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.

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.

With the 2010 Winter Olympic Games shifting the world’s attention toward Vancouver, Whistler, and surrounding British Columbia, we thought it apropos to broaden the spotlight to include 10 former Winter Olympic cities that managed to harness the immediate benefits of hosting the Games — international fervor, media publicity, and infrastructure improvements — into enduring tourism appeal.

We chose these classic Winter Olympic wonderlands — which unfolded across Europe, North America, and even Japan after the 1924 debut of the Winter Games in Chamonix, France — not only for their dedication to Olympic-legacy attractions and activities (from Alpine skiing to figure skating to bobsledding), but for their ongoing commitment to cutting-edge tourism developments.

It all adds up to 10 winning winter getaways that promise “perfect 10″ experiences every time.

Be sure to see Sherman Travel’s Top 10 Winter Olympic Cities slideshow, too, for gold-medal-worthy glimpses of these Winter Olympic gems.

Calgary, Canada

Year hosted: 1988

With the five world-class venues built for its Winter Olympic Games still in use over two decades later (like the Olympic Oval, which lays claim to “the world’s fastest ice” for both professional speed skaters-in-training and the ice-skating public), Calgary is determined to ensure that its Olympic legacy isn’t trumped by 2010 in Vancouver.

Cashing in on its neighbor’s current Olympic spotlight, the city has been hosting déjá vu-worthy World Cup events in the months leading up to the big event, with the world’s best warming up in speed skating, freestyle skiing, alpine racing and snowboarding before February’s big showdown.

Recently, Calgary’s Olympic Development Association (recently rebranded as WinSport Canada), started seriously upgrading its venues, sprucing up its superb Nordic tracks in 2005 for the Cross-Country World Cup, and constructing a 22-foot-high half-pipe, which became the model for the one being used at this year’s Vancouver Games.

Canada Olympic Park, 1988’s main arena (also home to the Olympic Hall of Fame Museum), is the best place for bobsledding, downhill skiing, and snowboarding within the city limits, while WinSport Canada is currently pouring $260 million into a huge new sports center which will include a 500,000-square-foot Athletic and Ice Complex featuring four hockey rinks, a public fitness center, and a training facility for high-performance athletes (the project is slated to debut in part in late 2010).

While in town, shed your skis and relax at one of the city’s two newest hotels: laid-back boutique Hotel Alma, which opened in September 2009 on the University of Calgary’s campus (www.hotelalma.ca) or the posh Le Germain (www.germaincalgary.com), set smack dab in the center of downtown.

Taking reservations for stays starting February 12, Le Germain is offering special intro rates from under $200/night.

Chamonix-Mont Blanc, France

Year hosted: 1924

Tucked away in a majestic pocket of the French Alps range, Chamonix-Mont Blanc stands out in a crowd of neighboring resort towns thanks to its picture-perfect pistes, animated après-ski scene, romantic chalets, swanky shops and legendary status as the historic capital of Alpine skiing — not to mention its stint as the site of the the original Winter Olympics, back in 1924.

Set about 135 miles east of Lyon, this charming mountain town’s placement at the crossroads of French, Italian and Swiss borders — and at the foot of Western Europe’s loftiest peak, 15,781-foot-high Mont Blanc — has ensured its status as a mythical multicultural ski mecca.

Adrenaline junkies swarm the mountainsides for Olympic-quality runs, while journeying between them is half the fun with a sophisticated network of ski lifts offering access to belvederes overlooking the surrounding peaks and glaciers, and even on into the Italian Alps.

Winter visitors are likely to catch one of the numerous international winter sports competitions still held here each year, while families can take advantage of an increasing number of family-friendly offerings, including recent additions like a beginner’s ski area (at the summit of the Prarion lift), outdoor ice-skating rink, tree-top canopy adventure park and even an animal reserve (open on Thursdays in winter).

Tourists in 2010 may opt to bed down at budget-friendly, buzzworthy properties like the Hotel du Buet (www.hotelbuet.com), which is celebrating is 120th anniversary this year and is a don’t-miss for its authentic Alpine eatery, or the recently renovated Hotel les Aiglons (www.aiglons.com), with its modern, eco-friendly design and superlative spa.

Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy

Year hosted: 1956

Snuggled deep within the Southern Alps, the “Queen of the Dolomites” had been attracting notable sportsmen for nearly a century before its hosting of the 1956 Games.

But the Olympic spotlight put the resort town on the world map as a glamorous glitterati gathering spot for winter sports (Brigitte Bardot liked to practice curling on the Hotel Miramonti’s icy tracks) — and après-ski (Audrey Hepburn and Sophia Loren were frequent visitors during the famous Dolce Vita era).

Over half a century later, Cortina still retains its posh appeal and competitive spirit, hosting several major sporting events each year, of both the traditional (like the Women’s World Ski Cup) and modern (such as the European Snowboardcross Cup — an approved Olympic sport since 2006) variety.

Ski-mountaineering (a mix between hiking and skiing), winter polo and snow-kite contests are popular activities, but the main draws are the 70 first-rate pistes, with well-groomed cross-country tracks and famous downhill routes (like the Olympic slalom run) through spectacular alpine forests.

2008 debuted a new lift facility connecting most of the valley’s slopes, and in April, Cortina will host the Men’s Curling World Championships, organized in Italy for the very first time, at the recently restored Olympic Ice Stadium.

For overnighting, Cortina’s unique rifugi (traditional mountain huts) offer some of the best dining in the Dolomites and reasonable room rates, while the historic Grand Hotel Savoia (www.grandhotelsavoiacortina.it) unveiled a 5-year overhaul this past December.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany

Year hosted: 1936

Nestled at the base of the Alps’ Mount Zugspitze (Germany’s highest mountain at 9,718 feet), the twin towns of Garmisch and Partenkirchen continue to welcome the world’s top winter athletes at events like the annual New Year’s Ski Jump (held on New Year’s Day).

In 2011, Garmisch-Partenkirchen will set the stage for the Alpine World Ski Championships, and the region (along with Munich and the town of Schönau) hopes to relive its Olympic glory as it bids to host the 2018 Winter Games.

Visitors looking to catch a glimpse of the 1936 Games can check out guided tours of the Olympic ski jump at Mount Gudiberg — originally built in 1923, the jump was replaced with a modernized structure in 2007.

More Olympics memories are on hand at the historic bobsled run at Lake Riessersee; though bobsledders no longer descend the dangerous route, it’s possible to hike up the run and tour a mini-museum of bobsled paraphernalia.

Be on the lookout for the new AlpspiX viewing platform come June — these two curved ramps, suspended 3,300 feet above the Höllental gorge (atop nearby Mount Osterfelderkopf), will offer stunning views of Mount Zugspitze and the chasm below.

Innsbruck, Austria

Years hosted: 1964 and 1976

Picturesque Innsbruck, a surprisingly large and diversion-rich town tucked amid Austria’s Tyrolean Alps, is one of only three cities to have hosted the Winter Olympic Games twice (along with Lake Placid, N.Y. and St. Moritz, Switzerland).

This winter wonderland receives an average of 321 inches of snow per year — even more than Aspen (imagine the shock when the first Games it hosted were threatened by a lack of snow — hardly a usual occurence).

Beyond the 310 miles of powdery pistes in the surrounding mountains, Innsbruck is packed with an impressive wealth of architectural gems, from Baroque to Bauhaus to Zaha Hadid. In addition to designing Innsbruck’s Bergisel Ski Jump, which replaced a run-down Olympics-era jump, Pritzker Prize-winning Hadid has imprinted her fluidly futuristic style onto four stations of a modern funicular railway (opened in 2007) that connects the city’s historic center with the villa-strewn Hungerburg area.

So, what of its former Olympic glory? It certainly won’t fade anytime soon.

While the official Games aren’t due back for a third run in the near future, Innsbruck is hosting the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in 2012. Go now before the teenagers take it over!

Lake Placid, N.Y.

Years hosted: 1932 and 1980

North America’s first Winter Olympic host city, the pretty Adirondacks town of Lake Placid, in northern New York State, provides plenty of winter fun, particularly for active types who can choose between ice fishing, tobogganing, snowshoeing, sledding, ice climbing, snowmobiling and above all, hitting the slopes.

The Olympic-site Whiteface Mountain, situated approximately 8 miles east of town, boasts the highest vertical drop east of the Rockies (at 3,430 feet) and runs as long as 3.5 miles — the unpretentious ski resort debuted its third peak on Lookout Mountain in January 2009.

Off the slopes, Lake Placid visitors can tour Olympic Sports Complex facilities, ride an elevator to the platform of the mind-boggling ski jump, tour the Lake Placid Winter Olympic Museum, or set out for their own Olympic-worthy experiences like ice-skating on the outdoor speed-skating oval, or even zooming down a real-deal bobsled chute.

To cap it off, the town’s shopping, dining and brewery scenes are also first-rate, while hotel newcomers like the High Peaks Resort (www.highpeaksresort.com) and the rebuilt Lake Placid Lodge (www.lakeplacidlodge.com) (both opened in 2008) have layered on the luxury for Lake Placid lodging options.

Lillehammer, Norway

Year hosted: 1994

Though 16 years have passed since Lillehammer played host to the Games, the town still holds fast to the Olympic spirit.

Trace the history of the competition from Ancient Greece to the present day at the Norwegian Olympic Museum, with special exhibits chronicling the 1994 Games and a collective of Norwegian medal-winners.

Or, head to Lillehammer Olympic Park, encompassing five of the venues used for the event, which today are open to visitors for activities like cross-country skiing and tobogganing.

Don’t miss the Olympic Bobsleigh and Luge Track, where up to three thrill-seekers (plus an authorized pilot) can zoom down the original run on a four-man bobsled at speeds of up to 75 mph.

For a taste of downhill glory, the nearby ski resort at Kvitfjell was built specifically for the Lillehammer Olympics’ downhill ski competitions and remains open to the public for runs.

There’s more to Lillehammer than just sports though — the Galleri Zink (opened in 2008) showcases modern art by Norwegian talent, while Aulestad — once the home of Nobel-winning poet, novelist and playright Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson — reopens its historic home, gardens and special exhibitions in May 2010 after a lengthy restoration.

For lodging, check out the StudioH hotel (www.studioh.no): Opened last year by Norway’s 1998 Olympic slalom silver medallist, Ole Kristian Furuseth, it features 48 two-bedroom apartments with ski-in/ski-out access, ski school and rentals, and a bar/café.

St. Moritz, Switzerland

Years hosted: 1928 and 1948

As one of 13 resort towns in the Engadin St. Moritz region of the Swiss Alps, tiny St. Moritz (population 5,100) was a tourist destination long before the Winter Olympics came to town.

Travelers sought out the healing powers of Switzerland’s highest mountain springs and Alpine-moor mud as far back as the Bronze Age, a tradition which continues today at spas like the MTZ Medical Therapy Center (opened in 2002 on the original spa source).

However, 1948 was a turning point for tourism, with much of the town’s infrastructure built in the decade following the hosting of its second round of Games.

Today, Olympics enthusiasts can watch athletes train and compete at the Winter Olympic ski jump or on the St. Moritz-Celerina Olympic bobsled run, or stop by for a peek of the old Olympic Stadium (since converted into the private residence of furniture designer Rolf Sachs).

Skiers and snowboarders might also channel their inner Olympian at the Corviglia ski area; run number 12 was used for the Games.

For luxury lodging, St. Moritz boasts five historic five-star hotels — including the Kulm Hotel (www.kulmhotel-stmoritz.ch), which completed a 10-year, $74 million renovation in December 2008. For a more budget-friendly option, the 21-room Piz (www.piz-stmoritz.ch) hotel opened this winter with high-season rates from under $100/night.

Sapporo, Japan

Year hosted:1972

Japan’s fifth-largest city made history in 1972 when it hosted the country’s first Winter Olympics — and the first ever to be held outside of Europe or North America.

Today, nearly 40 years later, Sapporo sill draws on that Olympic legacy. Japan’s big moment during the Sapporo Games was its ski jump sweep, when the Japanese team took home all three medals for the sport.

The magic happened at the Mount Okura Ski Jump Stadium and the venue still hosts international ski jumping competitions today. To see jumpers in action year-round, visitors can ride a chairlift up to the Observation Platform, set over 900-feet high, for views of the remarkable drop, the city, and the Ishikari Plain.

Adjacent to the stadium is the Sapporo Winter Sports Museum, where visitors can experience all the highlights of the 1972 event and get a (close to) real-life sense of what it feels like to fly through the air and fire a rifle in the museum’s ski-jumping and biathlon simulators.

Plus, with ski slopes only 20 minutes from downtown Sapporo, it’s a cinch to go from city exploring to schussing down powdery chutes.

There are also more than a dozen ski resorts in the surrounding Hokkaido region, nicknamed “Japan’s Last Frontier” for its prevalent farmlands, lakes and forested wilderness; the Sapporo-Teine Highland and Olympic Zone ski areas to the west of the city are where the alpine, bobsled, and luge events were held (they’re open for public skiing these days).

One not-to-miss winter event in Sapporo: the annual Yuki Matsuri (Snow Festival). Sculptors from all over the world come to carve creations from ice and snow, which are illuminated at night; over 2 million visitors come to see their masterpieces (February 5–11, 2010).

Squaw Valley, Calif.

Year hosted: 1960

Consisting of little more than a self-named ski resort with a single chairlift before getting its Winter Olympic bid (there are now 33 of them), Squaw Valley (also known as Olympic Valley or, more fondly, “Squallywood”) is the smallest place to host the Games — and showed the world that sunny California is a ski destination in its own right.

Situated near the North Shore of Lake Tahoe (an hour’s drive from Reno, Nevada), Squaw Valley spreads across six peaks and sees 40-plus feet of snowfall each season (plus 300 or so days of sunshine).

The Olympic cauldron ignited during the 1960 opening ceremony and the 80-foot-tall, Walt Disney-designed “Tower of Nations,” capped with the iconic 8-foot rings, still flank the entrance to the main resort, Squaw Valley USA, which now welcomes upwards of a million visitors each season and is home to the nation’s only funitel (an advanced aerial ski lift consisting of cable cars that whisks visitors up the steep mountainside at 1,000 feet a minute).

The Valley celebrated its 50th anniversary since hosting the Winter Olympics this ski season, offering visitors a chance to bump skis with actual Olympians outside of Vancouver. The festivities were held in January with an event-packed Olympic Heritage Celebration (complete with torch relay and competition reenactments); throughout the season guests can hit the slopes with Olympic gold medalist Jonny Moseley on “Ski with Jonny” days, or hobnob with the U.S. Ski and Snowboarding teams during the Olympic Homecoming Celebration and U.S. Freestyle Nationals (March 26–29, 2010).

Stop for a bite at Squaw Valley USA’s new mid-mountain eateries, the ARC at Gold Coast and 39° North. Debuted in January 2009 and perched at the topmost funitel terminal, the restaurants are constructed from 100-percent sustainable materials (like bamboo and granite dug out from the surrounding mountains) and serve up fresh fare with a California twist (think pheasant soup). Home Security Systems.

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

Italy is one of the most visited tourist countries. There are famous places like Venice, Florence, Siena, Milan, Naples, The Amalfi coast, Capri, the Lake Region, Sicily, Sardinia, the Alps and of course Rome. Famous travel places are the ruins of Pompei, the Capitole, vineyards in Tuscany, Sicily with Mt. Etna, the coastline of the Adriatic Sea or the Alps.

Italy, united in 1861, has significantly contributed to the cultural and social development of the entire Mediterranean area. Many cultures and civilizations have existed there since prehistoric times.

Culturally and linguistically, the origins of Italian history can be traced back to the 9th century BC, when earliest accounts date the presence of Italic tribes in modern central Italy. Linguistically they are divided into Oscans , Umbrians and Latins. Later the Latin culture became dominant, as Rome emerged as dominant city around 350 BC. Other pre-Roman civilizations include Magna Graecia in Southern Italy and the earlier Etruscan civilization, which flourished between 900 and 100 BC in the Center North.

After the Roman Republic and Empire that dominated this part of the world for many centuries came an Italy whose people would make immeasurable contributions to the development of European philosophy, science, and art during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Dominated by city-states for much of’ the medieval and Renaissance period, the Italian peninsula also experienced several foreign dominations. Parts of Italy were annexed to the Spanish, the Austrian and Napoleon’s empire, while the Vatican maintained control over the central part of it, before the Italian Peninsula was eventually liberated and unified amidst much struggle in the 19th and 20th centuries.