Dance and Travel

San Fruttuoso Abbey One of my favourite places in Northern Italy, is in the East Riviera in Liguria, in Italy, and is called  Portofino Mountain Park  (Parco di Portofino), which is a regional Natural Park. I could have written something about Cinque Terre, the most famous area in Liguria and one of the must visit in Italy for sure, but actually, Liguria is more than Cinque Terre. The Portofino Mountain Park was established in 1935; it extends along both sides of the Promontory of Portofino, facing Tigullio and “Paradiso” Gulfs, under the Municipalities of Camogli, Portofino and Santa Margherita Ligure. The Trail of the Pipes in the Portofino Mountain Park This protected coastal area is the most northern in the western Mediterranean Sea, and it offers an extraordinary combination of rural and maritime cultures.  The Park boasts one of the greatest varieties of plant species in the Mediterranean area, an array of wildlife and important architectura...

Besalu town in Catalonia Catalonia is the Region to which Barcelona belongs, in Spain. Such a region is amazing since it has a combination of mountains, sea and hills with mild temperatures almost all the year. Catalonia's most famous city is Barcelona, however the best places to visit and see are outside the city, deeply embedded in the nature. I have made a list of 3 that you should not miss:  Siurana, Rupit i Pruit, and Besalu all of them are small medieval villages immersed in nature at 1 and half hour away from Barcelona. Siurana Siurana is a wonderful medieval town located in Catalonia near to Tarragona city where history and outdoors activities perfectly combine together. The village is known to be the last bastion of Christian recapture in Catalonia. Siurana village Legend tells that the moorish queen Abdelazia preferred to jump down the cliff with her horse rather than being captured by the Christians. Her horse tried to resist in vain, leaving its...

Rocca Calascio Fortress (1450 mt. - L'Aquila province) Have you ever heard about Abruzzo? Probably not! Well, maybe is better you start knowing it. It is a region located in the Center of italy, on the right side of Rome that overlooks the Adriatic Sea. I would define Abruzzo as a complete region from the naturalistic point of view: it has a mountainous area to the west side, which includes the Gran Sasso d'Italia, a coastal area to the east with beaches on the Adriatic sea, all around is green and hills. According to Wikipedia , it hosts 3 national parks and 38 protected nature reserves. Geopolitical map of the Centre of italy What makes Abruzzo special? An Italian diplomat and journalist called Primo Levi described Abruzzo as " forte e gentile " (strong and kind), adjectives that personally I think best describe the Beauty of the region and the Character of its people. Historically, Abruzzo it has always been a poor region, land of shepher...

Is Paris still impressionist? Yes, despite time passing by, it has somehow conserved the allure of Impressionism which still attracts a lot of tourists all around the world coming to visit Paris, and Montmartre neighbourhood, in particular. Antoine Blanchard - Le Moulin Rouge, Place Blanche a Montmartre Recently, I have spent 2 months working in Paris, and living in Montmartre. One of my favourite hobbies was wandering among Montmartre neighborhood streets, got lost in them, discovering ancient building, restaurants or cafes, and learning their history. Impressionism has always been my favourite artistic movement, and Montmartre is its birthplace. What a perfect combination for me! However, what is “Impressionism”? According to the Collins dictionary Impressionism is a style of painting developed in France between 1870 and 1900 chiefly by Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, and Sisley, which concentrated on showing the effects of light on things rather than on clear and exact deta...

“Genova che mi struggi, intestini – caruggi” (Genoa, you pine me, you are intestine - you are tiny streets)  cit. G. Caproni* The first time I saw Genoa was in 2008. I was with my father heading to this city to enroll me at the University. I have never before though about Genoa as a possible city where to live. I was just choosing it because I had the impression of a good University with subjects that I would have definitely liked. I was in the train, and after many dark galleries, here it was Genoa with its colorful houses which seem to be clinging to the mountainside. I suddenly thought:“That’s the city where I want to live”. Genoa: mountainside I spend almost two year in a wonderful neighborhood called “Castelletto”, where you can enjoy one of the most beautiful city landscape. I used to stop there read a book or just relaxing after a day of intensive study. Genoa Castelletto Then I moved to the hearth of the city, near to the harbor. The historica...

« Et toi, Marseille, assise aux portes de la France, comme pour accueillir ses hôtes dans tes eaux. » (O Marseille, established at the gateway of France, as if to welcome its guests in your waters) cit. Alphonse de Lamartine Marseille is the second largest city in France, after Paris. Historically was the most important trade center in the region and it is still the France's largest city on the Mediterrean coast and the largest commercial port. Actually for me is more than this, for my it was the door for the Orient, the Near East with its smell and mix languages. A mixture of cultures where Arabs and French coexist together since generations. However, it is not an easy coexistence: in the Sixties the so called “Pieds-noirs” from the former French Algeria come back to France and they had to be integrated in a country new for them, the first city they met was Marseille, most of them decided to stay there. Besides, a lot of Algerians after the Second World War come to...

It was in 2009 the first time that heard about Portugal and it is in my heart since then . I was almost 19 and it was my first time living  far from my family. You might know that it is not so common for Italians to go to live far from their parents so early. The most of us love living at home almost till 30, someone also more than it. Anyway, I went to Genova to study and I lived in a student residence. There I met one of the most important person of my life. She was Polish and she had 7 years more than me. At that time she had already traveled a lot. For her everything started with an erasmus in 2005 in Portugal. We spent our evening talking, in English of course, and  learning, a least I have lerned a lot from her. It was a new language, a new culture, a new perspective . My first big discovery: there was someone living outside my country which could understand me much better than people from my own country . She was the first one who thalk me about Portugal and Lisbo...