San Remo Harbour, Liguria, Italy by Dr. Gert Blazejewski

City of Flowers

San Remo is special for a few very simple reasons. The atmosphere here is pleasant- meaning that you will get accustomed to its fresh food, warm weather, majestic mountains, and Italian ambience rather quickly. San Remo’s favorable climate conditions are part of what make sailing a pastime here. There is plenty of sunshine without much rain, and the wind is quite predictable. The nice weather also means that attractions are open all year so you can enjoy a round of golf or a trip to the outdoor market any month you happen to dock here.

For those who opt to charter a motor yacht instead of a sailing yacht, San Remo will beckon you to get your exercise by experiencing the town on foot. La Pigna is San Remo’s town center, and many of its old treasures are only accessible to pedestrians. The harbor, popular among the luxury yacht set, is the place to go for restaurants with the freshest seafood. Imagine taking in Mediterranean sea views while dining al fresco only to turn around and see mountains stretching up into the sky behind the bay. After the meal on land, you’ll get to return to your private yacht for a nightcap and a good night’s sleep.

Streets in San Remo, Italy by Susana Ferreira Machado

The Music

The other appeal of San Remo is that music is very much alive and appreciated in this town. There is the requisite annual Music Festival, but also, their Symphony Orchestra performs 120 concerts a year! And true to its name, the City of Flowers hosts a Flower Parade that reminds everyone of the town’s most fragrant residents. San Remo not only revels in these simple delights, it also caters to high rollers’ favorite vice: gambling! The casino in San Remo is 100 years old, and the town takes advantage of the building’s cache by hosting the European Poker Tournament every year.

Getting to your private yacht (or planning a meeting place for your guests) should not be too much trouble since the Cote d’Azur Airport serves this area. Trains frequently go between Nice, Genoa, Milan, and the Italian Riviera. Perhaps you can arrange for a boat transfer instead and cross the Med to get to your chartered yacht! Alfred Nobel deemed San Remo the perfect spot for his villa, and he was a pretty smart guy. Why not follow in the footsteps of his legend and head to San Remo where picturesque anchorages are idly waiting for you.

International Yacht Charter Group is the only yacht charter contact you’ll need to make.

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Photo licensed under the Creative Commons, created by Janos Korom Dr.

The largest and most visited monument and landmark of the city is Nitra castle (Nitriansky hrad) built on a rocky hill over the Nitra river. It is a huge building and was the seat of many princes and bishops. Today, visitors can admire its newer form, because it has undergone frequent repairs, the last of which changed its look to a Renaissance-Baroque style. Nitra castle contains of the cathedral, the episcopal residence and a system of fortifications. The interior is full of paintings from the 18th century, there are also the tombs of bishops, marble altar and baptismal font. Nitra Castle is currently the seat of the bishop’s residence and the Archaeological Institute of Slovak Academy of Sciences.

The so-called Lower Town (Dolné mesto) is now a lively center of Nitra. From the Theatre of Andrej Bagar which is located at Svätopluk’s Square leads the pedestrian zone. You can find here also a Romanesque St. Stephen’s Church from the 12th century, the Baroque Piarist monastery and the church of St Ladislav from the 18th century. On the hill in the southern part of the city you can walk up to Nitra’s Calvary and enjoy a nice view of the Old city.

Botanical Garden in Nitra is currently a place of Slovak University of Agriculture and its competence is a research and cultural-educational activities. The garden was founded in 1982 as a facility of the Agricultural University in Nitra. The actual area of ​​the Botanical Garden has an irregular shape in the middle of which is an artificial lake and several walking paths.

It boasts over 6,400 kinds of tropical plants. There are over 2,000 botanical species and 3,000 orchids, which come from all tropical regions of the world.

Besides the major attractions and institutions in the city like Nitra’s Public Gallery, museum of Nitra, Slovak Agricultural Museum, and others, tourists can also visit many places in the neighbourhood. Nitra is also the starting point for the tours around Ponitrie Protected Landscape Area, where is the network of marked hiking trails.

Directly from Nitra you can take the first part of cognitive Zobor pavement with 8 stops with a length of almost 4 km. The trail leads along the ruins of Zobor castle, Svorad’s cave and spring, which proves the presence of St. Svorad in this area.

In almost all parts of Nitra and its surroundings you will find a wide range of accommodation.

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The Butterfly House is the perfect imitation of their natural environment, so they lay eggs here, pupate and turn into caterpillars and eventually became colored beauties, whose wings range can be in some cases up to 30 centimetres.

Butterfly House was built several years ago and now, on 280 m2, it is a home to about four hundred butterflies, that come from special farms in Thailand, Belize, Costa Rica or the Philippines.

Visitors can observe the entire butterfly life cycle. Information boards explaining what they eat, how they develop, or how long they live. The Butterfly House is suitable for both small kids and adults.

Practical Info

The Butterfly House is located in the heart of Vienna’s emperor’s private gardens, about 200 meters from the Vienna Opera. It is open all year round and the basic admission is €5,50. Parking is available at the Opera House.

For more information visit Official site of Butterfly House.

You may need to browse through some Vienna hotels if you would like to stay here and visit other great attractions in Vienna as well, as it is not possible to see all of them in one day.

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The interior of the greenhouse is divided into three separated parts with different temperature and humidity. The visitors can see the vegetation of the tropical and partly subtropical regions. Plants are arranged to evoke the idea of ​​natural plant communities. Unlike in other greenhouses there are numerous species of plants that are very common in the tropical areas and apparently have little significance. However an overall collection of these species is very valuable.

Visitors at first see the dry Australian bush and rare flora from the island of Madagascar. Then walk through xerophilic vegetation of southern Mexico and some areas of Africa, among which the most popular are Namaqualand and Little Karoo. The middle and largest part of the greenhouse is humid lowland rain forest. It is connected to other parts by an underground tunnel which is built between two large freshwater aquariums. Here you can see a number of tropical fish and other animals.

The biggest part consists of tropical plants of South America, and selected locations of Central America. Other parts are reserved for flora of Australia and Oceania, Africa and Madagascar, Vietnam, Sunda Islands and the Philippines. Visitors can watch the life in tropical lakes, or may rest for a moment on the panoramic terrace listening to a nearby waterfall. The last part is cold and evoke the life in the high mountains. There are plants from American Andes. The central part of the exhibition is devoted to rare vegetation of table mountains in Venezuela.

Trip to tropical nature is not only a dream, any more. Walk across exotic mountains, forests and semi-deserts in Europe.

Tropical greenhouse Fata Morgana is a part of Prague’s Botanical Garden in Troja and the basic admission is 70CZK (€3). For further details see the official website of Prague’s Botanical Garden.

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