By Marco Fiocchi – RondoneR (Travelblog.it and Vistamondo.com)

When Francesco, my boss, called me, I was driving in a hot, chaotic, hectic late morning in the center of Rome.

The proposal to join the blog tour challenge of Vueling, flying on one of the Baleares islands in search of unexplored places, strikes me as a lightning. I am thrilled: Vueling Loves Islands is a beautiful challenge. And I am proud of being chosen to represent travelblog.it for Blogo.

Lovely Elisa Casagrande informs me that my island shall be Menorca. She prepares everything. Flight and hotel. It ‘s great. The island I wanted more. The only one I’ve never seen and I longed to visit. I’ll have plenty of freedom. I’ll be alone. A dream comes true.

I landed in Menorca on Saturday night. The airport is located in the south, also very close to my hotel, which is in S’Algar, just above the most popular beaches and tourist interests.

I immediately decided to rent a car. Menorca is not small, but not even huge So if I wanted to see enough I should own a transport. A motorcycle was really good but I had different equipment. As for the bike I needed more time, and more lungs …

Sunday morning I ventured at once on the south side. As I mentioned, the beaches in this part are very beautiful, but also quite popular. And the tourist building has not always respected the natural setting of the place.

In my tour’s beginning thanks to the dawn, I could enjoy almost single Playa de Punta Prima (where I greeted the sun rising from the sea), Cala de Binibeca and Cala Biniancolla. The Poblat de Pescadors (Binibeca Vell) is particular for the style of the white village. A little artificial, but with a nice mini port.

Going on I met Cala d’Es Canutells, Cales Coves and the beautiful Cala’n Porter, probably the most fascinating bay of the coast. The colour of the water from the mirador, is incredible. It looks as if it’s fake. I do not have time to visit the great cave (Cova d’en Xoroi) that all I say unique.

I move again. Need to return inland to reach other beaches, so I have time to do a hike in one of the many prehistoric sites of the island. Torre d’en Galmés. Such as Sardinia (with Nuraghi) indeed, Menorca preserves several megalithic structures. Talayotic period, which derives from talayot​​, stone structures, which together with the taula and navetas make a great archaeological heritage.Only Thinking here lived our prehistoric ancestors rendered the earth a little ‘more mother. It ‘s strange. It is fascinating.

But it is time to return to the beaches, now I’m a beach blogger. I go down to San Bou, the longest coastline of the island. A spectacular stretch of white sand of 3 km, ruined by a horrible hotel in the east.

The water is turquoise and clear. Crystalline. Almost beside San Bou there is Sant Tomas, with a series of bays, one more beautiful than the other. Vegetation that reaches the coast, red rocks, white beaches, blue water. I can’t resist and give in to the first swim. Divine.

I went down on the camin de ronda which is starting from the first beach and runs along the coast. So I realize now that I’m surrounded by nudists. Actually everywhere on the island. Of all ages. Along with normal people wearing bath suits, many families and a host of children. No one stamps his feet, or be offended. If heaven exists, this placev really looks like.

After having dried, against my will, against the Spanish siren song singing to me to put up a tent inviting me to stay and live here, I left and reached my coche (now I understand why they call it here, the car, because when you let it under the sun, then it “cooks” …).

I have to discover even more places “unexplored”, I was not even Indiana Jones, but this is a race, definitely my rival bloggers have done the same. So arriving at Cala Santa Galdana. Pleasant turquoise baia raped by big hotels and factories.

Here I decide the best thing is to take a boat, one of the many tours who lets you spy on beaches and coves unreachable in a few hours, unless you are a Rambo hounded by vietkong. I go for a ride of three hours. The company is called “Amigo’s”. A “Glass Bottom Boat” who has only a small glass bottom next to the engine, so you can watch only the splash. Cost 15 euros. I can make it.

Very good choice. I can admire from the sea beautiful places, such as Fustam Cala, Cala Escorsxada, the natural arch with the legend of the pirate hidden ship, Cala Mitjana, the beautiful Cala’n Turqueta and the famous Cala Macarella and Maccarelleta, these ones too besieged by boats and yachts. Are they trendy for nudists? But in a boat aren’t you runningaround always naked?

We can swim round the lovely Cala Trebaluger, complete with water slide that shoots you do not know where. When we return the crew offer us an ignoble gin lemon into a lemonade bottle with a funny straw. I understand it’s a tradition, but is seasickness.

May be in the evening I will find out the cause for this tradition, arriving in Ciutadella, Menorca’s second city, not only geographically opposed to Maò, which is the capital, and I will visit the next day.

On 24 June, in fact, is St. John. And here’s a holiday in the country, for the patron saint San Juan de Ciutadella. I immediately understood it because I sensed many caballeros on horseback, all dressed up, including horses.

Rivers of that Anglo-Saxon drink mixed with the local lemon, rain over the picturesque village with the elegant buildings that becomes a sort of big arena for the passage of horses. I’m too tired to attend the various shows, I just go against the crowd, and then I sit down at the restaurant. The most famous one: S’Amarador. I want to taste the dish: caldereta de llagosta.

A soup of lobster stew with bread to eat. I’m sorry for the poor animal that comes alive proudly displayed. But the flavour is exceptional. In the night I run away from the port now besieged by people from the passage of the knights. Above me even a shooting star, but a quilted starry sky. One sees clearly the Milky Way. I almost stop here, I get lost in silence and peace.

The morning after is harder to get up early. A new day in Menorca. The hunt continues. This time I promise to search really the most unexplored places. So after scouring the southern side of the island, probably the most touristic, I headed to north. Crossing diagonally Menorca I notice that the vegetation changes going north. The island is still very green, but here above all. And it’s funny to see white farmhouses, amid bales of hay, grazing cows and lush palm trees.

In a short time I’m at Fornells, the village of the central north coast, in which gulf sailing and mini racing colouring the sea. The village is nice and peaceful, suitable for tourists in search of quiteness. I find a wi-fi hot spot (it’s not so easy in whole island) and I send some pictures around for # MyVuelingCity or to Facebook for Travelblog.it. But it’s already time to leave. Towards Cap de Cavalleria. The northern most point of Menorca.

While ascending, the coast becomes barren, rocky. Red sands and green fields which look like mountain. The sea is always blue. I wish to be Gauguin to paint these horizons. I try with my camera. But I’m not so good…

When I’m close to the lighthouse of Es Cobròmbol, I see on my left a small creek. I left the road and go down a road of orange stones. I do very well. There is a small bay looks like a natural pool. Three beaches in the midst of dark rocks. The smallest one is finally my very private corner of paradise. I can not help it, I’m totally bare. Nudist to the goal. So do I. Now I understand why Menorca iis devoid of any social superstructure.

The only poor witnesses of this naturist epiphany are very nice locals. There are many goats with me! Free and not in difficulty on the sharp rocks. They look tolerant even though I think I’m Colombo kissing the shoreline. What a great place, I want to stay here..

Instead, the duty (is there one more pleasant?) calls me. I reach the lighthouse. Watch Fornells from the promontory. There is a strong wind. On the way back I stop, however, in the most famous beach of the area. Platja de Cavalleria (notice I always use the Catalan language, here it’s like the Holy Bible). A road descends to a fiery red terrace overlooking this tropical half moon. Amazing. But there is “too many” people for me, now I’m used to the wilderness..

On the right of the playa there is a cala even more beautiful. Cala Torta. It seems the Reef. From above I have the feeling of being in Hawaii, but without 24 hours’ jet lag on my shoulders.

I place myself in the car, I still have 3,4 hours before going to catch my return flight that leaves in the evening by Maò to Barcelona. So I decide to point north east. I’m sorry for what I cannot see to my left, the islanders advised me about Cala del Pilar and Cala Algairen, before reaching the famous Cala Morell. But I would never have time to walk so much. Too bad. I’ve lost too much wooing the goats…

Going down clockwise from the south, there are still points delicious, as Cova des Vell Mari or Arsenal Son Saura. But I go to another lighthouse, like in a trip with Virginia Woolf. I am so arrived to Fevarritx Cap. Unusual and moon scenarios. Dark rocks, flat, on a spit of rock bursting from the sea. Cala Presili is the most beautiful, but the whole area is very wild and picturesque.

Now unfortunately my tour ended. There’s only Maò to visit in a hurry after an iced cervesa. Pretty, clean but honestly Ciutadella, despite that funny chaos, it seemed best.

I can return the car. 40 euros for day is not the greatest savings. But if you stay for a week is more convenient. Embarked me on the fly. Vueling wants to surprise me, always on time, even ahead of time. In the same place. The great window 4A. Even during the fly Barcelona to Rome, I admit it without marketing blackmailing. Check those flights if you don’t believe me.

What can I say? It was an amazing experience. I found an island I fell madly in love with, and where I shall return soon. Vueling Thanks! Thanks MyVuelingCity!

By Marco Fiocchi – RondoneR (Travelblog.it and Vistamondo.com)

A place well worth discovering! Check out our flights here.

Ai Weiwei is a controversial figure wherever he goes. While his activist streak has earned him more than one headline in the media, particularly in connection with the problems he has with the regime in his native China, his artistic facet has also put him under the spotlight in all the exhibitions he unveils, given the political denunciation behind his work. Last year it was the Royal Academy of London that enshrined him as the great international artist he is. Now it is Vienna’s turn as it hosts an exhibition, running until 20 November, of his latest works. This is the largest display of Ai Weiwei’s work so far in Austria.

A Temple in the Museum

Under the title, Translocation – Transformation, referring to the metamorphosis which people and objects undergo after a deliberate relocation, migration or expulsion, the event features several installations by Ai Weiwei distributed over different spaces in the Belvedere Gardens. The main feature of the exhibition, curated by Alfred Weidinger, is located in the former Austrian pavilion for the 1958 World Expo, currently used as a platform for promoting contemporary art under the name 21er Haus. Displayed in the interior is the Wang Family Ancestral Hall, an installation which is unlikely to leave the viewer unmoved. This 14-metre-high exhibit made up of 1,300 separate pieces is an ancestral temple from the Ming Dynasty. The temple, which belonged to the Wang family, a clan of tea merchants who were expelled from China during the Cultural Revolution, was thus abandoned. Ai Weiwei acquired it from an investor some time ago and transformed it into what we see today, a decontextualised work which coexists and communicates with other architectural environments.

Another exhibition site, the Upper Belvedere pond, showcases the installation, F Lotus, where the artist elicits a reflection on subjects unfortunately in the limelight in recent years, notably the refugee crisis besetting Europe. The work comprises 1,005 discarded life vests picked up on the beaches of Lesbos after being used by Syrian refugees on their sea crossing to Europe. They are set in a total of 201 rings linked to resemble the lotus flower, the overall structure forming a hugefin the water.

Another work displayed in the Upper Belvedere pond is the Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads, a veritable classic of Ai Weiwei’s oeuvre. Composed of twelve bronze heads standing for the signs of the zodiac in the Chinese horoscope, they are inspired by the fountain-clock at the summer palace of Yuanming Yuan which was ransacked by French and British troops during the Second Opium War in 1860. The treasures – including the heads – were looted and have never been returned since.

Eager to see the work of Ai Weiwei first-hand? Be sure to make a getaway to Vienna – book your Vueling here.

Text by Los Viajes de ISABELYLUIS

Beyond its spectacular monumental and historical heritage, Barcelona is an eminently gastronomic city. From restaurants with several Michelin stars to long-standing bars and taverns, the Catalan capital is geared to the delectation of the most refined palates. Today we wander through the old town in search of the bars and restaurants where you can sample the best tapas on this side of the Mediterranean.

Gothic Quarter

So many eateries cracked up as tourist destinations can be confusing when it comes to choosing a good place for having tapas. In the lower part of the Gothic Quarter, near the sea, is Bar La Plata. This classic has been offering the same four tapas ever since it opened in 1945. Be sure to try the onion, tomato and anchovy salad, the butifarra (pork sausage) or the scrumptious pescaíto frito (fresh fried fish). Washed down with a good aperitif, it is unlikely to leave you indifferent. La Plata also happens to be one of the favourite watering holes of chef Ferran Adrià.

And, from one classic to another. The delicatessen, La Pineda, has been on Calle Pi since 1930. Its cured meats are excellent and you can sit down to sample some Iberian cured ham, chorizo, fuet (both cured pork sausages) and lomo (pork loin) with a glass of red wine or sherry.

Born

El Born is one of Barcelona’s trendiest quarters and it is brimming with restaurants and bars.

One of our favourites is Cal Pep. Here you can sit at a table or at the bar counter and the object of this establishment is that guests share out dishes as if they were tapas. Everything is designation of origin, with priority accorded to local produce. The fame of this eatery is well deserved.

The same holds true for Bar del Pla, where traditional cuisine is imbued with the young spirit of its proprietors. The calamari croquettes are spectacular, as are their patatas bravas (fried potatoes with spicy sauce). We recommend you try the dish of the day, and take advice when it comes to choosing the right wine.

You can’t leave El Born without stopping off at El Xampanyet, one of the city’s best known tapas bars. Here, the star beverage is xampanyet, a mild cava which goes down easily and is ideal for accompanying their famous anchovies, pickles and one of the best omelettes in town.

As in other European cities, there are several firms in Barcelona that offer gastronomic tours. For those of you wishing to find out more about Catalan and Spanish cuisine, we recommend Food Lovers Company, one of the best rated businesses for their competitive prices and the professionalism of their guides.

Book your Vueling to Barcelona and venture into the world of its magnificent cuisine.

Text by Aleix Palau for Los Viajes de ISABELYLUIS

One of the unusual features of Copenhagen, which also happens to attract flocks of inquisitive tourists from all over the world, is Freetown Christiania (Fristaden Christiania). Located in the central borough of Christianshavn, it has the odd privilege of being autonomously ruled by a neighbourhood community which declared its independence from the Danish State and the European Union, as clearly marked on a sign at the exit from Christiania which reads: “You’re now entering the EU”.

The origins of Christiania go back to 1971, when a group of Danes occupied what was a derelict military precinct with abundant green areas which they decided to turn into a playground for their children. Guided by the spirit of the times, their move sparked a debate about what to do with that abandoned area. Members of the counter-culture movement known as Provo ended up occupying the area and founding a community where they set about putting into practice their anti-system ideas. After the occasional attempt at evicting them by the government, the latter gave in and allowed the neighbourhood community to flourish under self-management as a social experiment.

Amazing as it may seem, that hippy community, which now numbers some one thousand members, is still operating 45 years on. Be it the free atmosphere, the overridingly friendly vibes, or interest in seeing a small sample of Utopia in operation, the fact is that Christiania is the second most widely visited spot in Denmark after Copenhagen’s paradigmatic icon – The Little Mermaid. The community can be visited by guided tour or just wandering about freely, although visitors have to observe a set of rules voted by the community. Among these is a ban on private property, talking on mobile phones and taking photographs. Outsiders should particularly heed the latter, the most controversial prohibition and one that has at times threatened the survival of the community, where the smoking of cannabis is allowed.

The main drag in Christiania is Pusher Street, where you will find bars and vegetarian restaurants for engaging in “slow food”, as well as shops where you can buy craftwork and souvenirs of the city. One of the advantages of this area is that items are cheaper and no taxes are paid. Among the major charms of visiting this “freetown” is the contrast it strikes with the rest of Copenhagen. Untarred streets with no cars – and therefore no noise – military constructions converted into homes or common areas and a huge amount of colour and vegetation everywhere. A wholly anarchical picture in an atmosphere of total calm in which time seems to stand still.

Be sure to make a foray into this unusual enclave of freedom in the Danish capital – book your Vueling here.

Text by Los Viajes de ISABELYLUIS

Images by News Oresund