u201d said Ms. Ronstadt, who used to bake her own bread (the loaf pictured on the back of the \u201cFeels Like Home<\/a>\u201d album is one of her creations<\/a>). She loves the heritage grains Mr. Guerra uses (white Sonoran wheat, for one), and especially in her go-to order: the Cubano with sesame seeds, which is so flavorful, she prefers it unadorned.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt\u2019s my favorite hotel in the world,\u201d said Ms. Ronstadt of the 1930 Spanish Colonial Revival landmark<\/a> where she stays when she\u2019s in town. The place is rich in family history \u2014 both her own (she\u2019s been attending celebrations there since she was a girl) and that of the owners. Isabella Greenway, Arizona\u2019s first congresswoman and Eleanor Roosevelt\u2019s bridesmaid, opened the inn\u2019s doors four generations ago. Beyond the lore, Ms. Ronstadt loves the native landscaping, the piano-equipped Audubon Bar & Patio, and the fireplace and sunlight that illuminate her favorite guest room.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Planted at the site of an ancient Indigenous settlement, this ode to more than 4,000 years of local agriculture is several kinds of gardens in one<\/a> \u2014 some born of the region, others imported through migration. Native mainstays such as corn, beans and squash grow in the O\u2019odham<\/a>, Yoeme<\/a> and Hohokam<\/a> plots, while citrus trees scent the Spanish colonial orchards, jujube adorns the Chinese garden and leafy greens thrive in the Africa in the Americas fields (to name a few of the hundreds of crops on site). Docents are generous with samples of whatever looks ripe during the guided tours, but there are also dedicated tastings and food events on the calendar<\/a>. \u201cI love going over there to get a mouthful of something fresh,\u201d Ms. Ronstadt said. Tip: If the garden-made orange marmalade is in stock, buy some.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In the 1950s, when her father was a founding member and her mother was one of the original docents, the Desert Museum<\/a>, as locals call it, was \u201cjust a little roadside attraction,\u201d Ms. Ronstadt said. \u201cI\u2019d go to see George L. Mountainlion,\u201d the first in a series of adopted mountain lions<\/a> to live there. The place has since grown into a renowned zoo, botanical garden, aquarium, gallery and natural history museum, but still feels refreshingly untamed. \u201cYou\u2019re not looking at some perfect geometry imposed on the desert,\u201d she observed of the animals\u2019 habitats. \u201cNature hates perfect geometry.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Completed in 1797 (though restoration is ongoing), this national historic landmark<\/a> on Tohono O\u2019odham land is Arizona\u2019s oldest intact European structure \u2014 and still an active church. \u201cI\u2019m an atheist, but I baptized my children there,\u201d said Ms. Ronstadt, citing the magic she feels behind the mission\u2019s white walls. In the kaleidoscopic interior \u2014 all ornate carvings, frescoes and trompe l\u2019oeil \u2014 she\u2019s lit candles with Ry Cooder<\/a>, sought mid-recording<\/a> respite with Emmylou Harris<\/a> and adjusted the patron saint\u2019s prayer-charm-studded blanket \u201cto make sure he\u2019s comfortable.\u201d Atheist or not, she finds something sacred there. To borrow from the Latin choral classic on her recently rereleased Christmas album<\/a>: Life is full of \u201cmysterium<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n1. Barrio Bread<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
4. The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
5. San Xavier del Bac Mission<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n