Paestum, Velia and Padula - Italy

Paestum, Velia and Padula – Italy

Post published:14 May 2016
Post category:Europe Italy Southern Europe

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Magna Graecia

I can call this trip another of the great life travelling achievements for reaching this spectacular once in a lifetime site (well, or twice or more I don’t mind to return in the future). Magnificent Paestum and various other great archaeological sites. With this trip it’s been already quite a few places this year we’ve manage to come to very much desired places and quite off the usual path, far from main cities and even airports hence why that complicated to reach them and why we kept postponing on behalf of other “easier” destinations. But now with so many places across Europe already been, it’s time to continue this trend in planning this sort of exciting destinations.

Returning to Naples in any case is always great on its own!. So much to do not only in the city but around the impressively rich region, that even though this is the 3rd time we come here, we still need to plan future trips to Naples and continue exploring the hidden gems. The beauty of the Amalfi and Sorrento coastline for example it’s worth an entire weekend and not just a day. With so many idyllic villages perched from the hills and cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean it is guaranteed to keep you busy all the time. Then the island of Capri off the coast from Naples is another trip on itself. Yes, certainly we will be back; as soon I can find a good deal at the perfect flight times when it is also nice weather.

Although this is not a guide about Naples, I must still write about the best pizzas in the whole of Italy. Do not look anywhere else, those are here in Naples. No matter that we spent today well outside of the city (and so the following day), it was our base where our hotel was and therefore could enjoy once more pizza and a bit of the thriving nightlife. (more…)

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Volubilis - Morocco

Volubilis – Morocco

Post published:3 May 2016
Post category:Africa Morocco

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Southwesternmost post of the Roman Empire

One last and quick stopover in this very busy trip so far for visiting the impressive Roman ruins of Volubilis, few kilometres north of the city of Meknes. This fascinating ancient city, the capital of the Kingdom of Mauritania back in the days and on the very western edge of the Roman Empire was the perfect way to finish this trip around this region of Morocco where we’ve visited Casablanca, Rabat, Fez and Meknes; and should you have the chance if you are visiting nearby Fez and Meknes, do not hesitate in including Volubilis in your plans, you will nor regret.

The archaeological park is been listed an UNESCO World Heritage Site for its importance and level of preservation of many of its fine constructions, specially the mosaics of the wealthy villas. In the other hand, do not expect grand constructions as theatres, coliseum and the likes. The city was abandoned for many centuries, and devastated by an earthquake in the 18th century, while right afterwards, many of its fallen structures were used as quarry to build the Imperial City of Meknes.

Nevertheless, what you currently have there to see is already fascinating, even though it is just a portion of what still remains covered awaiting for future excavations. And since it is a short drive from Meknes, makes it perfect to combine both cities on a day. Visiting this site generally takes 2.5 hours considering the drive there both ways, and around 1.5 hours on the site. It is physically impossible to spend more time as there is nothing else. Once you walk through all that’s it. (more…)

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Meknes - Morocco

Meknes – Morocco

Post published:2 May 2016
Post category:Africa Morocco

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City of a hundred Minarets

Next along this busy tour, right after visiting the city of Fez; and I say briefly since there is so much to see and do that less than a full day was definitely not enough, but we did not really have the time as we wanted to pack as much as we could in this trip; we made the move to Meknes. Another of the four Imperial Cities of Morocco, and the last one for us to visit after having been to Marrakesh 3 years ago, and Rabat and Fez in this trip. And what can I say! I cannot find any other words than another beautiful city, packed with history on every corner, yet again inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage Site list.

Coming from Fez was straightforward. Not only both cities are very near each other, they are extremely well connected by frequent buses and trains. For us getting the train was the easiest option, as we’ve been doing everywhere in this trip to Morocco between the other cities we’ve visited, and furthermore knowing that the hotels we’ve selected in this trip were all really near the train stations.

Once there we knew this would be a quite rushy visit, even though we stayed for the night. Lucky for us the day light was extremely long. With summer time and so much south, it was great to count with that extra hours that came very handy. In any case, the city can easily be visited in less than a day. After all, what we really wanted at this point is covering as many of the important sights through the Medina and main squares, not the ones off-the-path. And after two large Medinas back in Fez and long walk, here in Meknes the Medina is very small in comparison, with only 20 minutes from the south to the north gates (if not stopping along the way).

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Fez - Morocco

Fez – Morocco

Post published:2 May 2016
Post category:Africa Morocco

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Athens of Africa

Continuing our busy trip after leaving Rabat the night before, today we spared for actually visiting 2 cities: Fez and Meknes. The remaining 2 of the 4 Imperial Cities of Morocco after Rabat, and Marrakesh that we visited 3 years back, and both UNESCO World Heritage listed with their astonishing Medina. With it, we complete what was once of our wishes to visit in Morocco, and definitely can openly say how beautiful and wonderful this country is and how much more it has to offer on every corner.

Fez has in fact two Medina! One of them believed to be the largest pedestrian urban zone in the world. Said that as you can imagine, expect plenty of sights all over. It is not only the Medina, but the many ancient riads, palaces and madrasas. And home to the oldest continuously functioning university in the world. With so much packed history, it is no wonder why it become added to the listing of UNESCO. Too much for sparing just a little over half a day since we had to leave to Meknes in the late afternoon to continue with our very busy tour. Luckily (for us), Fez is an easy city to fly into from London and many European cities, with many airlines serving the city, hence there is no doubt we will return and enjoy the city once more with a much better timing.

The city preserves pretty much intact majority of the buildings since its foundation in 789, many of them enlarged and further embellished through the pass of the centuries, to the point of having the best preserved old city in the whole of the Arab world.

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Rabat - Morocco

Rabat – Morocco

Post published:1 May 2016
Post category:Africa Morocco

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One of the four Imperial Cities of Morocco

Following a nice visit to Casablanca the day before, we came to the next city on this short tour around few cities in the area, following the once known “Imperial Cities” of Morocco: Rabat, Marrakesh, Meknes and Fez, all of which, UNESCO World Heritage sites. Having visited Marrakesh some years back, the remaining three cities were part of this tour since all of them are located very near each other and extremely well connected with each other. With an incredible busy agenda and such a short time overall, we planned to came to Rabat the night before in order to have the most of today before leaving later in the evening towards Fez, the farthest destination on this tour.

Rabat was made the capital city of Morocco upon the French invasion in 1912, moving it from Fez, and still after the colonial rule ended, it was decided for Rabat to remain as such the capital because of its great location right by the Atlantic coast and because of it being a “new city”, with wide avenues created by the French, space, order and everything built and on place. But even though Rabat is considered a “new city”, it does have an amazing historic quarter with a greatly preserved ancient Medina; a complete fortress citadel, the enormous Royal Palace, the historic site of the Mausoleum of Mohammed V and the ancient city of Chellah; all of it listed by UNESCO as World Heritage Site under the name of: Rabat, Modern Capital and Historic City.

With so much to do and see, a day was too short for us, yet just enough to visit all the major and important places I list below in the guide. I would recommend in any case at least 2 days to visit in full without rush; perfectly done in a weekend, or in combination with Casablanca. (more…)

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La Rioja - Spain

La Rioja – Spain

Post published:24 April 2016
Post category:Europe Southern Europe Spain

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Birthplace of Castilian and Basque languages

Another weekend, and another excitement for getting to new places never been before, with the addition of those being in Spain, at the world renown region of La Rioja, from where some of the world’s best wines are produced. Spain might not look like a huge country, but it’s big, with each of the 17 autonomous regions very clearly defined with their own traditions, culinary and even architecture. And for me as Spanish that I am, it’s been so far impossible to be on every capital of province nor every region. That’s good news anyway as it means there are many trips to Spain to look ahead in the coming years.

Logroño is the capital of the autonomous region of La Rioja. A very small city which does not require any longer than half a day to visit in full, but the perfect base in order to visit some of the most famous wineries in the world. Not only for their exceptional wines, but for their incredible breathtaking 21st century architecture blending with the ancient buildings. More and more is this trend of getting a top architect to create a new masterpiece, and the “wine route” is nowadays both ways: for the wine lovers itself, and for the architecture lovers.

This was our main point on this weekend where apart of visiting the city, we also managed to go to the top 4 wineries, each of them by an incredible architect. It is sadly to mention here the death of one of the architects just few days before, Zaha Hadid. Her pavillion added onto the historical buildings of the Bodegas Lopez de Heredia in the village of Haro is one of the most delicate I’ve ever seen. (more…)

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Parma - Italy

Parma – Italy

Post published:17 April 2016
Post category:Europe Italy Southern Europe

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Byzantine Chrysopolis: The Golden City

After a busy program the day before visiting the cities of Ravenna and Ferrara, today was more quiet for a smaller city, and mostly because we could not count with the entire day since we needed to return to Bologna airport in the afternoon to get the flight back to London. In any case, another weekend and another success with the plan we had in mind that worked very good and now we can cross another three cities in one go off the list.

While the city is known for its beautiful monuments across a nicely preserved medieval core, when we think of Parma, we have in mind something else of course. First, the indisputable Parma Ham, one of the top delicacies in the whole of Italy itself comes from this region; and the Parmigiano-Reggiano, the true Parmesan cheese. But it is not only about these 2 delicacies, it is for the large amount of restaurants serving some of the best dishes we’ve ever had in Italy, all of which non expensive, nor touristy places. only for its food and a relaxing sightseeing walk through the city it was a very worthy day what we planned.

To visit the city, half a day is more than enough. It is not big and the historical core is very compact with all the sights at walking distance from each other hence no need to plan longer. For us coming here after breakfast from Bologna, 100 kilometres east, and leaving back to Bologna after 15.00pm in good time to make it to the airport was well enough; otherwise any longer as an entire day and you will end up without places to visit. (more…)

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Ferrara - Italy

Ferrara – Italy

Post published:16 April 2016
Post category:Europe Italy Southern Europe

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City of the Renaissance

Continuing our tour for today after visiting the city of Ravenna and at only 70 kilometres to the north we arrived in Ferrara. Another jewel city in Italy, and UNESCO World Heritage Site listed as: “City of the Renaissance, and its Po Delta”. While Ravenna, although of the same size as Ferrara in population number it seemed smaller, and with the fact of having less to see bearing its 8 UNESCO buildings, here in Ferrara you will need to plan a bit more time to be able to visit all the sights since the city is more grand and with many more elegant streets and buildings all around.

Ferrara is also an important tourist centre, where majority of visitors are day-trippers from “nearby” touristy-on-mass Venice or Bologna with Modena and Parma. It is a very worthy city to visit and with the more and more trips we are continuously doing where we are “running out” of destinations it is great to see how many hundreds of secondary cities are all over across Europe still to visit; so this will still keep us going for some years.

The good side of smaller cities like Ferrara, yet packed with history and sights, is that you won’t need long time for visiting it as opposed to larger cities where you will need minimum the entire weekend. This was for us already the second city we visit today after Ravenna, and I can ensure you there was good time for both cities without rush; but what made the difference in saving us a lot of time commuting between the cities was having a rental car. It is anyway possible to do the same by train or bus Bologna to Ravenna, Ravenna to Ferrara, and back from Ferrara to Bologna in the night if your base is there as was our case and all in one day. (more…)

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