Palermo - Italy

Palermo – Italy

Post published:28 February 2016
Post category:Europe Italy Southern Europe

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Greek Panormos

Finally making a first contact with the largest island in the Mediterranean, Sicily, and Palermo itself, its capital city. A long time desired destination where unfortunately it is rare to find good flight deals at more or less decent flying times. We knew this trip was going to be quite a busy non-stop from one place to another, but definitely well worth it. Furthermore, the more we could visit the better in order to leave plenty of time to reach some of the many other cities and sights in the island for the next trips to Sicily, such as Agrigento, Trapani, Catania, Syracuse, Cefalu, Messina, Taormina. There’s a lot in the island, good enough for 2 weeks travelling and visiting non stop.

With so many sights and that much history everywhere on every corner, it is physically, and literately speaking, impossible to see everything not in just a day, but even a complete weekend will still be too short. You should calculate at least 3 days if you want to fully explore it. Just to give you an idea on how much heritage Palermo houses, many buildings have been listed UNESCO World Heritage sites as part of the “Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalu and Monreale”. This means Italy has the largest number of listings compared to any other country in the world, with the region of Sicily itself topping with the most number of sites.

The Arab-Norman style is something unique in the world and only to be found in Palermo and its nearby metropolitan area cities. This style was born right after the Normans conquered Sicily from the Arabs, destroying the majority of palaces and mosques of the once considered jewel not only in the Mediterranean but Europe itself; and in replacement emerged the new style combining arabesque decorations, Romanesque architecture and Byzantine mosaics, becoming once again a beautiful jewel city proud of its history. (more…)

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Thessaloniki - Greece

Thessaloniki – Greece

Post published:21 February 2016
Post category:Europe Greece Southern Europe

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Thessalonike, half sister of Alexander the Great

Another weekend, and another city not been before. What else can I ask. This travelling bug is now reaching unthinkable levels to the case that since November last year, I’ve spent only one weekend in London without going anywhere, and the next time that will happen might be just the second weekend in April, unless I end up finding another good destination to go. Otherwise it seems it will be June for my next weekend without travelling. 7 months non stop yet I want much more!

Greece, I must admit is one of the greatest “unknown” in my travel bag. With so many hundreds of places to go, and so many beautiful islands, I’ve only been really few places to be honest, comparing to how many more I wish to go. But flying to Greece does not come cheap as other destinations. Well, it can certainly be cheap, but not when looking for precise days such as flying out there on a Friday evening or Saturday morning, returning on Sunday in order to avoid having to book holidays from work.

Thessaloniki is the second largest city in the country after Athens, but through history, it has been capital of many civilizations and empires, to the point of being a city larger in population than London by the 14th century when it was part of the Byzantine Empire. To give you an idea and brief knowledge, since its foundation in 315 BC by King Cassander of Macedon who named it in honor of his wife, Princess Thessalonike, half-sister of Alexander the Great; it has changed hands from Kingdom of Macedon to Rome, Byzantine Empire, Crusader Kingdom of Thessalonica, Despotate of Epirus (known as Empire of Thessalonica), Second Bulgarian Empire, Nicaeam Empire, Republic of Venice and for almost 500 years under Ottoman rule until 1913 with the annexation to Greece. (more…)

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Sintra - Portugal

Sintra – Portugal

Post published:13 February 2016
Post category:Europe Portugal Southern Europe

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Medieval Suntria

Once more like for the past years three years on the row, we returned to the beautiful city of Lisbon to spend the weekend. This time with the intention of spending Saturday for touring the world famous palaces and castles of Sintra, listed by UNESCO World Heritage Site as “Cultural Landscape of Sintra”. And knowing us how special we are when talking about visiting UNESCO sites, this was a must we could not resist. After all, we’ve been to Lisbon before and visited everything so we need new places to go and still enjoy another time what is one of the most beautiful and historical capital cities in Europe.

The distance between Lisbon and Sintra is only 30 kilometres, making it extremely easy and convenient to reach by public transportation. Sintra is, anyway, one of the most visited attractions in the whole of Portugal, with hordes of tourists pretty much all year round, yet thankfully during the winter months you can save you from the rivers of people and enjoy the place more quietly than during high season months. Anyone visiting Portugal on a tour will surely come here as a day trip from Lisbon. But you do not need to be on a guided tour whatsoever, I strongly recommend you to come if you are visiting Lisbon for more than 3 days.

It takes a day to visit all the sites in Sintra, hence why it works great to include it whenever you plan to spend more than 3 days in Lisbon, or if you are a returning traveller to the capital as we are. You could, however, spend more time since the beautiful Atlantic beaches are only 12 kilometres from the centre of Sintra! And what is best, both the city and the beach are connected by a historical tram line that takes around 45 minutes to complete. While if during winter months you can easily take this in consideration, during summer months the vast number of people wanting to do this will turn in hours of queue for the rather infrequent trams. A bus instead, does the very same route, just in case.

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Siena - Italy

Siena – Italy

Post published:7 February 2016
Post category:Europe Italy Southern Europe

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In Legend: Founded by Senius and Aschius, sons of Remus

On the following day of this quick and very busy weekend after being to Cinque Terre, we decided to spend it for visiting Siena. For me this means returning to a city I’ve already visited back in the year 2001 as part of my end of school trip across France and Italy. All I could remember back then, and very briefly, were the beautiful Piazza del Campo with the iconic tower and the cathedral, both of which icons number one in the city. And even knowing this visit right now would also be extremely explicit; it was in fact perfect because it is of small size and for remembering what I’ve already seen so many years ago.

For centuries a rival city of Florence and Pisa, it managed to retain the entire Medieval core in perfect state, nowadays completely restored and imposing to any visitor. The over 7 kilometres encircling fortification walls are still immaculately standing, while the original water tunnels still provide water to the many fountains that embellish the squares and streets. Regretfully, Siena is just a stop-over along the route for majority of tourists, day-trippers, on the same way Pisa is, while Florence in the other hand benefits from the hordes of tourists that stay longer and make that city their preferred choice and base.

In any case, that is correct. A day is well more than enough to see everything, and unless you chose staying overnight in Siena, (or Pisa) rather than the over expensive Florence, then if cost saving is not the reason I cannot imagine any other reason why to stay here longer as you will run out of sights and things to do after the first day. (more…)

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Cinque Terre - Italy

Cinque Terre – Italy

Post published:6 February 2016
Post category:Europe Italy Southern Europe

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The Five Lands

Here we are at the first weekend trip of the year, after a long holiday through Central America, and without counting my quick visit to Madrid some days before as that was not for travelling but to be with my family and friends. And what a beautiful place to start the year, Cinque Terre, So now that it is getting extremely hard to find new appealing flight routes and destinations to go, it appears the weekend trips for 2016 will have to be planned differently; this is, flying somewhere we’ve already been, but to go to the nearby secondary cities and places where you cannot take a direct flight. And of course, there are hundreds of beautiful places still to discover across Europe, with many others always great to return; but from now on, this will have to be plan for most of our future weekend trips.

Starting this trend, a good priced flight to Pisa was then. Not for staying there and re-visit the city I’ve already been twice, but for spending the entire Saturday to visit Cinque Terre at merely 1 hour by train to the first of the villages, Riomaggiore, and the other 4 just a short train ride in between them. Visiting this beautiful region has been on the agenda for quite a while now but always forgotten on behalf of going somewhere else.

The 5 villages form part of the wider Cinque Terre National Park which is in turn, listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO under the name: Portovenere, Cinque Terre, and the Islands (Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto). It is definitely worth to come, see and enjoy the incredible nice landscapes, the rugged coastline and the multicolour ancient and historical villages against the deep blue of the Mediterranean Sea. (more…)

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Pisa - Italy

Pisa – Italy

Post published:6 February 2016
Post category:Europe Italy Southern Europe

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Colonia Iulia Obsequens

The third time in this city, and not the last for now so far. And the reason you might ask? Well, being a great base in the middle of plenty more notorious cities and sites to visit, and a perfect international airport next door to the city centre lowering the cost of the flights to sometimes peanuts. Although it’s now long gone such Ryanair deals where we did pay 1 pence per way per person back in 2009 when we came in a group of 7 friends. Crazy times were these too; and if that’s not enough, that year our plan was in fact visiting Pisa in the morning and Florence in the afternoon, returning at night to Pisa airport for the flight back to London. It was such a summery weather that we enjoyed every moment without feeling any lazy or tired. That’s just an example of possibly a 100 more that fall into the same circumstances during that past years.

With the time all changes of course, and returning to the cities we once saw that quick for a well deserved visit was the key focus on travelling, at the same time that enjoying new places. After all, visiting Pisa will not take you too long due to its reduced size, and reaching the amazing coastal villages of Cinque Terre, Florence, Siena, or San Gimignano are just minute’s away by frequent buses and trains, and so was the aim in the trip planned in February 2016: Cinque Terre and Siena. Now 2 years after and I return to complete what I did not see yet, the masterpiece of San Gimignano, and of course another visit to Florence, thus taking the chance to also properly update the travel guides for Pisa and Florence which I wrote some many years ago and were in much needed state of make-up. But hey! back then I was still new into blogging with just a dozen of guides, while as of today it’s 410 so far for anyone to enjoy and completely free.

So now that you made it to the city, say hi to the other thousands of tourists with the same idea. It’s literally crazy any time between April and October to be here. Absolutely everyone concentrates in the Piazza dei Miracoli where the famous monuments are. You can have a little rest towards the evening when the hordes of tourists on guided tours leave, but the city is more than just this square, and you have the chance to see it for yourself if not being rushed in a tour. The moment you continue to explore around, the streets become empty, just the locals around, and so the more traditional and real restaurants and bars appear.

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Malaga - Spain

Malaga – Spain

Post published:29 November 2015
Post category:Europe Southern Europe Spain

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The Birthplace of Pablo Picasso

Once more returning this beautiful city in southern Spain, which not only gives us the chance to enjoy the city another time and complete the sights we did not see the previous times, but also for enjoying some nice time with our friends from there, and visiting other nearby cities. There is so much you can do in the nearby region than returning to Malaga has become more like a yearly tradition. And what’s best, this won’t be the last time; more for sure to come and especially taking advantage of the low season months where you can grab great flight fares here.

This is also a good chance for revamping this guide about the city that was in fact pretty old and vague since I created back some years ago. I cannot believe how quickly the time have passed anyway. And ever since I started with my travel guides blog project in 2011, I am very proud that I can continue to share with you all and absolutely for free the hundreds of guides already in place.

Malaga is for the great majority of tourists, the entry point to their beach holidays along the southern coast of Spain. After all, this is one of the warmest and sunnier places in Spain, with hundreds of kilometres of sandy beaches along the Mediterranean coast. However, the city is way more than just beach and it’s a great starting point for visiting the world renown cities of Granada with it’s Alhambra, or Cordoba home to the Great Mosque-Cathedral, that you can generally do in day tour, as the many millions of tourists that visit this region do.

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Ronda - Spain

Ronda and Acinipo – Spain

Post published:28 November 2015
Post category:Europe Southern Europe Spain

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Arab: Hisn Ar-Rundah

And yet another weekend in Spain, the 4th in the row, the entire month of November. At the beginning of the year we flew to Gibraltar to be the base for visiting Cordoba and Jerez, while now towards the end of the year we return, to Malaga in this occasion, to be the base for reaching the beautiful and historic city of Ronda. While we’ve already been to Malaga before and been all around the city, this time was different as all we wanted is to spend some time with my friend over there since she moved back to Spain form the UK while enjoying a day out for visiting a place not been before.

Flying to Malaga to be the base for day trips nearby works great. Not only that it is very good located halfway between the many cities worth to see, but will also save you lots of money than if flying for example, directly to Granada or Cordoba. From Malaga either by train or bus you can reach anywhere in Andalusia region, specially with the high-speed trains connecting to Seville and beyond; and if you rent a car as we’ve been doing for the past trips over here, you will get to enjoy more time to yourself and to visit other nice smaller places in between your final destination. Ronda as in this case, is 100 kilometres to the west of Malaga making it an easy trip for the day.

Since Ronda is a small city, and due to its near location to the many holiday resorts by coast, it is mostly visited by day-trippers, either on an organised tour of by themselves. It is not a city where you can spend more time after all, because there is not much more left to do after a few hours. But because of its placement at the top of a mountain and the traditional architecture and beautiful buildings, it is really one of the key destinations in Spain not to be missed that will clearly fascinate any tourist. Also nearby you can find very beautiful traditional villages that you can combine with your trip here, and even enjoy for the evening dinner a stroll along Puerto Banus and Marbella while making your way back to Malaga or any coastal resort. (more…)

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