The spires of Drottningholm Palace rise elegantly above the manicured hedges of its French-style gardens, reflected perfectly in the still waters of Lake Mälaren. This is the private residence of the Swedish royal family, a living palace where the King and Queen have made their home since 1981, yet large sections are open to the […]
The Tanum rock carvings are one of the world’s most extraordinary prehistoric art sites, a UNESCO World heritage collection of over 1,500 Bronze Age petroglyphs etched into the glacially smoothed granite bedrock of western Sweden. Dating back 3,000 years or more, these remarkable carvings depict warriors, ships, animals, hunting scenes, and mysterious rituals that offer […]
Ischia and Procida are the two often-overlooked gems of the Bay of Naples, Ischia, the thermal spa island of volcanic origins with its dramatic Aragonese Castle rising from the sea, and Procida, a tiny, impossibly colourful fishing island that was Italy’s Capital of Culture in 2022 and remains one of the most authentically beautiful places […]
Mount Vesuvius (Monte Vesuvio) is the most famous volcano in the world, the brooding 1,281-metre giant looming over the Bay of Naples whose catastrophic eruption in AD 79 buried the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in metres of ash and pumice, preserving them in extraordinary detail for nearly two millennia and creating one of […]
Categories: Cities, Italy, Mountains, Nature, Nature, Rome, Sights
The Abbey of San Galgano is one of Italy’s most atmospheric and romantic ruins, a roofless Gothic Cistercian abbey in the Tuscan countryside near Siena, whose soaring walls and empty window arches frame nothing but sky, and whose nearest hilltop hermitage houses the legendary Sword in the Stone, Italy’s own Excalibur. Abandoned in the 18th […]
Categories: Cities, Italy, Religious Monuments, Sights, Sights
Bovški Gamsovec is one of Slovenia’s best-kept mountain secrets, a spectacular viewpoint at 2,392 metres in the heart of the Julian Alps that delivers an uninterrupted, jaw-dropping panorama of Mount Triglav, Slovenia’s highest peak and national symbol. Far less crowded than the better-known Triglav summit routes, Bovški Gamsovec offers experienced hikers a chance to stand […]
Kmeťov vodopád (Kmeť’s Waterfall) is the highest waterfall in Slovakia, a spectacular 80-metre cascade in the remote Kôprova Valley (Kôprová dolina) of the High Tatras, plunging down a near-vertical granite wall in one of the Tatra National Park’s most pristine and less-visited valleys. Named after the Slovak botanist and ethnographer Andrej Kmeť, this waterfall is […]
Categories: Nature, Nature, Slovakia, Waterfalls
Dumme Mosse is one of southern Sweden’s largest and most important wetlands, a vast nature reserve of peat bogs, marshes, and shallow lakes in Småland that is a critical habitat for migratory birds, including cranes that gather here in their thousands during the spring migration, creating one of Sweden’s most spectacular wildlife spectacles. The reserve, […]
