Bücher von Ethan Brown

Genoa Tourism, Italy. Discovery. Genova in Italian is a great destination for a city break, whether you want family fun or a cultural holiday. Italy's largest sea port is indefatigably contradictory, full at once of grandeur, squalor, sparkling light and deep shade. But a gateway to the Riviera for many travellers today, a weighty architectural heritage speaks of its former glory the Most Serene Republic of Genoa ruled over the Mediterranean waves during the 12th to the 13th centuries and history feels alive in Genoa. No more is this true than in its extensive old city, an often confronting reminder of pre-modern life with its twisting maze of narrow caruggi (streets), largely intact. Emerge blinking from this thrillingly dank heart to Via Garibaldi and the splendid Enlightenment-era gold-leaf halls of the Unesco-listed Palazzi dei Rolli. Genoa is the capital of Liguria province, Italy. This is a port-city that has a great economic importance for whole country. La Lanterna lighthouse built in the port of Genoa is one of the most known local places of interest. Genoa is a famous center of ship building and heavy machinery, a city of universities, a large tourist and scientific center. In 2004 Genoa was praised to have the title "the cultural capital of Europe". Moreover, in the city is well developed food industry that mainly specializes of pasta making, and fishing. Start your observing of Genoa from the city's port that is especially beautiful on sunsets. The old port hides a real treasure San Giorgio Palazzo that was built in XIII century according to all canons of the Renaissance architecture. While walking on a historical center of the city you can see medieval buildings surrounded by walls and houses of XIV century. In Palazzo Spinola dei Pellicceria is located the National Gallery of Liguria. Inner decoration of the gallery's walls is made in baroque style. The furniture inside the building is very old and expensive. "Gallery of Mirrors" is also a popular tour

Florence, Italy. Information Tourism. Florence was the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance. Politically, economically, and culturally it was the most important city in Europe for around 250 years; from some time before 1300 until the early 1500s. Florentines reinvented money in the form of the gold florin. This currency was the engine that drove Europe out of the "Dark Ages" a term invented by Petrarch, a Florentine whose family had been exiled to Arezzo. They financed the development of industry all over Europe, from Britain to Bruges, to Lyon, to Hungary. They financed the English kings during the Hundred Years War. They financed the papacy, including the construction of the papal palace in Avignon and the reconstruction of St. Peters and the Vatican when the papacy returned to Rome from the "Babylonian captivity". Cradle of the Renaissance, romantic, enchanting and utterly irresistible, Florence (Firenze) is a place to feast on world-class art and gourmet Tuscan cuisine. Italy's fashion industry was born and bred here. Homegrown designers Guccio Gucci and Salvatore Ferragamo opened haute-couture boutiques in Florence in the 1920s and shopping in the Tuscan capital has been stylish ever since. A-lister fashion houses lace Via de' Tornabuoni and a Pandora's box of specialist boutiques selling all manner of beautiful objects parade alongside family-run botteghe (workshops) in a glorious tangle of medieval backstreets. Watch fourth-generation Florentine goldsmiths and shoemakers at work, buy artisan scents evocative of the Florentine countryside and Tuscan sea breeze, and know the tag 'Fiorentina' is one of the finest international labels going.

Edinburgh Environmental Guide, Scotland. UK Tourism. Edinburgh is a city so beautiful it breaks the heart again and again, as Alexander McCall Smith once wrote. One of the world's stateliest cities and proudest capitals, it is like Rome built on seven hills, making it a striking backdrop for the ancient pageant of history. In a skyline of sheer drama, Edinburgh Castle looks out over the city, frowning down on Princes Street's glamour and glitz. But despite its rich past, the city's famous festivals, excellent museums and galleries, as well as the modernist Scottish Parliament, are reminders that Edinburgh has its feet firmly in the 21st century. Edinburgh is the city, where the Scottish spirit can be felt as vividly, as nowhere else. A bagpipe and a kilt are a part of everyday life even these days. Scottish food, which consists only of healthy products, is well-known for its high quality. Basically, Scottish food is based on such ingredients as beef, lamb, game and a lot of fish. Not only Scottish cheese and Scottish beer are known all over the world, but also Scottish whisk. Edinburgh is also known as Auld Reekie, a down-to-earth place that flicks an impudent finger at the pretensions of the literati. Auld Reekie is a city of loud, crowded pubs and decadent restaurants, late-night drinking and all-night parties, beer-fuelled poets and foul-mouthed comedians. It's the city that tempted Robert Louis Stevenson from his law lectures to explore the drinking dens and lurid street life of the 19th-century Old Town. And it's the city of Beltane, the resurrected pagan May Day festival, where half-naked revellers dance in the flickering firelight of bonfires beneath the stony indifference of Calton Hill's pillared monuments.