San Gimignano is known in Italy as “the Town of Fine Towers”. The towers of this medieval town are visible from every point you approach on the hill that it stands on. The dozens of tower-houses are a symbol of San Gimignano but, it’s not the only symbol of this place – another, is the vineyards with the famous Vernaccia grapes!
For many decades after the establishment of Florence Duomo in the 13th Century, the Florence Cathedral was opened, and it took the genius mind of Filippo Brunelleschi to figure out exactly how to build the dome, the first of its kind in the 15th Century. In our day today, it dominates the skyline of the city and makes you marvel at how this structure survived through the ages.
When you visit the Urbino old town, it may seem like a travel back in time. If you look on the buildings and ignore modern outfits of people passing by, the posters, café umbrellas, you can feel like a time traveller visiting on a summer’s day, that is 500 years ago. This is the impression one could have, especially when you visit the square in front of the Urbino Cathedral.
Piazza San Marco, internationally known as St Mark’s Square gained its own nickname “La Piazza” – THE Square, and I think it says a lot about Venice’s importance. There is a legend that Napoleon called it “the drawing room of Europe”. In our day, I would say the “photographing room of Europe”.
The wonderful thing about the Dolomites is that when you take a drive through the mountain valleys to your destination, and you look around – you will see that this route is more interesting than the end. The view on Picco Di Vallandro (translated in German – Dürrenstein) from the flourishing valley, was an absolute pleasant surprise.