It feels good to be back in the eternal city of Rome. The streets are more noisy and crowded than ever, but there are several Christmas markets still around to ease it up. Even though it’s a bit chilly, the sun is out and the scenery is spectacular.
The city of Naples is famous for a lot of things, but the thing most people think of is pizza. The first ever Margherita is said to have been served at Brandi, Julia Roberts famously had pizza at L’Antica Pizzeria Da Michele in Eat Pray Love and Anthony Bourdain himself visited Pizzeria Pellone in 2011. So I had to check it out.
I spent the weekend in Copenhagen, enduring cold weather and rain showers to explore a lot of Christmas markets littered around the city.
The old town of Tallinn is one of the best preserved medieval cities in Europe. It felt good to be back and wander along the twisting streets once more.
There is a sleepy town called Šiauliai in western Lithuania. Just north of it, a strange sight can be seen. A small hill is filled to the brim with hundreds of thousands of crosses. This is the infamous Kryžiu Kalnas, or simply Hill of Crosses.
What better way to enjoy the autumn days of September than to make a tour across the Baltic states. First stop is Riga. It feels good to be back, a decade later.
I was a bit surprised to discover that a new season of Parts Unknown will start this weekend. Since, you know, the leading man is not with us anymore.
The area of modern day Bulgaria has been a cultural crossroad since ancient times, while Sofia is the second-oldest capital in Europe (after Athens). Even Constantine the Great considered making it the capital of the Byzantine Empire instead of Constantinople.
Kosovo. A mere mention of the name is enough to start a debate wherever you go in this part of the world. The war ended almost 20 years ago, but the scars still appear to be fresh.
As I crossed the border from Albania to Macedonia, I kept a careful eye on the signs. The republic of Macedonia is the country I’m aiming for, but there is also a region of adjacent Greece which claims the name Macedonia. To make things more complicated, the republic has opted to change its name to North Macedonia.
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