Europa attraksjoner

Some of the finest gems of Western architecture are clustered on Pisa’s Piazza dei Miracoli, known locally as Piazza del Duomo.

Your first sight of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Duomo and the Baptistery is literally breathtaking, their white marble shining in the sunshine on a bed of emerald green lawn against a summer’s blue sky.

Apart from the glorious architecture – white, red and green marble, Romanesque curves, Tuscan arches and Gothic points – it’s the almost surreal spatial quality of the buildings that creates a sensation.

Come here during the day to see the buildings’ white marble shine in the sunlight, and return again at night when visitors are fewer and the buildings are beautifully floodlit.

The museum displays France's national collection of paintings, sculptures, objets d'art produced between 1848 and 1914, including the fruits of the Impressionist, Post Impressionist, and Art Nouveau movements.

The Museum fills the chronological gap between the Louvre and the Musée National d'Art Moderne at the Centre Pompidou. Austerely housed along the Seine in a former railway station built in 1900, it was re-inaugurated in its present form in 1986. Upstairs the grand salon still dazzles and there is an elegant tearoom and restaurant with a good view over the river.

Den blå lagune er et unikt under på Island, og et resultat av den vulkanske aktiviteten som den lille øya er så berømt for.

Midt i den merkelige og vidunderlige engen med flat og svart lava i nasjonalparken Svartsengi finner du den enorme utendørslagunen fylt av naturlig oppvarmet geotermisk vann som kommer opp fra 2000 meter under jordens overflate.

Vannet er fult av mineraler, silisiumdioksid og alger og er spesielt bra for huden og for avslapning.

Faktisk er deler av den blå lagune en helseklinikk som spesialiserer seg på kurer mot psoriasis.

Vannet er oppsiktsvekkende blått, og det hvite i silisiumdioksiden på svarte lavasteiner rundt kantene gir en spektakulær kontrast.

Den blå lagune tilbyr massasjebehandlinger i vannet og har badstuer og dampbad og en kafé, i tillegg til at du kan svømme i bassenget.

Until 1797, the Doges ruled the Venetian Empire and the Palazzo Ducale was where they ruled from. It was one of the first things those arriving in Venice saw as their ships sailed through the lagoon and landed at Saint Mark's Square. The Doges lived here and the government offices were also in this building. Justice was meted out here and the Golden Book, listing all the important families of Venice, was housed here. No one whose family was not in the Golden Book would ever be made Doge. It was an extremely political process ruling Venice and residents could accuse others of wrong doing by anonymously slipping a note into the Mouth of Truth.

Inside the palace is wonderful art (paintings by Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese), majestic staircases, the Doge's apartments, the government chambers, the prison cells and the Bridge of Sighs. Outside, along the piazzetta, each column is different.

The Pantheon in Rome is a remarkable building architecturally. Basically a cylinder with the floating dome on top of columns, it is the largest masonry vault ever built. In the center of this dome is a hole bringing in a shaft of light to show the beauty of this building and its relatively simple, open interior. Being inside the Pantheon feels very special.

Originally built in 27 BC and rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian in 120 AD, the temple has been damaged and plundered over time. In 609 AD it became a Christian church dedicated to the Madonna. In the 17th century some of its bronze ceiling was taken and melted down for use in St Peter's Basilica. Important figures such as King Victor Emmanuel II and the artist Raphael are buried in the Pantheon.

One of the symbols of Porto is the Torre dos Clerigos, the bell tower adjoining the Clerigos Church, a baroque church built between 1732 and 1750. The church was one of the first Baroque churches in Portugal. Its Baroque adornments reflect the city’s seaside way of life, as its façade is carved with shells and garlands.

More iconic than the church however, is its bell tower. Standing at 75 m (245 ft) high, the tower offers an amazing, panoramic view of the city, the Duoro River and the Atlantic coast. Completed in 1763, this granite tower is based upon a Roman Baroque design scheme coupled with an unmistakably Tuscan bell tower design; visitors familiar with Italian architecture will be delighted to see a decidedly Roman Baroque masterpiece towering over a Portuguese port. Once you’ve ascended the 225 steps and reached the top of the sixth floor, the Torre dos Clerigos, you’ll be able to see the whole city.

There is no shortage of “David” statues in Florence, but if you want to see the real thing—the one that inspired all the copies—you've got to go to the Galleria dell'Accademia, or Accademia Gallery. It was custom built to showcase Michelangelo's masterpiece, and it does so beautifully.

Michelangelo's “David” was carved from 1501 to 1504 and originally stood at the entrance of the Palazzo Vecchio on the Piazza della Signoria. Not long after the statue was unveiled, a particularly rowdy fight taking place in the Palazzo led to a chair getting thrown out of a window—directly onto the David's arm, which broke in three places. The statue was moved to its present home in 1873 to further protect it from damage, and a replica was placed outside the Palazzo Vecchio in the spot where the original first stood.

The marble Michelangelo was given to work with for this statue was imperfect and had already been partly carved by his predecessor.

Portugal's caravels sailed off to conquer the great unknown from Belém, and today this leafy riverside precinct is a giant monument to the nation's Age of Discoveries. Belém Tower, or Torre de Belém, the much-photographed symbol of Portugal's maritime glory, is a stone fortress on the bank of the river Tagus dating from 1514 - 19. You can climb the tower, and look into the dungeons from when it was a military prison. UNESCO have listed it as a World Heritage Site.

The imposing limestone Monument to the Discoveries, also facing the river nearby, is shaped like a caravel and features key players from the era. If you have time, look around the Centro Cultural de Belém, one of Lisbon's main cultural venues, which houses the Museu do Design, a collection of 20th century mind-bogglers.

A designated Jewish Quarter from the 16th to the 18th century, Venice’s Campo del Ghetto gave us the word ‘ghetto.’ ‘Gheto’ in Venetian translates to ‘foundry,’ referring to an island of Venice that Jewish citizens were once confined to. The Venetian Republic decreed that Jews could enter Venice during the day, but on Christian holidays and during the evenings had to stay within the ghetto.

Interestingly, the area is divided into the Ghetto Nuovo (New Ghetto), and the adjacent Ghetto Vecchio (Old Ghetto), though the Ghetto Nuovo is actually the older of the two. Jews from all over Europe lived in the neighborhood — in fact, each of the different synagogues was historically designated by origin (German, Italian, Spanish, etc.) Today the Campo del Ghetto is still the center of Venetian Jewish life. There is a Jewish museum, cemetery, two Kosher restaurants and five synagogues which remain mostly in their original form.

Cannaregio is the northernmost of the six districts of central Venice. It is also the largest and most populated of all the districts. This district is home to the Venetian Ghetto, the world's oldest Jewish Ghetto, established in 1516. Since the people in this area were forbidden to expand outwards, they were forced to expand upwards. As a result, you'll find uncharacteristically tall buildings in this part of Venice. Remains of old buildings and memorials stand as a remembrance of the struggle the Jewish people in Venice once had to endure.

Cannaregio Canal, where water buses called vaporetto run, cuts through the district, and the Santa Lucia train station is also located here. You'll also find many historic churches in Cannaregio. On the busy main street, Strada Nuova, you'll find plenty of souvenir shops and tourists. But it doesn't take long to find a quiet piazza in this neighborhood.

Vasco da Gama's discovery of a sea route to India inspired the glorious Monastery of St. Jerome or Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, a UNESCO World Heritage site with an architectural exuberance that trumpets 'navigational triumph.' Work began around 1501, following a Gothic design by architect Diogo de Boitaca, considered a Manueline originator. After his death in 1517, building resumed with a Renaissance flavor under Spaniard João de Castilho and, later, with classical overtones under Diogo de Torralva and Jérome de Rouen (Jerónimo de Ruão). The monastery was completed in 1541, a riverside masterpiece - the waters have since receded.

The monastery was populated with monks of the Order of St. Jerome, whose spiritual job for about four centuries was to give comfort and guidance to sailors - and to pray for the king's soul. When the order was dissolved in 1833 the monastery was used as a school and orphanage until about 1940.

The volcanic eruption of Thira that put an end to the thriving Minoan civilization was so cataclysmic, it may have spawned the legend of Atlantis.

The explosion occurred around 3600 years ago, scooping out the once-circular island’s center and west coast, and creating the sea-filled caldera and signature sheer cliffs where Santorini’s townships teeter today. Since then, there have been perhaps a dozen major eruptions.

The volcano is quiet today, though the nearby island of Nea Kameni in the center of the caldera still emits puffs of steam. It’s thanks to the caldera that towns like Oia boast such stunning sunsets, providing a low-lying, obstruction-free observation point as the sun sinks into the sea.

An iconic rail route, soaring over the spectacular Bernina Pass and reaching lofty heights of 2,134 meters, the famous Bernina Express is the only railway connecting the North and South Alps. Starting in Switzerland, from the ‘Top of the World’ in St. Moritz, the narrow-gauge railway runs through the untamed gorges of the Engadine valley, past the shimmering glaciers and snow-capped peaks of the Bernina mountain range, through cliff-hugging tunnels and over hair-raising bridges. Finally terminating in the palm-tree framed Tirano in north Italy, the entire journey takes a mere 2.5 hours, and offers an unbeatable introduction to the Alps.

The acclaimed railway route was finally awarded UNESCO World Heritage status back in 2008 for the Thusis to Tirano section, celebrating the extraordinary feat of engineering that allowed the railway to be constructed. The tracks, laid between 1896 and 1904, include an incredible 196 bridges and 55 tunnels.