Tag Archives: destinations
Kythera, Mediterranean charm at its best
We travel to Kythera where we discover why this relatively small island located just off the southern-eastern tip of Peloponnese is considered one of the few remaining ‘untouched’ Greek islands, as magnificent as they used to be before the tourism invasion. It’s quite like time-travel back to the ’70s-80’s: the villages are still picturesque without ‘Rent Rooms’, ‘cafe-bars’ and ‘souvenirs’ signs, the people are friendly and hospitable, the scenery is unspoiled.
Grazzano Visconti, recent Middle Ages
It looks like perfectly medieval but it is not. Instead, Grazzano Visconti is the first theme park created for tourism purposes in the not-so-distant-past of 1900! It was then when Duke Giuseppe Visconti di Modrone (father of the film director Luchino Visconti who spent here his childhood) decided to construct a neo-medieval village around his castle. His main motivation was to preserve the original atmosphere of an Italian old-time village, that he was feared to be lost because of the industrialization. The ‘villagers’ were coming from neighborhood areas and were paid to continue their traditional professions. The first visitors belonged to the royal court and the Lombard high society.
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On the footsteps of Andy Warhol
We visit the Warhol Family Museum of Modern Art in the artist’s hometown, Medzilaborce, in the far north-east of Slovakia (yes, Warhol was born Andrej Warhola and was of European origin!) and we discover why this massive concrete edifice, built among hills dotted with wooden houses in the country’s backyard could be awarded the title of the most fascinating and unexpectedly surrealistic museum in Europe.