It is well covered within this space that we rarely prioritize nature over culture on our travels. Especially whenever exploring a natural wonder veers into could be dangerous territory – such as, for instance, going up an active volcano. My focus in the last decade or so on visiting World…
Ironic detective stories by Joanna Chmielewska used to be fairly popular in the country of our births when we were young. One of them, Dead Man’s Tale (its Russian-language title translates more literally as “What the Deceased Said”), jumps between various locations in Europe with a short but prominent chapter…
Syracuse is geographically closer to Noto than Catania is, but it enjoys a separate World Heritage recognition as an exceptional record of the development of Mediterranean civilization over three millennia. The WH site is actually a three-part collection that includes the archaeological park of Neapolis over a mile northwest of…
The second-largest city in Sicily was even less of a certainty on our itinerary than Palazzolo Acreide. It is part of the same Val di Noto World Heritage site as Ragusa, Noto, Scicli, and since a big city always requires a bigger allocation of time, we initially considered leaving it…
Our original itinerary for Sicily had Palazzolo Acreide as a “probably not”. It does not readily feature on any recommendations. It would not increase my WHS count, being part of the same serial site as Noto, Ragusa, and Scicli. Anyway, it is not inscribed as a whole, with only two…
While Scicli is fairly off the beaten path, Ragusa is a common popular feature on Sicilian itineraries. How can it not be?! Just look at this perspective of a quintessential Sicilian hilltop village. What we see here is Ragusa Ibla – the historic and medieval in topography part of Ragusa.…
Scicli is enough off the beaten track so a fair portion of the WH-focused community considers it a favorite among the towns comprising Val di Noto serial site. It is bright and clean, its compact central area is easy on the eye, and the ratio of locals-to-visitors is higher than…
In the south-eastern part of Sicily, eight towns comprise the World Heritage serial site of Val di Noto, recognized as a great rebuilding achievement in the decades following the devastating earthquake of 1693, which resulted in surpassing examples of Baroque town planning and architecture. It is a varied collection, ranging…
On a business trip – what a concept, no!? – a couple of weeks ago I landed in a part of these United States that I had never been to before. In the Texan capital for less than 2 days, I could carve out an hour and a half in…
Villa Romana del Casale is among the most unique and impressive monuments of antiquity. The very short WH inscription mentions the richness of the mosaics found in practically every room of the villa, and indeed those are altogether remarkable and likely unparalleled among the surviving such artifacts in both quantity…
The archaeological area of Agrigento (also known as “Valley of the Temples”) is inscribed on the World Heritage list in large part for its Doric temples dominating the erstwhile Greek settlement dating from the 6th century BCE. Temple of Concordia is the undeniable primary highlight of the site, and clearly…
The most impressive sight in Palermo is that of its Cathedral. It can be said, with practically no hyperbole, that Cathedral by itself is worth visiting Palermo for. It is an amazingly architecturally diverse structure, with many additions and alterations in a mix of styles having taken place through the…
Quick show of hands – who has Palermo on their must-see-in-your-lifetime list? The capital and largest city of Sicily does not enjoy a highly-recommended status among the travelers (and, like any other place in the South of Italy, is nowhere near the list of most-visited destinations in the country). It…
Restaurant reservations aside, a sunset cruise on a tall boat was the only pre-arranged bit of entertainment on our road trip along the Maine Coast. Late September evenings are already quite cold at those latitudes when you are on open water, but bundling up and taking ample advantage of the…
Continuing from the prior entry, here is another limited selection of pictures from various Maine locales taken during the September trip. Main Street in Camden. View to the Camden Public Library from the green of Harbor Park. The opposite views over Camden Harbor. The tall ships seen in the above…
Our itinerary along the Maine coast was structured as a road trip with a lot of comparatively small stops. There is no particular narrative that lends itself to such an approach. This tranche of visuals represents brief impressions of a quartet of such stops in different parts of the state…
The biggest town on our recent itinerary along the Maine coast hosted us the longest. Not long enough for a proper exploration, but long enough to form a good impression. Old Port and downtown area are full of architectural features of the kind that we always find delightful. Every block…
“Acadia National Park” is probably the more common way to identify the location of Mount Desert Island. It is not without reason, as the national park is a non-contiguous entity with several areas covering large portions of the island (and a couple of other islands as well). Not all of…
Lighthouses are among Maine’s best-known points of interest, and on our recent trip we specifically marked out a few for a visit. With just a couple of exceptions, they all turned out to be true highlights of the trip. Our first stop was the Portland Head Lighthouse. One of the…
If you follow me on Facebook, you know that I participated in a 10-day challenge of a daily impactful travel photo posted without explanation. It turns out that I somewhat disliked the requirement to avoid any narrative. I happen to love talking about my pictures – well represented by my…