A forty-minute by bus ride from Palermo takes you to the Cathedral of Monreale. This cathedral was constructed during the reign of William II of Normandy, between 1172 and 1190, and is a living example of the fusion of cultures and religions that existed in Sicily during that period. It boasts a syncretic style as it was built by combining Norman architecture with aspects of Moorish art. It consists of a main nave with two wings and an apse. The most surprising features are the interior walls, as they are covered with more than 6,000 m2 of Byzantine gold mosaics inspired by those in the Palatine Chapel in Palermo. The mosaics recount episodes from the Bible, from the creation to the passion of Christ in chronological order from left to right. An impressive Christ Pantocrator crowns the apse leaving visitors speechless.

Adjacent to the cathedral can be found the cloister and its 228 columns, each one supporting a different ornament, along with a number of Arab-inspired arches.

You can travel to Monreale by bus (number 389), which passes by the Piazza Independencia in Palermo. It costs nothing to get into the cathedral but you can hire an audio-guide for 5 euros. Entry to the cloister costs 6 euros.

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By Isabel Romano from Diario de a bordo

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Located in a charming valley close to the village of San José in Ibiza, La Casita Verde is a small nature and education centre run by volunteers that opens to the public every Sunday and where visitors can discover, in a direct and entertaining manner, that a more sustainable way of life is within reach of everyone.

The buildings that comprise La Casita Verde are made from such recycled materials as bottles, tin cans and wood. They include such alternative living spaces as a house in a tree, a house made from bottles and house built inside a lime oven. What’s more, the place makes daily use of alternative energy sources, such as the sun and the wind, and grows medicinal plants and herbs. That is why La Casita Verde exists as an educational tool to demonstrate alternative living techniques.

Besides being amazed by a pure hippy atmosphere, visitors will be able to enjoy some of the activities on offer: the chance to observe the preparation of healthy vegetarian food, learn how to prepare natural juices from local products (including aloe vera), take a one-hour tour around La Casita Verde, listen to (often live) atmospheric music, receive “natural beauty” treatments with masks made from aloe vera harvested from its own fields and many other interesting things.

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One of the food we normally associate with Christmas dates are ginger cookies. Along with rice pudding is one of the most typical christmas desserts that never miss in a table in Norway. Kids enjoy helping mothers to prepare cookies to eat them as a dessert with all the family.

Though the cookies with Gingerbread Man's shape –also known as Gingy- are the most popular, the true is that there are no limits when preparing these sweet creations made of ginger and aromatized with cinnamon or honey: they may be oven cooked like Santa Claus, christmas tree or even you may build up a whole city of them.

In Bergen they know this fact quite well. From Christmas in 1991, the city center -Torgallmenningen- becomes the sweetest place in the world with the creation of Pepperkakebyen- the Ginger cookie's biggest town in the world-. They create tiny little houses, trains, cars and ships made of ginger bread, candy canes and they use glass sugar to stick all together.

Everybody helps to make this ginger town grow up, from kindergarden children to school kids that contribute with their own creations. That is why every year Pepperkakebyen is visited by thousands of tourists attracted by its magic and who want to be wrapped with the christmas spirit. It will be open the whole month of December.

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During the reconstruction of the city of Nantes in the ’50s, after World War II, and having the idea of relieving the housing shortage at that time, Le Corbursier conceived La Maison Radieuse, one of the unité d’habitation (unit room) that have become a landmark in the twentieth century’s civil architecture which later, served as inspiration for many European cities.

The first of these Unité d’habitation was built in Marseilles. Later on, in 1955, was built a very similar version but slightly refined in Rezé, just 3 or 4 miles from Nantes.

At first sight, it is surprising that this building with symmetrical structure and vivid coloured windows in contrast to the gray of its structure was so revolutionary at that time. The idea was that the 294-duplex-apartments building would work formally and functionally independent as a boat. For that purpose, he included games communal areas and gardens.

Nowadays, most of the apartments are inhabited, but a few can be visited in this sort of original House-Museum.

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