What to do in Florence

Florence, located far to the center of Italy, is the capital of the region of Tuscany. For countless centuries, especially during the Renaissance, was one of the cities with more weight in the cultural and artistic heritage around the world, is home to the likes of Michelangelo and Brunelleschi. Much of this legacy can be seen today in day in its streets and squares, as well as its important cultural offerings.

The cultural tourism l offers a thousand and one ways to enjoy Florence. According to UNESCO, approximately 60% of the principal works of art in the world are in this city, something more surprising and gives an idea of the wealth of monuments, paintings or buildings shall have occasion to visit. The Accademia Gallery contains some of the most famous works of Michelangelo, the David or the tomb of Julius II, among others. Other prominent museums are the Uffizi Gallery and the Bargello Palace, where we can also see other works by Michelangelo.

Simply strolling through the streets of Florence, especially the urban area, leads us to meet many of their outstanding monuments: the basilica of Santa Maria del Fiore, which performs the function of a cathedral, or Old Bridge, which was built, according to historians, from Roman times, are just some of them. Therefore, it can be a good idea to choose hotels in Florence that are located near the monumental area. Although transport infrastructure works well, there is nothing comparable to discovering all the hidden wonders of the city on our own feet.

We must bear in mind a maxim that applies to all Italian cities, the prices are quite high. We are not frightened by it, the solution is to manage money best. It is worth making the effort to visit a city like this unparalleled.

Christmas in the Czech Republic

The Prague market is considered the largest and most beautiful of Czech Republic.

Roznov pod Radhostem is a picturesque village at the foot of the Beskid Mountains.

Horovice Palace also attracts visitors for Christmas.

Christmas parties are often accompanied by customs and traditions and the Czech Republic retains a lot of them. In Prague, the capital, Christmas carols sound like in their places, especially downtown, which are illuminated by dozens of stars. In the environment expand cloves and cinnamon smells of mulled wine and pine needles to Orobie in a beautiful setting full of fairs and Christmas markets with gifts always original.

Markets everywhere

The Christmas market in Prague is considered the largest and most beautiful of Czech Republic. Held in Town Square (Old Town Square) . The many stalls offering Christmas decorations, gifts, candy, or jewelry cribs are open every day. It also takes place the Christmas market in Wenceslas Square (Wenceslas Square). But there are other cities where you can taste Czech traditional Christmas spirit. For example, in Brno you can enjoy flea markets full of aromas. The posts are offered gifts and Christmas decorations, tents, cheeses, pastries typically called "trdelník" or roasted chestnuts . There are a host of interesting items to buy, a varied cultural program or a sample of traditional crafts. In Roznov pod Radhostem , picturesque village situated in the Wallachian (Moravian Wallachia) at the foot of the Beskid Mountains, we have another classic flea market. It is an ideal place to see work of artisans and the rich program of customs and traditions or exposure to living in this city. It is also worth visiting the Christmas market in Cesky Krumlov , South Bohemia. Cesky Krumlov or need a rich cultural program that includes among other activities Christmas concerts and shows how to decorate gingerbread Christmas. Also in Ceske Budejovice , South Bohemia metropolis, visiting Christmas markets is one of the great attractions where you can buy Christmas decorations, endless gifts or enjoy the "grog" typical winter hot drink .

Romantic palaces

The Horovice palace situated on the border between two regions of Bohemia Pilsen and Central , attracts visitors even during the period of Advent. In December weekends you can visit the rooms of the palace Horovice and discover their romantic corners. The Hruby Rohozec palace is situated very near the city of Turnov , North Bohemia. Also there will be tours palatial holiday stays. Taste the authentic Christmas atmosphere, as lived in the past the nobility, know how owners of palaces celebrated the Christmas holidays and see gift exposure time.

Eating nougat in their land Jijona

Nougat Museum preserves the memory of Wolf and 1880 brands.

In the Alto de la Carrasqueta discover a privileged environment.

There are Moors and Christians celebrations in February and August.

One of the synonyms for Christmas is the nougat , nougat and say that is Jijona . The land of this sweet Christmas is a mountainous area of the province of Alicante. These parties can be an excuse to learn Jijona and nougat to eat on their land. The city is nestled in the foothills of the Roj Peña a, to 453 meters above sea level, 25 kilometers north of Alicante. Its attractions are the castle (a building of architectural interest) or the Franciscan Convent of the Virgin of Orito, the Hermitage of Santa Barbara and the Church of Santa Maria. It is located in the foothills of Red Rock, 25 km Alicante And if by Christmas and nougat, deserves a visit Nougat Museum , which preserves family memories Sirvent Selfa founder of the Wolf and 1880 brands. The municipality of Jijona is filled with immense forests of pine and oaks in high mountains of over a thousand meters, which leads to spectacular views of valleys and ravines in vertical as well as the Mediterranean, due to its proximity, however, other parts of the municipality, the closest to the coast, suffer from desertification concern.

The Carrasqueta

The terrain is mountainous except in the southeast, pointing west to east, the Penya Migjorn, the Sierra de la Carrasqueta and Montagut , saws that are the natural limits of the term. It is also interest the Natural Municipal Plantadets Els, with an area of 254 hectares. The Carrasqueta is a natural step to communicate with Alcoy Alicante More than a thousand feet high in the Alto de la Carrasqueta discover a rural setting surrounded mountains and steeped in tranquility. Its highest mountain is the Carrasqueta with 1,300 meters high at its peak (1,020 meters to the passage of the N-340). It is the natural way to communicate with Alcoy Alicante.

At the top of the Carrasqueta, the former residence of the nevaters has become a small hotel . A place where you conduct tastings of nougat in all varieties of the best quality, also of the Mediterranean trilogy of bread, wine and oil, and the kitchen of the ride.

Moors and Christians

If we can not approach Jijona for Christmas, there are two dates. One is the second half of February, when parties are held Moors and Christians, called the "Festival of Ice Cream Makers" . The other is in August , on the weekend closest to 24th, the festivities take place, also Moors and Christians

Unusual Hotels of spain

Special evenings most original hotels in Spain

The wagon-Circus hotel Raluy is traveling, as the circus.

Or Semaphore is a former Finisterre lighthouse converted into a hotel.

Renting private island Tagomago (Ibiza) costs € 100,000 per week.

The hotel we choose to stay can be in itself sufficient reason to give shape and meaning to travel. Especially when it comes to hotels with personality. Hotels rare, unusual or surprising. Fortunately, in Spain there are many. They are not the largest nor the most expensive, nor the best placed, but are unique places to rest. From an ice igloo hut perched on a tree , going through an old railroad car or a tepee, there are dozens of unusual to find accommodation.

Sleeping in a bullring

The list is extensive. Examples include Circus wagon Raluy-hotel (perhaps the only hotel traveling the world), O Semaphore (an old lighthouse converted into a hotel that is scanning the Atlantic from Finistère) or the Hotel Plaza de Toros de Almadén (Ciudad Real) . We could add B & B (bed and breakfast) luxury thatched cottages, to urban hotels, guest houses of monasteries and even palaces . We can find accommodation from 30 € night € 100,000 per week The best thing is that the uniqueness and exclusivity no to be synonymous with expensive or extravagance. In Spain we can find unusual accommodation from 30 € to 100,000 € night a week it costs, for example, rent the private island of Tagomago (Ibiza). The French tourist will be well informed of this offer, because this is the motley altarpiece of proposals offered by the guide Hotels unusual in Spain and Portugal, the French publisher has just released Jonglez . This is a compilation of over fifty original and always surprising accommodations scattered throughout the Iberian Peninsula.

A destination in itself

Journalist and photographer David Revelles Oscar Elias , have gathered for the first time the elite cast of unique and unusual accommodations scattered throughout Spain and Portugal. collect the secrets of a bunch of rooms for mythmakers is that transcend hotel category crossing point, a simple bed to sleep, to become a destination in itself.

The mythmakers enjoy big as the guide not only focuses on hotels, but also the secrets of a rare cluster of rooms that accommodate only special characters deserve special mention. It is not trivial: sleeping in the same room in which they did in their day The Beatles in his only concert in Barcelona, or where Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier of Monaco spent their honeymoon is not every day. That said, unique accommodations ... for all audiences.

Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary

We invite you to a natural spectacle to behold, is that every fall takes place in Mexico, when millions of these fish come to the forests and mountains of Michoacan, after completing a miraculous journey.

 Horseback riding on one of the monarch butterfly sanctuaries in forests of the Sierra Madre Occidental in Mexico. 

 Large concentrations of these butterflies can be seen literally lining the branches. 

Monarch butterflies only live four or five weeks, but every autumn born a generation that will live more than seven months and, if that was not enough wonder, will be able to go, in about a month and a half, the near 4500 miles between his home in Rocky Mountain forests where wintering in the Mexican states of Mexico and Michoacan , to those who take an annual migration incredible adventure that still keeps many unknowns to science. It is estimated that are about Monarch 60 million which set sail south to escape the cold. Traveling incredible able to travel more than a hundred miles a day and if air currents are favorable, even more than doubled. How to get oriented to achieve the same forests invariably is one of the great mysteries, because if they did not know until 1975 or even the places where they spent the winter these exceptional orange-winged butterflies now know that their destiny is the forest pine and fir forests of the

Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico, its valleys and mountains above 3100 meters are the ideal conditions to develop, until ready to mate in spring. One of these sanctuaries, declared Natural Patrimony of Humanity by Unesco is Chincua saw in the Michoacan town of Angangueo, which since mid-November to late March is full of visitors to admire the incredible spectacle of nature. The place has become a tourist center with restaurants, craft shops and companies that organize trips on foot, by bicycle and on horseback in search of butterflies. But it is not the only one, also that of El Rosario and the Senguio in Michoacan, while in the State of Mexico you can find the sanctuary of The Grasshopper in the municipality of Donato Guerra, La Mesa , San José del Rincón and that of Piedra Herrada , San Mateo Almomoloa. Hibernation trees becomes a huge cluster of orange butterflies that bends the branches and makes the roads, sometimes miles-carpets for which it should be extremely careful not to step no copy while walking. The females that survive the winter in late March will undertake the return journey, laying down the road before dying the eggs to ensure a new generation to return to repopulate areas from which their parents left months ago. Before his departure, people close to the shrines Angangueo, Ocampo, Zitacuaro, El Rosario, San Felipe de los Alzati ...-, living in much of the tourism that comes to see this great show biological , held in February Butterfly Festival Monarch with a week of activities that revolve around this exciting natural phenomenon, but also revels in which its people decorate the streets and throw them to fire until the following year, as only Mexicans know it.