Theme Week Tuscany – Carrara

24 January 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  8 minutes

Piazza Alberica with Beatrice Maria d'Este monument © Davide Papalini

Piazza Alberica with Beatrice Maria d’Este monument © Davide Papalini

Carrara is a city and comune in the province of Massa-Carrara, notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some 100 kilometres (62 mi) west-northwest of Florence. Its motto is Fortitudo mea in rota (Latin for “My force is in the wheel”).   read more…

Theme Week Tuscany

23 January 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  9 minutes

Poppi © flickr.com / 74701705@N00

Poppi © flickr.com / 74701705@N00

Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres (8,900 sq mi) and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (Firenze). Tuscany is known for its gorgeous landscapes, its rich artistic legacy and its vast influence on high culture. Tuscany is widely regarded as the true birthplace of the Italian Renaissance, and has been home to some of the most influential people in the history of arts and science, such as Petrarch, Dante, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Amerigo Vespucci, Luca Pacioli and Puccini. Due to this, the region has several museums (such as the Uffizi, the Pitti Palace and the Chianciano Museum of Art). Tuscany has a unique culinary tradition, and is famous for its wines (most famous of which are Chianti, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Morellino di Scansano and Brunello di Montalcino).   read more…

Pink’s Hot Dogs, 72 years in Los Angeles, at the same location

21 January 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Greater Los Angeles Area, Bon appétit Reading Time:  4 minutes

Los Angeles Mayor Hahn and Henry Winkler (the Fonz) © pinkshollywood.com

Los Angeles Mayor Hahn and Henry Winkler (the Fonz) © pinkshollywood.com

Pink’s Hot Dogs is a landmark hot dog restaurant in the Hollywood district of the city of Los Angeles. Pink’s was founded by Paul and Betty Pink in 1939 as a pushcart near the corner of La Brea and Melrose. The Great Depression was still having an impact on the country, and money was scarce. People could purchase a chili dog made with Betty’s own chili recipe accompanied by mustard and onions on a steamed bun for 10 cents each. As business grew, thanks to Betty’s chili and the custom-made Hoffy-brand hot dogs with their natural casings, so did Pink’s. The family built the current building in 1946 at 709 North La Brea.   read more…

Cardiff, capital of Wales

20 January 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

City Hall © Yummifruitbat / Ham

City Hall © Yummifruitbat / Ham

Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales’ chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for Wales. The unitary authority area’s mid 2010 population was estimated to be 341,054. Cardiff is a significant tourism centre and the most popular visitor destination in Wales with 18.3 million visitors in 2010. In 2011, Cardiff was ranked 6th in the world in National Geographic’s alternative tourist destinations.   read more…

Zaragoza, capital of Aragon

19 January 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  7 minutes

Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar © flickr.com - Paulo Brandao

Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar © flickr.com – Paulo Brandao

Zaragoza, also called Saragossa in English, is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It is situated on the Ebro river and its tributaries, the Huerva and Gállego, near the centre of the region, in a valley with a variety of landscapes, ranging from desert (Los Monegros) to thick forest, meadows and mountains.   read more…

The Hanseatic city of Rostock

18 January 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  9 minutes

City Harbor Panorama © Lauchi

City Harbor Panorama © Lauchi

Rostock is the largest city in the north German state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Rostock is located on the Warnow river; the quarter of Warnemünde 12 km north of the city centre lies directly on the coast of the Baltic Sea.   read more…

The Autostadt in Wolfsburg

18 January 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

Customer Centre and Car Towers © Mokka

Customer Centre and Car Towers © Mokka

The Autostadt is a visitor attraction adjacent to the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg with a prime focus on automobiles. It features a museum, feature pavilions for the principal automobile brands in the Volkswagen Group, a customer centre where customers can pick up new cars, and take a tour through the enormous factory, a guide to the evolution of roads, and cinema in a large sphere. It is also home to the largest glass doors in the world and the longest printed line. The line starts from outside Wolfsburg and travels through Autostadt to a point on a farm. It is about 4 miles (6.4 km) long.   read more…

Velden am Wörther See

17 January 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Velden Castle © Johann Jaritz

Velden Castle © Johann Jaritz

Velden am Wörthersee is a market town in the district of Villach-Land in the Austrian state of Carinthia. Situated at the western shore of the Wörthersee lake it is one of the most popular holiday resorts of Austria.   read more…

Cape Verde

16 January 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Mindelo, Baía do Porto Grande and Monte Cara © ElsondeMadrid

Mindelo, Baía do Porto Grande and Monte Cara © ElsondeMadrid

The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa. The islands, covering a combined area of slightly over 4,000 square kilometres (1,500 sq mi), are of volcanic origin and while three of them (Sal, Boa Vista and Maio) are fairly flat, sandy and dry, the remaining ones are generally rockier and have more vegetation. However, because of the infrequent occurrence of rainfall the overall landscape is not particularly green, despite what the country’s name suggests (verde is Portuguese for “green”). The name of the country stems instead from the nearby Cap Vert, on the Senegalese coast, which in its turn was originally named “Cabo Verde” when it was sighted by Portuguese explorers in 1444, a few years before the islands were discovered.   read more…

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