World Tourism Blog

Have you ever wondered; being in a place if it was the absolute reality or maybe you just dreamed it up? Have you also been in situation where the place you are at has made you feel like the right amount of contemporary as well as a deep feeling of being part of a rich history?

Venice is one of those places that will definitely make you feel like that! Try going to Venice and standing at one of Venice’s bridges, the reflections of the buildings in the water as you silently watch a gondola passing by you. That is when you realize you just been transported back about two hundred years.

According to Thomas Mann, Venice is beguilingly and suspiciously beautiful. The city keeps on a façade of luxury, laid back nature, casualness and indifference even. It sum how manages to keep its ability to charm and enrich; a big secret.

The first inhabitants settled down on a collection of about one hundred and twelve islands and found it an ideal place to establish base. The merchants of Venice organized a coup in the year eight hundred and twenty eight and stole all the remains of the evangelist mark from Alexandria who was their patron saint. Saint Mark had a lion as a heraldic impression. Earlier the patron stain was Saint Theodore who was then preceded by saint mark.

When Henry the fourth conquered Constantinople, the cathedral that was built for saint mark; was inaugurated. After about one hundred years later, Venice was ready to take over the entire Mediterranean. Once the trade route was discovered through India, Venice then became a trade centre connecting Europe to the orient.

The entire city was controlled by about three hundred noble families, ten city fathers and a doge (head of state). This was done so that the money would remain in the hands of a few rich families. These; who would take old Venice with its old buildings, churches, palaces, squares, arcades and bridges and transform it into a modern architectural wonder.

Later napoleon took over the city and overthrew the doge in the late seventeen hundreds. Following this, the city became part of Austria and then finally Italy.  The entire city is on an elevated platform made from about ten thousand piles of oak and helm. This cuts through two hundred canals that span about four hundred bridges.

The grand canal which is about two and half miles long is lined with grand buildings and palaces with their best sides to show facing the Grand Canal.

St Marks square

The square is around the grand town hall. Over here the basilica of san Marco and the palace of the earlier doge are impressive and beautiful. However the cathedral of saint mark raises some questions as the architecture on the inside is almost Byzantine. The walls are gilded with gem studded pala d’or exhibits. All this relates to a Byzantine past, which obviously Venice has never seen!

The doge’s palace however basks in luxury and is filled with stories of murders, wealth and victories. The oldest café in Europe is right here in Venice; the florian, which is located on the market square, has a violinist who plays the most serenading music.

Once you are done with this place, head over to one of the many gondolas and travel elegantly in the lagoon, look at the beautiful architecture and wealth of the city.

From the time of the grand entrance, the entire city of Venice is pretty dramatic, go to hotels like the Cipriani and saneieli and experience what it feels like.
Outside the churches you will find many squares. These squares always have delicious food. Apparently; the fegatoo alla veneziana is a local favorite.

While you are in Venice, you should definitely go check out all the islands, an excursion would serve the purpose the best. You should check out Lido, where most painters, film directors and artists come to get inspired and also to film the scenery around the place.

By Theearthtraveler

By the Grand Canal - Venice

IT was love at first sight. Henry James was 26 when he crossed the border from Switzerland and made his way, on foot, down into Italy — “warm & living & palpable,” as he wrote ecstatically to his sister on Aug. 31, 1869. The romance kindled that day lasted nearly 40 years, and played a significant part in his career; he set some of his greatest works in Italy, including “Daisy Miller,” “The Aspern Papers” and “The Wings of the Dove.”

All three are excellent traveling companions, particularly if you’re en route to Rome and Venice — but a more direct (though of course inescapably Jamesian, and therefore at times convoluted) expression of his contagious passion for what he declared to be the “most beautiful country in the world” can be found in his travel writing.

Henry James as tour guide? He won’t lead you step by step, waving a pennant so you don’t get lost, but he does show the way. His fine, reverberating consciousness sets off a corresponding reverberation in the sympathetic reader, who can’t help but admire the way Italy liberates an appetite for sensual experience in this most cerebral of authors.

If you’re thinking of visiting Umbria and Tuscany, James has even thoughtfully planned out your route: in 1874, when his Italian romance was in its infancy (and the Kingdom of Italy was a newborn nation, having achieved unification only in 1861), James wrote for The Atlantic Monthly a travel essay called “A Chain of Cities,” in which he describes his springtime wanderings in Assisi, Perugia, Cortona and Arezzo, ancient hill towns well stocked with artistic treasures and expansive views — all neatly arranged within easy distance of one another. James, traveling by train, lounges and loafs along the way, examining and judging an artist’s work, or sitting on a sunny bench beneath the ramparts of a ruined fortress, or strolling aimlessly, merely savoring the flavor of “adorable Italy.” A 21st-century traveler whose schedule is fixed by the tyranny of airline reservations may be tempted to pick up the pace (certainly a possibility if you’ve rented a car), but accident and adventure, the kind of chance encounter that loitering invites, are just as important, in the search for the essence of a place, as methodical contemplation.

James’s principal interests are scenery and art, though he occasionally casts his eye — while holding his nose — on the unwashed populace (the Puritan in him was shocked by the Italian peasant’s indifference to soap). All four towns are perched high and blessed with stunning views, but of course the views were even more gorgeous in the 19th century, before the valleys were streaked with highways, dotted with factories and warehouses and veiled by smog.

In Assisi, James looks out over “the teeming softness of the great vale of Umbria,” and watches “the beautiful plain mellow into the tones of twilight.” Today the plain is still “teeming” (though with human activity rather than nature’s bounty), and the mellow haze in the distance looks suspiciously chemical. But if the views are less pristine, the art and the architectural monuments are far more accessible, preserved and curated with care and intelligence. Each of these towns is home to more masterpieces than you can comfortably absorb in one visit; this is an itinerary overflowing with artistic riches.

If James insists on a measured tempo (in Perugia he warns that a visitor’s “first care must be to ignore the very dream of haste, walking everywhere very slowly and very much at random”), at least part of the reason is that in these towns there’s little choice. Most of the streets, especially in Assisi, Perugia and Cortona, are steep, narrow and crooked; haste would soon leave you panting. Arezzo is gentler, but there, too, James is right: even if you’re fit enough to race along, a leisurely stroll is infinitely more rewarding when nearly every building has half a millennium of history attached to it.

In Assisi, James counsels, the visitor’s “first errand” is with the 13th-century basilica dedicated to St. Francis. The church, which houses the saint’s tomb — “one of the very sacred places of Italy” — is a magnet for religious pilgrims. James hits on a suggestive metaphor for the basilica’s astonishing structure: it consists of two churches, one piled on top of the other, and he imagines that they were perhaps intended as “an architectural image of the relation between heart and head.” The lower church, built in the Romanesque style, is somber, cave-like and complex, whereas the upper church, a fine example of Italian Gothic, is bright, spacious, rational. (Though he often favored head over heart, reason over emotion, James was a master at turning the tables.) Both churches are famously decorated with frescoes hugely important to the history of art, most of them traditionally ascribed to Giotto (c. 1267-1337). Studying them closely, James pays tribute to the artist’s expressive power: “Meager, primitive, undeveloped, he is yet immeasurably strong” — a judgment still valid today.

By ADAM BEGLEY

The 13th-century basilica dedicated to St. Francis as seen from the fortress above Assisi.

HOW is it that Lerici, an undeniably beautiful seaside town just minutes from the Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera, has largely evaded the radar of foreign tourists?

On a recent sunny spring afternoon, Riccardo Morlini, owner of Gelateria Arcobaleno, a tiny gelato shop on Lerici’s main piazza, offered his explanation: marketing. “The Cinque Terre has been sold touristically everywhere for a long time,” he said. “People know Cinque Terre all over the world. But Lerici, it’s not so known.”

Not so known outside Italy, that is. Lerici (pronounced LEH-ree-chee) is a jumble of pastel buildings that jockey for attention with its beaches, crescent-shaped coves and rocky cliffs that melt into the sparkling sea. And in July and August, the town is bustling, the beaches filled with local residents, vacationing families from northern Italy and a loyal crowd of in-the-know Milanese.

Around town, young couples flirt at waterfront cafes, children kick soccer balls beneath palm trees, and groups of white-haired men stroll along the beachfront promenade. Very few are speaking English. In Lerici, unlike many other Riviera towns, the lingua franca is still poetic Italian.

Lerici is flanked by areas all too well-known to foreign travelers. To the south, the flashy Tuscan resort towns of Versilia boast miles of sandy beaches crammed with pasty northern Europeans and bronzed Italians alike. And a few miles to the north is the Cinque Terre, five cliff-clinging hamlets connected by narrow footpaths that are overrun with Americans.

In fact, Lerici holds much of the same appeal as its more popular neighbors, with beautiful swaths of beach and miles of hiking trails with photogenic vistas, minus the suffocating crowds. The imposing medieval castle that looms above Lerici’s main piazza is the town’s defining feature, but the scenic mile-and-a-half-long promenade that stretches along the waterfront is its most dazzling. After passing boats bobbing lazily in the harbor and tracts of enormous rocks where sunbathers lie like sea lions, the promenade winds past a string of beaches en route to a smaller stone castle that anchors the neighboring village of San Terenzo.

South of Lerici, a narrow serpentine road — convex mirrors at every turn — snakes above the coastline, past hillside olive groves and the tiny town of Fiascherino, before dead-ending in the charming village of Tellaro. The clifftop route is vaguely reminiscent of the Amalfi Coast, with stunning views of turquoise sea and rugged shoreline around each corner. Taken together, the four towns of Lerici, San Terenzo, Fiascherino and Tellaro — a Quattro Terre, if you must — form the eastern edge of the Gulf of La Spezia, also known as the Golfo dei Poeti, the Poets’ Gulf.

For centuries, this area has been a haven for Italian artists and authors seeking solitude and inspiration in the beautiful landscape. In the beginning of the 19th century, it also emerged as a destination for the European literati abroad — an enclave for poets and writers that, over the years, has included notables like Percy and Mary Shelley, Lord Byron and D. H. Lawrence. More recently, the Italian writers Mario Soldati and Attilio Bertolucci settled in the area, extending the literary tradition.

“We had a lot of painters, we had singers, we had a lot of artists who were looking for a spot to hide,” said Francesca Mozer, who, with her mother, Nicoletta, owns the exclusive Eco del Mare beach club in Lerici. The secluded property was just a modest strip of sand tucked between towering cliffs and the glittering sea when her father, François, bought it in 1952, but it eventually evolved into a glamorous retreat for wealthy Italians. For the past two years, however, the club has been closed as construction transforms it into a tiny, rustic resort with 19 cabanas, a beachside restaurant and a seven-room hotel, all scheduled to open this weekend.

The hotel will be the third in the area — Piccolo Hotel del Lido and Hotel San Terenzo are the others — to open within the last five years; all cater to an affluent clientele. Several new structures are under construction between Lerici and San Terenzo. But the prospect of more hotel rooms and short-stay apartments — and, inevitably, increased tourism — threatens the town’s subtle air of exclusivity, making some residents uneasy.

By INGRID K. WILLIAMS

A medieval castle looms over Lerici’s tidy harbor. The town, unlike nearby Cinque Terre, attracts mainly Italians to its beaches and popular promenade.

Visitors Will Soon Be Allowed to See the Monument’s Underground Chambers.

Come this summer, visitors to Rome will be able to see parts of the Roman Colosseum never before open to the public. They will descend to the dank depths under the world’s biggest ancient amphitheater, and climb the steep steps to its highest (existing) level to admire the majestic views over the arena and the magnificent ruins of the Roman Forum and Arch of Constantine next door.

Thanks to special government funds, conservation projects are underway at what is arguably the world’s most famous monument to shore up areas that have been closed for decades, and allow access to visitors. Particularly fascinating is the warren of underground chambers and passageways that housed the animals, gladiators, machines and scenery that made up the greatest show on earth two-thousand years ago.

Soon, small groups of visitors with a guide will enter the Colosseum through the back entrance known as the Porta Libidinaria — where in Roman times the gladiators made their grand entrance into the arena — and take a glass elevator down into the bowels of the arena. There, with some imagination, you can picture the noisy, smelly chaos of animals and men preparing for showy battle.

The area opening to the public is under a modern reconstruction of the floor of the Colosseum that was built with steel beams in the year 2000. The original was built of wood, and covered with sand. Under this roof visitors get a feel for what it was like to be in the underground area where wild animals and gladiators waited their turn in what was the backstage of the biggest spectacle in the world at the time.

“The public will be able to visit this area for the first time in August or September,” says Barbara Nazzaro, the architect in charge of the still-to-be completed restoration under the Colosseum, “and they will see the area under the arena where people worked all day to put on the show.”

Lions, tigers, buffalo, gazelles, ostriches and more were brought into the Colosseum through an underground tunnel and locked in cells before being hoisted up in one of the 80 elevators to the stage above, appearing as if by magic in different corners of the arena (elephants used the ground-level entrance) .

By ANN WISE

Come this summer, visitors to Rome will be able to see parts of the Roman Colosseum never before open to the public. They will descend to the dank depths under the world?s biggest ancient amphitheater, and climb the steep steps to it?s highest (existing) level to admire the majestic views over the arena and the magnificent ruins of the Roman Forum and Arch of Constantine next-door.

Making the Italian Riviera Yours By Walking its Cliff-Hugging Trails.

Catchy harmonica music wafts across the cafe umbrellas that line the minuscule harbor of this conch-shaped village, squeezed between vine-covered hills and the Mediterranean Sea.

Tourists sip aperitifs and enjoy the sunny cliches of the Cinque Terre, one of the most scenic (and overrun) stretches of the Italian coast. But today, sweat-drenched and a bit wobbly, I feel smugly that I am in on a secret: I have earned this gorgeous view because I hiked here, up and down a cliff-hugging sliver of a path that will take me several more strenuous miles by day’s end.

There, the only tunes are cicadas above and pounding waves below. Bursts of purple bougainvillea and glimmers of silvery olive trees provide the splashes of color. And rather than sipping cocktails in a cafe, hungry hikers get to feast guilt-free on sublime seafood specialties at locals-only restaurants not far from the trails.

From a full-day hike linking five medieval villages to a leisurely stroll (called passeggiata by the locals) through one of Italy’s largest botanical gardens, walking is the best way to experience this region of pine-splattered mountains plunging into the cobalt sea. Here are my four favorite walks in Liguria, going west to east along this arc-shaped slice of Italy, from the border with France to Tuscany’s coast, along with recommendations for restaurants.

GIARDINI HANBURY (GARDEN): In the late 19th century, Northern Europeans flocked to get health treatments at seaside resorts on the westernmost stretch of Liguria. One visitor, Thomas Hanbury, an Englishman who made a fortune in silk and tea trade from China, devoted a 44.5-acre promontory to a collection of exotic plants, now managed by the University of Genoa.

The botanical garden on a terraced hillside is now home to 6,000 plant species and also offers wide views of the sea and horizon. A series of trails cascade from Hanbury’s stately villa down to the sea, passing by a papyrus-fringed fountain, through a cypress-lined path and in between a wild assembly of plants ranging from azaleas to eucalyptus, from aloe to olive trees.

A hiker makes her way up a trail above the town of Cinque Terre, in Liguria, Italy, in this file photo.

 Lima, Peru’s Export and Tourism Promotion Board (PromPeru) said Sunday that its representatives will travel to Argentina and Italy to participate in events with tour operators of these countries to provide them information on the main tourist attractions in Peru.According to a supreme decree of Peru’s Foreign Trade and Tourism Ministry (Mincetur), PromPeru official Lizbeth Corrales will travel from May 17 to 22 to the city of Cordoba in Argentina.

 She will carry out different tourism promotion activities during the “Door to Door Argentina” event which will be held in Cordoba from May 18 to 21.

 Corrales will contact the most important tour operators from Argentina to provide them with specialized and up-to-date information on tourist destinations in Peru.Other supreme decree of the Mincetur authorizes the trip of PromPeru’s Tourism Promotion director Jacqueline Saettone and also Rocio Florian Ventura to the cities of Rome and Bologna in Italy, from May 16 to 21. 

Both officials will also perform different tourism promotion activities representing PromPeru, during the event called “Workshop Italy,” which will take place in the cities of Rome and Bologna from May 18 to 20.

Foreign tourists and local people. Photo: ANDINA / Percy Hurtado.

Don’t try to overplan and stay flexible with your time in the Eternal City.

The alarm doesn’t go off.

Forget about our plan to leisurely stroll through Rome’s famous Borghese Gardens to get to the Borghese Gallery in time for our reservation to see the fabulous collections of paintings, sculptures, mosaics and bas-reliefs from the 15th to 18th centuries. Reservations typically are needed at this small gem of a museum.

But even for the experts, touring Europe doesn’t always go as planned. So, instead of a leisurely walk (not to mention a much-needed cappuccino), my daughter Reggie and I race to a cab from the apartment we are renting and to the museum where we get in line with all of the other tourists with reservations.

It was worth the effort and so was getting the English audiofone so we could hear an explanation of what we were seeing — Bernini, Corregio, Titian, Raphael … even without having had coffee first.

Afterward, we stroll through the park (the little kids in the family, we decide, would love the zoo here and the chance to run and jump). Rome is the first stop on Reggie’s college graduation trip that will culminate with a weeklong hiking trip along the Amalfi Coast with U.S. company Backroads.

But first some culture and history at the Vatican for my history major. No matter how you try to engage kids at the Vatican (counting the dragons in the paintings, for example), confesses Monica Saab, an accredited Vatican tour guide, kids seem to most like seeing the dead popes in St. Peter’s Basilica. (If you want to tour St. Peter’s on your own, go late in the afternoon and avoid Wednesdays, unless you want to be there for Pope Benedict’s audience.)

Help from tour guides
Some families prefer to have someone else sweat all the details when traveling to Italy, planning the entire trip with the kids and grandkids in mind, albeit paying for the privilege with companies like Adventures by Disney, Abercrombie & Kent Family Holidays, Tauck Bridges family tours with kid-friendly guides and unique activities such as after-hours tours of the Sistine Chapel, chats with “real” gladiators, making pasta and more. Exploritas (formerly known as Elderhostel), also offers some well-priced Italy tours designed especially for grandparents and grandkids.

Certainly such trips are easier — I never had such a stress-free time as when exploring Vienna and Prague with Adventures by Disney with my youngest child and her friend, and you are sure to encounter other kids along the way so that you are not entertaining yours 24/7. But there is also something to be said for discovering a foreign city on your own with your kids, showing them that on vacation — as in life — things don’t always go as planned and that as long as you work together, you can navigate just fine.

In Rome, I was glad to have a guide. We connected with Saab via Rita Clemens, a Minnesotan now living there and running a company that takes all the stress out of touring Italy for American families, albeit at a hefty price. The biggest mistakes American families make when touring Rome is trying to do too much, she tells us. “One thing a day is plenty,” she says. And if you are cruising in Europe — as many families are these days — Clemens says for less than many cruise/land tours, she can customize a tour for your family and guarantee you get back to the ship in plenty of time. “And you won’t be walking around in a group of 50 people,” she says.

But even Rome’s most spectacular sites are no match for severe jet lag, we discover. We were supposed to spend four hours touring the Vatican; we last maybe half that. After a much-needed gelato break we make our way back to our apartment located on a tiny cobblestoned street called Via Del Gambero, a short walk from the Spanish Steppes, for a nap.

Later that night, we meet up with Jill Kammer, who with her husband runs the company that rented us our apartment (cheaper and more space than a hotel! Cherubs above our bed!) She and her daughter Ava lead us to dinner in the Trastevere section of Rome across the Tiber River. Once an ancient working-class area, it’s now hip. (If you want to stay here, check out the Hotel Santa Maria.)

At Trattoria da Lucia, which has been here since 1938, a few tables are set out on the cobblestones, and we feast on salad, pasta, and the most tender beef stew and freshest green beans. I never would have been able to find this tiny restaurant on my own. I’m glad we didn’t have to.

The sightseeing battle
The next day, we head to the Coliseum, one of Rome’s top tourist attractions — especially for families. Before hitting a place like this with kids, it helps, of course, if they understand what they are seeing. A book can help too — like “National Geographic Investigates Ancient Rome,” which was published three years ago and will answer a lot of questions that the kids and you will have — like why Rome is called the Eternal City. (The book suggests it goes back to the Emperor Caligula, who ruled from 37 to 41 AD, who wanted to be worshipped as a god.) The book is also small enough to fit in a backpack.

Sometimes sightseeing with kids, especially when it is hot, can feel like a battle too. Flexibility, even when touring great sites, is key. On one trip to Rome with a 13-year-old niece, for example, we left the Forum to go shopping. The Forum will be there in a few years when she will appreciate it, I reasoned. Meanwhile, it wasn’t worth both of us being miserable.

Clemens says, “If you are in the middle of the Coliseum and someone is hungry, go get a gelato!” The idea is to have fun, after all, not torture yourself. Spend time at a playground or park or the hotel pool, if you are lucky enough to have one. (Just Google Rome hotels with pools. I found more than 40. The deluxe Rome Cavalieri, part of the Waldorf Astoria collection, is on a hilltop in a park with a big pool and touts a free shuttle service to Rome’s historic center. Got a soccer ball or a Frisbee?)

We even stop at a cat sanctuary — that’s right — Romans it seems are crazy for cats and several years ago, all of the stray cats were picked up and brought to the Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary, a no-kill shelter for homeless cats (of which Rome has many) set amid ancient Roman Ruins at Largo Argentina.

By the end of the day, we’re so tired from sightseeing — and full from lunch — that we forgo dinner plans for cheese, bread and wine curled up on the couch in “our” apartment.

But we’re leaving Rome tomorrow, I complain, and we didn’t make it through half of my “must-sees.” Even the best itineraries, I realize, need to accommodate kids, no matter what their ages.

Rome's Coliseum is one of the city biggest tourist attractions, especially for families.

Some Christians Believe This Yellowing Linen in N. Italy Was Christ’s Burial Cloth

TURIN, Italy (Reuters) - Thousands of pilgrims and tourists flocked to northern Italy at the weekend for a rare chance to see the Shroud of Turin, the mysterious yellowing linen which some Christians believe was Christ’s burial cloth.

The cloth, which bears the inexplicable image — eerily reversed like a photographic negative — of a crucified man, went on display Saturday evening for the first time in 10 years.

Measuring 4.4 by 1.2 meters (14.5 by 3.9 feet), it shows the back and front of a bearded man with long hair, his arms crossed on his chest, while the entire cloth is marked by what appears to be rivulets of blood from wounds in the wrists, feet and side.

“Looking at the Shroud you think this man on the cross really did live,” said pilgrim Paolo Moroni, who had made the journey from the south of Italy to see the cloth. “This is a man who has been barbarically slain and reduced to a pitiful condition,” he said.

Skeptics argue the Shroud is a medieval hoax, possibly made to attract the profitable pilgrimage business.

Carbon dating tests by laboratories in Oxford, Zurich and Tucson, Arizona in 1988 caused a sensation by dating it from between 1260 and 1390 — implying it was a fake and could not be Christ’s burial cloth.

But scientists have been at a loss to explain how the image was left on the cloth. Most agree it could not have been painted or printed and some have said the 1988 tests may have been faulty and results corrupted by bacteria encrusted over the centuries.

Then last year an Italian scientist reproduced the full-sized Shroud using materials and techniques he said were available in the Middle Ages — a feat that in his view proved definitively that the linen is a fake.

The decision to put the Shroud on display comes at a time when the Catholic Church is enmeshed in sex abuse scandals that have prompted calls for an end to priestly celibacy, a cleanout of the church’s hierarchy, and the resignation of Pope Benedict.

Faithful gather to watch The Holy Shroud, a 14 foot-long linen revered by some as the burial cloth of Jesus, at the Turin cathedral, Italy, Saturday, April 10, 2010. The long linen with the faded image of a bearded man is the object of centuries-old fascination and wonderment, and closely kept under wrap. Starting Saturday, and for six weeks, both the curious and those convinced the Turin Shroud is the burial cloth of Jesus Christ can have a brief look. By late Friday, 1.5 million people had reserved their three-to-five-minute chance to gaze at the cloth, which is kept in a bulletproof, climate-controlled case. Organizers said earlier this year they hoped some 2 million pilgrims and tourists would see the linen during the special viewing from April 10 to May 23.

Europe has it all! Whether you are looking for a historical vacation, a cultural tour, a family getaway, or a culinary adventure, Europe will not disappoint you. It’s rich heritage and culture begets unlimited opportunities for exploration and discovery. For instance, you can begin your tour at Paris, get excited over Shakespeare’s lovers in Verona and cap it with some exciting days in Barcelona.

Any vacation in Europe is incomplete without The United Kingdom, which beckons visitors with the sheer majesty of attractions such as the Buckingham Palace, the Big Ben, Tower of London, London Bridge, and Madame Tussaud’s Museum, just to name a few. But this is just the beginning! From the mountains and lakes of Wales and The Lake District and the grandeur of the Scottish Highlands and Islands,Westward to the Giants causeway and the welcome to be found in Northern Ireland. There is something for everyone in the British Isles.

The castles of Germany and the mansions and vineyards of Saxony will take you on fascinating trip back through the hallowed portals of time. Boy, you’ll marvel at history!  If you’re a nature lover, you can’t miss Switzerland and Austria, which brags some of the most breathtaking landscapes in the world, starting from engaging ski slopes, placid lakes and lush meadows to the culture and history of Zurich and Vienna.

If you’re through with these awe-inspiring panoramas, roll into Italy to bask in the rich cauldron of art, culture and architecture. Browse museums, glance through the symbols of the Roman civilization, and treat yourself to the taste bud sensations. Don’t miss Milan! A Mecca for the fashion buffs, the city invites you with swanky pubs, discos and nightclubs. Sample local wines, drink to your heart’s content and dance your nights away.

Europe doesn’t end here. Spain is another sensation, which is a class apart. You’ll never forget the splendid city of Barcelona, with its impressive waterfront and the stunning art of Picasso.

There’s so much and more to do and see in Europe! Small wonder then that it is one of the most popular vacation spots in the world.

Italy is opening its first national museum for contemporary arts and architecture in a bid to shed its image as merely a keeper of a glorious artistic past.

The ⁈llion ($223 million) Maxxi cultural center opens Saturday, for a limited weekend run before its full-fledged opening in a few months. The museum, located in a residential area of Rome, was designed by Zaha Hadid, the Iraqi-born architect who was the first woman to win the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004.

The Culture Ministry decided to build the museum in 1998, recognizing that the country that produced Giotto, Michelangelo and Bernini — the avant-garde artists of their times — must continue to promote contemporary creativity if it wants to have a cultural heritage in the future.

“It is inconceivable for this very long flow of Italian creativity to be interrupted and do without the promotion and support which, over past centuries, have generally kindled it,” said Pio Baldi, head of the foundation that runs the museum.

The center, officially called the National Museum of the XXI Century Arts, is the latest in a series of cutting-edge architectural projects to be built in the Eternal City, which is better known for its Roman ruins, Baroque basilicas and Renaissance palazzi.

Renzo Piano’s Auditorium opened in 2002, giving Rome its first major-league concert hall. More recently and controversially, Richard Meier’s Ara Pacis museum, which houses a 2,000 year-old altar, opened in 2005. Critics complained the box-like shell was a modern blot in Rome’s historic center — to some, a gas station blocks away from the Spanish Steps.

No such protests befell Hadid’s design, which is located on the grounds of a former military barracks in Rome’s Flaminio neighborhood, far from the cobblestoned streets of the center but close enough to be reached on public transport and near the new concert hall.

Hadid said she intended the space to be an “urban cultural center,” an arts campus with indoor and outdoor exhibition spaces. The building itself — a sleek, windowed box on top of a box — is made of cement walls, steel stairs and a glass roof, giving the galleries a neutral backdrop illuminated by filtered natural light.

“I see Maxxi as an immersive urban environment for the exchange of ideas, feeding the cultural vitality of the city,” she said.

Indeed, the museum is designed to be a research workshop of sorts, not just exhibiting contemporary art and architecture but incorporating contemporary design, fashion, film and advertising in a multidisciplinary cultural center. Hard money training