Stephanie Craig is the History Fan Girl. She has combined her love of history with travel and has been exploring Eastern Europe the last year. She recently visited the breakaway region of Transnistria, which I thought was an interesting place which more people probably need to know about. Here is Stephanie… This story starts with …
Padua is a small city in northeastern Italy that is the antidote to the crazy crowds of Venice. Of course, Padua is much smaller and less well-known than Venice, but she shouldn’t be overlooked. A visit to the city provides an authentic experience of northern Italy in a way that other, larger cities don’t. You’ll …
The farthest points of Northern Ireland are less than 150 miles apart (a mere three-hour drive) making it the perfect road trip destination, with close-knit attractions, lots of scenery and sightseeing, and just plenty of rustic charm in between. At the same time, local bus and train routes conveniently connect almost everywhere of interest, meaning …
During the course of the last two years, I’ve met countless people. Most have been completely forgettable and some have been what Tyler Durden in Fight Club called “single serving friends”. Someone you might talk to for an evening or hangout with for a day and then you and them go your separate ways. At …
The Historic Center of Rome is probably one of the most significant, historical, and impressive world heritage sites in the world. Like the cities of Kyoto, Jerusalem, and Angkor, there is a bevy of incredible sites sprinkled across Rome—and much of Italy for that matter—that could be named world heritage sites on their own right. …
From the World Heritage inscription for the Palau de la Música Catalana and Hospital de Sant Pau, Barcelona: These are two of the finest contributions to Barcelona’s architecture by the Catalan art nouveau architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner. The Palau de la Música Catalana is an exuberant steel-framed structure full of light and space and …
From the World Heritage inscription for the Vizcaya Bridge: Vizcaya Bridge straddles the mouth of the Ibaizabal estuary, west of Bilbao. It was designed by the Basque architect Alberto de Palacio and completed in 1893. The 45-m-high bridge with its span of 160 m, merges 19th-century ironworking traditions with the then-new lightweight technology of twisted …
From the World Heritage inscription for La Lonja de la Seda de Valencia: Built between 1482 and 1533, this group of buildings was originally used for trading in silk (hence its name, the Silk Exchange) and it has always been a center for commerce. It is a masterpiece of late Gothic architecture. The grandiose Sala …
From the World Heritage inscription for the Kew Gardens: Set amongst a series of parks and estates along the River Thames’ south-western reaches, this historic landscape garden includes work by internationally renowned landscape architects Bridgeman, Kent, Chambers, Capability Brown and Nesfield illustrating significant periods in garden design from the 18th to the 20th centuries. The …