At an increasing number of communities around the world, spa-going is now spa living.

A spa residential community has more to offer than merely access to spa services close to home. Whether it’s an apartment complex or a suburban enclave of timeshare condos, an urban high-rise or a rural villa, spa residential communities have a central common theme: They’re dedicated to integrating spa concepts—such as healthful eating, medical supervision, life coaching, and organized athletic activities—into multiple aspects of residents’ lives.

Since the trend first emerged more than a decade ago, spa residential communities have proliferated. There are now more than 75 spa residential communities all over the world catering to a variety of residents: businesspeople, young families, and active retirees, all of whom share an enthusiasm for wellness.

Although they all incorporate spa concepts, properties differ from one another in many ways, giving each community a distinct character. Some, such as South Carolina’s Cliffs Communities, were already impressive real estate developments that added spa facilities and services. Situated in the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains, within a 57-mile radius of one another, the eight Cliffs Communities feature three wellness complexes staffed by preventive-medicine experts and three expansive spas. The properties also offer access to five golf courses (two of which are Jack Nicklaus signature layouts), stables, health clubs, and restaurants serving cuisine prepared with ingredients from their on-site organic farms.

Elsewhere, residences have been introduced by established spa brands. Canyon Ranch Living provides the philosophies of the renowned Canyon Ranch destination spa in several residential locations: gracious Massachusetts duplex townhouses, rustic Arizona desert ranches, and a recently opened beachfront condominium complex in Florida. Canyon Ranch Living Miami Beach has an impressive 70,000-square-foot spa as its centerpiece, and residents can enjoy numerous other amenities in the high-rise, including a climbing wall, group fitness classes, and personal training sessions.

Similar spa-living developments are cropping up all over the world. In the northern Italian village of San Casciano dei Bagni, the natural thermal springs have been visited by those seeking relief in its healing waters for thousands of years; but Fonteverde Natural Spa Resort’s complex of 14 ecofriendly apartments is a modern take on a time-honored practice. Banyan Tree Residences now also has villas and apartments—in addition to East-meets-West spas with extensive hydrotherapy options—at its resort properties in Thailand, China, Indonesia, and Mexico.

Wherever spa-centered communities pop up in the future, one thing is certain: The ones that flourish will be thoughtfully planned and wonderfully innovative places that help their residents bring wellness concepts home to start or continue a healthy way of life.

Banyan Tree Residences (Bangkok, Thailand)
Banyan Tree Residences in Bangkok rises 61 stories above Sathorn Road in the heart of Bangkok’s business and embassy district. Created by Architrave Design & Planning, the residences’ 24 two-bedroom apartments have both Eastern and Western influences throughout. All have state-of-the-art appliances and floor-to-ceiling windows with city views. Six on-site restaurants satisfy any palate. Owners can also access the award-winning Banyan Tree Spa and its 16 treatment rooms, beauty salon, meditation sphere, and fitness center, where yoga, meditation, aerobics classes, and a lap pool are available.

Canyon Ranch Living (Miami Beach, Florida)
Canyon Ranch Living—Miami Beach has a 70,000-square-foot Canyon Ranch Wellness Spa with 23 treatment
rooms, a Finnish sauna, and experience shower rooms. Condominium residences—ranging in size from 720 to 3,585 square feet—are housed within the historic Carillon Hotel, which dates from the late 1950s. All of the hotel’s public spaces have been restored and preserved by the Rockwell Group and include a two-story nature-inspired lobby. Residents have access to the fitness center and rock-climbing wall, advanced integrative and preventive medicine, and traditional spa services and amenities.

Cliffs Communities (Lake Keowee, South Carolina)
The Cliffs at Keowee are a collection of three gated communities on the shores of South Carolina’s Lake Keowee, whose waters are fed by Appalachian streams. Owners of the 250 planned 1,800- to 4,600-square-foot residences—at Keowee Springs, Keowee Vineyards, and Keowee Falls—will have access to an 18-hole Tom Fazio–designed golf course, the state-of-the-art International Golf Institute, and a full-service marina. Spa and wellness services include body-age assessments, personal fitness prescriptions, nutrition and lifestyle consultations, as well as traditional spa services.

Fonteverde Living (San Casciano dei Bagni, Italy)
Located in the heart of Siena’s countryside, the residences at Fonteverde consist of 14 apartments designed by Florentine architects and furnished in modern Tuscan style. Each ecofriendly apartment incorporates solar panels and thermal and acoustic insulation, and features a terrace or private garden. Designed to be a no-hassle vacation home, the residences have day-to-day management—from cleaning and stocking with supplies to unpacking bags and ironing—overseen by the Fonteverde staff. Owners may choose to rent out their apartments through the residence-hotel program.

When in Rome—or a Roman spa—do as the local spa-goers do, with our primer on local spa etiquette.

A trip to the spa should be a relaxing, rejuvenating experience, but uncertainty about etiquette and local customs when visiting a spa overseas can be enough to get you all tied up in knots. Here’s a sampling of what you need to know when visiting spas around the globe.

Nudity
What to bare and where is probably the aspect of spa-going that causes guests the most anxiety. Understandably, being undressed with someone you’ve just met can feel awkward. It certainly doesn’t help that customs regarding nudity at spas vary from country to country.

In the United States and the United Kingdom, spas go to great lengths to maintain guest modesty. Therapists will step out of the room and give you ample time to disrobe and get comfortable under a sheet. They’ve also been trained in the art of draping and tucking the sheet to leave only the body parts they’re working on exposed.

In parts of Western Europe, nudity in a spa’s public areas is frowned upon. As Alexandra Obermair, a marketing manager at Italy’s Terme di Saturnia Spa & Golf Resort, explains, “In Italy nudity is a no-no—we are a Catholic country. People don’t even go topless in the saunas, steam baths, or thermal pools.”

This is less of a concern in some parts of Central and Eastern Europe, where attitudes about the naked human body are more casual. In Germany, for example, it is considered unhygienic to enter the (often coed) sauna, steam bath, or massage area with your swimsuit on. The theory is that toxins released during a treatment or while perspiring may get trapped in clothing. In these towel-only areas, guests are strongly urged to sit or lie on a towel. But wear anything more than fluffy terrycloth and you may be politely asked to leave.

Coed vs. Same Sex
If the idea of nudity has you running scared, take comfort in the knowledge that, in many locales, single-sex treatment areas or hours and same-gender therapists are the norm. You’d be hard-pressed to find a coed hammam in the Middle East, unless you’re at a hotel or resort that caters to tourists. Otherwise, spa areas are strictly same-gender. And, even though in a separate area, men must cover up, per Islamic law
(women are free to go naked).

The Finns, whose sauna rituals include nakedness, birch branches, and families with small children bathing together, would likely be embarrassed by a visit to the mixed-sex saunas of Central Europe. In Scandinavia,
public saunas have separate sections or different hours for men and women. According to the Finnish Sauna Society, if men and women want to mingle during their steam bath, they’ll have to do so in a private sauna.

During an Ayurvedic program in India, you may be asked to bare all but can expect that a therapist of the same gender will perform your abhyanga and shirodhara services. More than modesty, the motive is the effectiveness of the treatment—in this case, keeping guests’ energy in proper balance.

Special Cultural Traditions
Many local healing traditions have gained popularity in spas around the world. If you choose to experience these treatments in their native lands, it’s good to be mindful of their cultural significance.

Take the onsen, or Japanese hot spring. In that country, bathing is an artful ritual that is not to be confused with cleansing. It is customary to scrub down thoroughly—using soap and water from wooden buckets outside the onsen area—before entering the tub. Called hadaka no tsukiai (which translates as “naked communion”), bathing in an onsen is not about solitary relaxation. It is polite to smile, bow, and speak when spoken to. The interaction is as much part of the experience’s healing powers as the thermal waters.

At resort spas in Mexico and Central America, the temazcal is a pre-Hispanic native tradition popping up with increasing frequency. Facilitated by a guide, or temazcalera, this sweat lodge ceremony usually incorporates spiritual elements—including chants, prayers, and songs—that honor the four elements of nature and a mother goddess. It is purported to heal illnesses ranging from sinus infections to arthritis. For this experience, you should dress in loose, comfortable clothes, drink lots of water afterward, and refrain from strenuous physical activity until you’re done sweating.

Gratuity
When your spa treatments are over and you’re feeling great, you’d probably like to show your thanks by leaving your therapist a generous tip. However, though leaving a 15 to 20 percent gratuity in an envelope at the front desk is commonplace throughout the Americas and Europe, in some Asian countries, tipping is a little trickier.

According to Marie Harrison, spa director at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental, in Hong Kong, there is no standard tip amount. “We inform our guests that gratuity is not expected in the spa,” she says. “If guests want to offer, then we leave [the amount] up to the individual.”

Elsewhere in China, South Korea, and Japan, hotels and resorts strongly discourage tipping. To offset this, many establishments will include a 10 percent service fee on the bill to be divided among the entire staff. In that same spirit of sharing, many spas in Cambodia, Indonesia, and Thailand prefer that gratuities be given to the staff as a whole. Your spa journey did, after all, require a team effort.

General Dos and Don’ts
Bear in mind that all spas are unique, so always call ahead if you’re unsure about protocol. Still, some rules are inviolate from Austria to Zambia, and everywhere in between.

DO arrive on time, if not early. Jillian Wright, owner of Jillian Wright Clinical Skin Spa, in New York City, laments the late guest who saunters in late. “If our therapist is booked back to back, it’s going to cut into the client’s treatment time,” she says.

DO cancel appointments with plenty of advance notice. Last-minute cancellations will probably incur a charge, which can be as much as the total cost of the treatment you missed.

DON’T receive treatments while ill. Your sea salt scrub won’t feel good if you’re suffering from the flu. If you’ve got a longer-term illness or chronic condition, such as eczema or a heart condition, or if you’re pregnant, let the spa know in advance. Your treatment options may be limited for your safety.

DO leave your cell phone, BlackBerry, and laptop at home (or in your room). You’re supposed to be relaxing, remember? And you certainly shouldn’t be using them in the spa and disturbing other guests.

 A Moveable Feast: Years of cooking on the go leads to a rare treat indeed.

For an admittedly nervous flyer, Laurent Tourondel sure knows his way around a galley. Maybe it’s the year the chef behind the popular Manhattan eatery BLT Steak spent cooking up cabbage and potatoes in the French Navy. Or his later tour of duty in the early ’90s as the chef aboard the Honey Fitz, the legendary private yacht that once belonged to the Kennedys. Or maybe it’s just in his genes (although a certified Xanax flier himself, his father was a private pilot).

But the 42-year-old native of the central French provincial town of Montlucon is a firm believer that the size of the flavors need not be constrained by the headroom in the kitchen. “At first, it’s intimidating because the space is so small and narrow you don’t have access to an open flame,” he says. “But with really amazing ingredients, you can cook anywhere.”

These days, Tourondel is hardly pressed for counter space. After stops at an upscale private club in London, the famed Paris bistro Ledoyen and Caesar’s Palace, he now has 11 (soon to be 13) signature BLT restaurants. (The acronym stands for Bistro Laurent Tourondel, not bacon, lettuce and tomato.) In addition to the current locations in New York, Washington, D.C., San Juan, Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles and his latest in Las Vegas, the Scottsdale and Miami BLTs are due before the end of 2008. Just for old time’s sake, though, Tourondel agreed to head back into the galley to offer up this recipe for Steak Tartare. “I’m not really into what I call fashion cooking, but I don’t consider this traditional comfort food either,” he says, explaining the simplicity of the dish. Here again, he says, the secret is in choosing the finest ingredients, such as premium filet mignon and extra-crusty French bread. “If you put it all together on the plane so that it’s still moist, it’s an amazing thing.”

Steak Tartare

8 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
5 tablespoons red onion, diced
2 tablespoons rinsed capers, chopped
3 tablespoons cornichons, chopped
2 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon tarragon, chopped
1 teaspoon chives, chopped
1 anchovy filet, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 1/2 pounds filet mignon, very cold
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
French bread, sliced and toasted

In a bowl, combine the mayo, mustard, ketchup, Worcestershire, Tabasco and mix thoroughly. Stir in onions, capers, cornichons, parsley, tarragon, chives, anchovy and garlic. Remove beef from fridge (it should be very cold). Using a meat grinder with large holes, grind beef. Place meat in a bowl over a larger bowl of crushed ice. Fold in mayo mixture until blended. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately with toasted bread.

The $1.3 Million Vacation: An Asian golf outing might set some sort of new record.

If you’re bored with the links at St. Andrews and Pebble is passé, one California-based company thinks it has the golf vacation for you. This past spring, food-and-wine events impresarios Angel’s Share began offering a private jet golf vacation through Asia that may just be the most luxe — and priciest — golf excursion of your life. How pricey, you ask? How’s an even $1.3 million sound?

Designed for a group of four (although more can be added for an additional, ahem, cost), the Asian golf outing begins aboard a luxuriously appointed Gulfstream G550. The private plane — yours for the two-week-long trip — first touches down in Bali, continues to Malaysia and wraps up in Hong Hong. The itinerary is, of course, fully customizable.

“It’s really a once-in-a-lifetime kind of trip,” says Mark Russo, the former brand ambassador for McCallan who founded Angel’s Share in 2001. “We’re offering experiences you just can’t get on your own.” Exper­iences like, for instance, a stay aboard a 172-foot yacht originally built for the Emir of Bahrain as it floats in the Andaman Sea. Or an unforgettable day on the greens at the Nirwana Bali Golf Club, followed by dinner with Bali’s Prince Rai Girigunadhi at the Royal Palace, capped off with a helicopter trip over emerald rice terraces to a remote Balinese village. Those types of experiences.

Iron Man Air: The creator of this summer’s most popular wearable aircraft tries his hand at something a little more spacious.

In Iron Man, when billionaire/genius inventor Tony Stark is kidnapped by baddies who try to force him to build WMD, he develops a suit of armor to fly through the sky like a missile. In Private Air, when the editors ask Phil Saunders, the concept co-designer behind all of the movie’s gadgets, to dream up a conveyance for battling the evils of commercial aviation, he develops this baby.

The 38-year-old Canadian says his sub-orbital private jet is an homage to the Piaggio Avanti (which his real-life aeronautical engineer father once flew during test flights), souped up with scramjet engines and a broad skylight for excellent views of earth when the plane rolls to inverted position at its zero-G apogee.

“It would be great for impressing your passengers,” Saunders says. And readers.

Da Bears: At this fly-in lodge, everyone has salmon on the brain — including some 900-pound guys who really need a shave.

In Katmai National Park on the Alaskan peninsula, spring begins in June. That’s when the icy landscape starts to break up and droves of Pacific salmon — sockeye, chum, pink, silver and Chinook — navigate the long distance from the ocean to the tundra’s thawing tributaries.

Ask any experienced fly fisherman, and he’ll tell you: There’s fishing, and there’s fishing in Alaska. And if the 900-pound grizzlies that can be seen tearing into that rosy salmon flesh all summer long could speak, they would certainly agree. But not all lodges set up to access this mating, fishing and feeding frenzy are created equal.

Standing a cut above the rest is Kulik Lodge, a riverbank enclave located squarely in the middle of nowhere. It’s one of three renowned Anglers’ Paradise Lodges that opened in 1950, when Ray Petersen, a pioneering bush pilot and avid fisherman, set up the first tent camps to drum up business for his burgeoning airline.

These days, accommodations at Kulik (now run by Ray’s son Sonny) are 12 comfortable, modern, two-person cabins spread out over 100 acres. Top-flight amenities include a native-spruce great lodge with a grand-stone fireplace, five floatplanes, 30 boats, an accomplished chef, sauna, full open bar and all the Sage rods, Ross reels and Simms waders you’ll ever need.

You’ll know you’re headed for something special the moment you abandon the last thing resembling a road for 60 miles and board the lodge’s eight-seat Piper Navajo at the King Salmon Airport.

A 30-minute flight takes you over a kaleidoscope of forests, lowland marshes, snow-capped mountains and mile after mile of gin-clear, gravel-bottomed rivers, then deposits you at the intersection of Nonvianuk Lake and the Kulik River, where the enormous rainbow trout are so spirited, their jumping actually makes the waters look as though they’re boiling.

Afterward, you’ll be paired with a guide who will wake you each morning at 5 a.m. to take you to your fly-out destinations — up to another 100 miles into the wilderness. But don’t be too proud to have him stop at least once, just 25 miles away, at Brooks Falls, otherwise known as the Greatest Feeding Grizzly Show on Earth. “It’s so clichéd,” Sonny says.  “We were in a Geico commercial, for God’s sake.”

The Vacation That Just Keeps Going: Turns out the finest way to fly around the world in 80 days is to make it in 70.

Hopping in the Lear for a brioche breakfast in Paris is probably something you’ve done once or twice. But have you ever followed that with lunch in Gibraltar and dinner in Marrakech? Doubtful unless you’re Phileas Fogg or one of the lucky few on Air Journey’s first around-the-world jaunt.

The Jupiter, Florida–based travel planner started its private-plane caravans in 1998, when founder Thierry Pouille — at the time a traditional travel agent — arranged a one-week trip from Florida to the Bahamas for a group of European pilots and operators in their own planes.

Pouille was himself an experienced pilot who had flown solo from Spain to Algeria when he was just 16, and since that first Caribbean jaunt he’s taken 1,000 aviators with a case of wanderlust in self-fly trips to Alaska, Iceland and the Galapagos. But he’s never strung it all together.

Pouille plans to lead the fleet of 10 planes in a Pilatus PC-12, departing from Quebec City on May 14 and returning to Wisconsin, 70 days later, on July 22, a scant week before EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh (part of the reason the trip wasn’t extended the extra 10 days to cement the literary allusion).

Along the 41-stop route, the group will sail through the Greek isles, explore Pharaohs’ tombs in the Valley of the Kings, hike the Great Wall of China and, of course, munch on the aforementioned baked goods along the Champs-Élysées. “I’m French. How can I not go to Paris?” Pouille asks.

Early Birds: At 540 Park, power breakfasters always get the worm.

If breakfast is the most important meal of the day, the power breakfast could prove the most important meal of your career...particularly at 540 Park at the Loews Regency Hotel, the legendary Midtown eatery that gave birth to Manhattan’s morning-meeting tradition.

Bob Tisch, the late co-CEO of the Loews Corporation, first coined the term during New York’s 1975 fiscal crisis, when he invited politicians and labor chiefs to his hotel’s dining room to hash out recovery strategies over omelets and coffee. These days, breakfast at the Regency is less about labor strikes and political turmoil than about closing a big deal before even setting foot in the office.

That’s why, on any given morning, you might bump into Wall Street elder statesmen Felix Rohatyn (a regular since the ’70s), Sandy Weill and Michel David-Weill. Ex-Citigroup CEO Chuck Prince, former NYSE director Ken Langone and ex-Nasdaq head Frank Zarb might be warming up with hot oatmeal and fresh berries (the $29 price tag is no object).

“I’ve noticed that the crowd is getting younger recently,” says restaurant manager Rae Bianco, who has catered to the power-breakfast scene for the last 10 years.

A look around the wood-paneled, oversize-mirrored space does yield its fair share of fresh faces, who frequently cross the room to greet the more-established players jockeying (politely, Bianco insists) for the coveted window tables facing 61st Street. That’s where you might find Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld, Goldman Sachs vice chairman Bob Hormatz or wealth-­management guru Alexandra Lebenthal exchanging views on the market, elbow-to-elbow with corporate chieftains such as Barry Gosin of Newmark Knight Frank and CBS’s Les Moonves.

And while it’s chic for television personalities Larry King and Donny Deutsch to tuck into their egg-white frittatas after 9, or for Al Sharpton and Hillary Clinton to order sweet granola and low-fat yogurt around 8, the dealmakers and CEOs pack the tables at 7 a.m. sharp.

“Every day, there’s a new dynamic,” Bianco says. “Of course, there are familiar faces, but the mix is always different. It’s like musical chairs — these guys just keep changing dancing partners.”

Seeing Eye to Eye: Morgan Stanley’s Peter Crnkovich takes up his firm’s charitable legacy.

In 1997, Morgan Stanley’s Peter Crnkovich was faced with a question many parents dread: “Dad, can I have a puppy?” Little did he know the answer to his then-11-year-old daughter’s prayers would lead him to a longstanding role on the board of The Seeing Eye, a Morristown, New Jersey–based nonprofit that trains canine companions for the blind.

Attempting to placate his daughter, the chairman of Morgan Stanley’s health-care investment-banking unit sought out the charity, which employs an extensive network of mid-Atlantic volunteers to raise would-be guide dogs through puppyhood (about 16 months) until they’re ready for rigorous training. When he agreed to foster Fenton, an eight-week-old golden retriever, Crnkovich, a 52-year-old father of three, intended it to be his kids’ trial run at having a pet. “My wife and I also thought it would be a great way to teach our kids about responsibility and give them a lesson in sacrifice for the greater good,” he says.

While Fenton — who proved too easily distracted to make an ideal guide — has lived with them ever since, the experience left an indelible mark on the senior members of the Crnkovich clan. Now, 10 years later, Crnkovich serves as the chairman of finance and investment of TSE’s board of trustees, part of a longstanding Morgan Stanley tradition: The firm has had a presence on the organization’s board since founding partner Perry Hall joined it in 1935.

Crnkovich takes his role on TSE’s endowment committee seriously. “I know I’ve got to keep moving forward on that as a source of operating revenues,” he says. In its nearly 80-year history, The Seeing Eye has trained and paired more than 14,000 dogs, primarily German shepherds, labradors and golden retrievers.

While a dog’s training typically costs close to $50,000, the person to whom the pooch is assigned has to pay only $150. (Those in the military pay just $1.) These discounts are especially impressive for an organization that takes in very little in government grants. TSE’s $23 million annual budget comes almost entirely from private donations and the successful management of its sizable endowment.

Nonetheless, Crnkovich has learned that the bottom line isn’t always the best measure of success when it comes to his work with TSE. “When you see what a guide dog can mean to changing the life of an individual,” he says, “it’s just incredible.”

Romancing the Stone: For decades, Martin Rapaport has tried to create diamond futures, running afoul of the industry. A study in tenacity.

“We’re at the very beginning of the birth process,” says Martin Rapaport of his crusade to launch a futures contract for diamonds. His tone is strikingly upbeat for someone whose life’s work has been marred by so much failure. “Something has to happen.”

Rapaport, 56, is the founder and chairman of the Rapaport Group, a diamond brokerage and clearinghouse, and the industry’s leading provider of diamond pricing and market information. Over the course of three days last September, he held his first “Rapaport Certified Diamond Auction” online, the seminal step on the road to establishing an index based on monthly transaction prices and eventually, he hopes, a futures market tied to the index. To hold this auction, Rapaport’s company selec­ted and approved the stones while the Gemological Institute of America rated them, similar to the way Moody’s or S&P rates a bond. Rapaport’s vision of commoditizing diamonds goes back three decades — but only recently has success seemed even remotely possible.

Should his plan ever come to fruition, the larger financial community — speculators — could trade the diamond market the same way it trades energy and precious metals. Diamonds are perhaps the last significant commodity not currently traded via some specific financial instrument.

“Diamonds are, in fact, already a commodity in all but name,” says Tom Zoellner, author of The Heartless Stone: A Journey Through the World of Diamonds, Deceit, and Desire. “Treating them as commodities will only help bring more transparency to this business, and perhaps chip away at the artificial scarcity that has kept the retail price so far out of whack with economic realities.”

Says Rapaport: “It doesn’t just happen that a guy wakes up in the morning and says, ‘I’m going to make a futures contract for diamonds.’ ”

Indeed, Rapaport grew up in Miami, then moved to Antwerp to apprentice as a diamond cleaver. He relocated to New York in the mid-1970s and started a diamond brokerage. At the time, inflation was on the rise, the dollar was sinking and diamond prices were all over the map, largely because the industry was dominated by a few large producers — principally De Beers, which controlled 80 percent of the market. Deals were typically solidified by little more than a handshake. “Consumers were clamoring for transparency,” Rapaport says.

So in 1978, he started publishing a consensus price list. Power brokers in the highly insular diamond universe were not enthused. Many feared the list would undercut prices and put them all out of business, a fear that seemed to materialize when diamond prices took a nosedive that same year. “They didn’t like me at all,” Rapaport says. “They threw me out of the diamond industry — I had to wear a bulletproof vest for two years.”

Faced, he claims, with threats against his life if he didn’t back down, Rapaport chose to expand his list into the Rapaport Diamond Report, which over the last 30 years has become an important industry tool. His company now employs more than 100 people in New York, Las Vegas, Antwerp, Mumbai, Dubai, Johannesburg, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tel Aviv.

Further vindication came in 1987, when the same industry honchos who had earlier demanded his exile elected him to the board of directors of the New York Diamond Dealers Club, where he served for the next six years.

In recent years, Rapaport has focused on his diamond futures quest. He has tried (and failed) to launch diamond futures in New York before. In 1982, he filed a proposal for diamond derivatives with the New York Commodities Exchange, which met with stiff opposition from industry stalwarts.

Fast-forward to 2007 and a changing climate in which individual diamond producers are able to exert less influence: “The diamond industry is emerging from a century of monopoly,” he says. Once-monolithic De Beers, for example, reports that its market share has dropped to around 45 percent. If Rapaport’s idea will ever take hold, now would appear to be the time.

Suppliers are faced with increasing demand from ballooning middle classes in countries with rapidly developing economies, such as China and India.

To meet this demand over the next decade, suppliers will need to access more liquidity to increase production — a difficult challenge in an already overleveraged industry whose bank debt has doubled in the last four years, to more than $12 billion. “The timing to introduce diamond-backed financial instruments is impeccable,” Rapaport argues. “The industry needs it; global markets demand it.”

A diamond futures market would give producers access to more bank credit, allow dealers to hedge against the demand from new economic powers and offer an alternative to stockpiling, a controversial tactic that presents market-manipulation risks. It would also offer a new tool for traders — as good as metal or energy futures, Rapaport believes — to hedge against the market effects of globalization.

Rapaport continues to take criticism from some who believe that trying to commoditize diamonds is a fool’s errand. One upscale jeweler tells Trader Monthly that no one in the industry thinks a diamond futures market is realistic, pointing out that diamonds would have to lose their emotional salience to become a truly viable futures market. Rapaport counters, “Guys trading on the exchange won’t be thinking about emotional salience.”

Some naysayers also argue that since no two diamonds are alike, it is impossible to group them together like, say, pork bellies. Rapaport believes he has a solution for that, too: In his online auctions, he focuses on buying and selling one-carat stones certified by the Gemological Institute of America within a very specific color, clarity, cut and quality range. Zoellner, summarizing why he remains skeptical of diamond futures, points out that in the 1970s, an “investment diamonds” market briefly surfaced and was “laden with fraud.”

Rapaport is steadfast: “I’m coming in and shining a spotlight on a particular corner of a very dark room,” he says. “I don’t need to light up the whole room. People can get the landscape of the room in relation to that light.”

So far, his auctions have yet to yield the results he seeks. In September’s — the first of four held in 2007 — Rapaport sold just 27 of the 210 diamonds on the block, while only one was sold at October’s auction. He came to believe the chosen stone specifications proved too steep a premium for early investors. For November’s auction, he introduced two new classifications to widen the range of his offerings.

That plan met with slightly more success; he sold just under half of his 40 gems that day. “Of course it was disappointing, but I know it’s a process,” he says. “I have to let the market lead.” He intends to keep running auctions every month throughout 2008 and hopes to have enough spot cash-transaction prices to turn his index into a bona fide futures contract by the end of 2009.

At a recent diamond-industry conference hosted by Rapaport’s company, Ed Zwick, the producer of the film Blood Diamond, gave a keynote address urging industry-wide reform. “The one thing I learned over two years working on the film was that there really is no such thing as the ‘diamond industry,’ ” he said. “It’s a community of souls, of people, of thousands of individuals.”

Rapaport is only one of those souls. Sometimes, though, in the struggle for monumental change, that’s all it takes.