Theme Week Umbria – Castiglione del Lago

19 February 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Castiglione del Lago and Lake Trasimeno Panorama © Adrian Michael/cc-by-sa-3.0

Castiglione del Lago and Lake Trasimeno Panorama © Adrian Michael/cc-by-sa-3.0

Castiglione del Lago is a town in the Province of Perugia in central Italy, on the southwest corner of Lake Trasimeno. Orvieto is 59 km (37 mi) south, Chiusi is 21 km (13 mi) to the south west, Arezzo is 56 km (35 mi) to the north west, Cortona is 21 km (13 mi) to the north and Perugia is 47 km (29 mi) to the south east. The Association The most beautiful villages in Italy (I borghi più belli d’Italia) gave the town the title of the same name.   read more…

The British Museum

19 February 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, London, Museums, Exhibitions Reading Time:  7 minutes

© Ham/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Ham/cc-by-sa-3.0

The British Museum is a museum in London dedicated to human history and culture. Its permanent collection, numbering some 8 million works, is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence and originates from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present. The British Museum was established in 1753, largely based on the collections of the physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane. The museum first opened to the public on 15 January 1759 in Montagu House in Bloomsbury, on the site of the current museum building. Its expansion over the following two and a half centuries was largely a result of an expanding British colonial footprint and has resulted in the creation of several branch institutions, the first being the British Museum (Natural History) in South Kensington in 1887. Some objects in the collection, most notably the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon, are the objects of intense controversy and of calls for restitution to their countries of origin.   read more…

Theme Week Umbria – Todi

18 February 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

© Hans Peter Schaefer

© Hans Peter Schaefer

Todi is a town and comune (municipality) of the province of Perugia in central Italy. It is perched on a tall two-crested hill overlooking the east bank of the river Tiber, with distant views in every direction. Todi is a member city of the Cittaslow movement.   read more…

Theme Week Umbria

17 February 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks Reading Time:  5 minutes

Pietralunga © Sauro Bartocci/cc-by-sa-3.0

Pietralunga © Sauro Bartocci/cc-by-sa-3.0

Umbria is a region of historic and modern central Italy. It is the only region having neither a coastline nor a common border with other countries; however, the region includes the Lake Trasimeno and is crossed by the River Tiber. The regional capital is Perugia. Umbria is appreciated for its landscapes, traditions, history, artistic legacy and influence on high culture.   read more…

The Erzgebirge in Ore Mountains

15 February 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  9 minutes

Weather Station on Fichtelberg © Wikijunkie/cc-by-sa-3.0

Weather Station on Fichtelberg © Wikijunkie/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Ore Mountains in Central Europe have formed a natural border between Saxony and Bohemia for many centuries. Today, the border between Germany and the Czech Republic runs just north of the main crest of the mountain range. The highest peaks are the Klínovec and the Fichtelberg. The area played an important role as the setting of the earliest stages of the early modern transformation of mining and metallurgy from a craft to a large-scale industry, a process that preceded and enabled the later Industrial Revolution.   read more…

Taipei, capital of Taiwan

15 February 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

Office of the President © Jiang

Office of the President © Jiang

Taipei, officially known as Taipei City, is the capital of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of Taiwan, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River; it is about 25 km (16 mi) southwest of Keelung, a port city on the Pacific Ocean. It lies in the Taipei Basin, an ancient lakebed bounded by the two relatively narrow valleys of the Keelung and Xindian rivers, which join to form the Tamsui River along the city’s western border. The city proper is home to an estimated 2,619,000 people. Taipei, New Taipei, and Keelung together form the Taipei–Keelung metropolitan area with a population of 6,900,000. They are administered under three municipal governing bodies. “Taipei” sometimes refers to the whole metropolitan area, while “Taipei City” refers to the city proper. Taipei City proper is surrounded on all sides by New Taipei.   read more…

Almería in Andalusia

13 February 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

© Gernot Keller - www.gernot-keller.com/cc-by-sa-2.5

© Gernot Keller – www.gernot-keller.com/cc-by-sa-2.5

Almería is a city in Andalusia, situated in the southeast of Spain on the Mediterranean Sea. It is the capital of the province of the same name. Almería originated with the need for a better defence system that the Arab towns in the area had. It was Abd-al-Rahman III who founded the Alcazaba (the Citadel), which gave this city its name: Al-Mariy-yat (the Watchtower).   read more…

Theme Week Abu Dhabi – Capital Gate, the Leaning Tower of Abu Dhabi

12 February 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  4 minutes

Capital Gate, July 2012 © FritzDaCat/cc-by-sa-3.0

Capital Gate, July 2012 © FritzDaCat/cc-by-sa-3.0

Capital Gate is a skyscraper in Abu Dhabi adjacent to the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre designed with a striking lean. At 160 m (520 ft) and 35 stories, it is one of the tallest buildings in the city and features an 18° incline to the west. The owner and developer of Capital Gate is Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company. The tower (also known as the Leaning Tower of Abu Dhabi) is the focal point of the Capital Center/Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre master development.   read more…

Portrait: Adam Smith, the father of modern economics

8 February 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Portrait Reading Time:  18 minutes

19th-century building at the location where Adam Smith lived (1767-1776) and wrote "The Wealth of Nations" © Kilnburn

19th-century building at the location where Adam Smith lived (1767-1776) and wrote “The Wealth of Nations” © Kilnburn

Adam Smith was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of political economy from Kirkcaldy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is best known for two classic works: The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). The latter, usually abbreviated as The Wealth of Nations, is considered his magnum opus and the first modern work of economics. Smith is cited as the “father of modern economics” and is still among the most influential thinkers in the field of economics today.   read more…

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