Cotroceni Museum

Turin is quite a grand city. If you look across the city’s history it starts to make sense. Home to the Duchy of Savoy in 1563 and it was Turin that was Italy’s first capital when it was united into a single country. While it only lasted from 1861 to 1865 the remnants of fortifications,…

The Acropolis (high city) is very much the centre of Athens figuratively and literally. Standing for 2500 years on a rocky outcrop it has endured through the centuries. In more recent years they have opened its own museum which is useful in better understanding the site, its history and the decorative elements that were part…

Opened in 1837 with some 12,00 graves, the First Cemetery of Athens is a peaceful spot in the middle of Athens not far from the ancient Agora. It is seems to contain one of the biggest collections of marble in the city. The graves are certainly large and elaborate. Not far away is the Panathenaic…

the Et’Hem Bey Mosque started construction in the 1790s and was finished around 1820. It was closed of significant period of time under the rule of communism, coming back into use in the 1990s. Liqueni is an artificial lake created in the 1950s. With its leafy forest and great views it makes for a wonderful…

A short half hour train ride away is the small city of Asti. It may be familiar as a wine growing region -both their red wines including Barbera D’Asti as well as their sparkling wines like Asti Spumante. After reading a bit about it, it seemed like an interesting place to visit and pretty easy…

The rain cleared away and under sunny skies the city sparkles. I spent some time on the Buda side of the river exploring the banks of the Danube and some of the historical sites,