We travelled to Tel Aviv, Israel’s most European city, an island of hedonism in the heart of the Middle East where you can delight in the seaside, numerous art galleries, designer stores, discos… and restaurants.

Benedict

Israelis breakfast with gusto. That’s why at nine in the morning you will catch sight of bars and restaurants packed with customers breakfasting as if they were having lunch. The queue outside this venue, while not very long, speaks volumes of this restaurant’s popularity. It is the perfect place for breakfasting on good eggs Benedict in all its variations, accompanied by salad, bread and a beverage. It opens 24 hours, seven days a week.

Minzar Bar

Open every day and at all times, which is why it is a perennial meeting point for sharing a beer and a chat. Located next to the Carmel Market (Shuk Ha'Carmel), it is a prime meeting place for Tel Aviv intellectuals.

Espresso Bar

The elegant Rothschild Boulevard is brimming with lively, colourful establishments. One of these, on the corner of Herzl Street, is the place for an eggs Benedict and salmon breakfast on their peaceful terrace. Open every day from 6 a.m. to midnight.

La Gaterie

A small café serving marvellous croissants filled with cheese, ham, salami and egg… Ask for a local wine – you’ll be surprised. Open every day from 9 a.m. to 1 in the morning. Located on King George Street, which links the Dizengoff Centre to Kikar Rabin, the City Hall square, replete with bars and a ground zero for street protests.

Dalton

In the morning they serve up hearty breakfasts, as Israelis like them, while Italian cuisine is available for lunch and dinner. This restaurant with its retro decor lies in the heart of the Neve Tzedek quarter, a quiet and somewhat bohemian neighbourhood in Tel Aviv. Open every day from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Pines Street 27.

Dallal

Tel Aviv’s beautiful people (celebrities included) frequent this house with two patios to taste their Mediterranean dishes or have a cocktail. It is five minutes from the beach and opens every day from 9 a.m. to 11.30 p.m.

Night Kitchen

One of the fashionable restaurants in Tel Aviv is Night Kitchen. Modern and informal, it offers seasonal, proximity products, particularly vegetables. Open every day from 7 p.m. onwards.

Suzanna

Newcomers to this restaurant serving Mediterranean cuisine are usually wowed by their terrace, embellished by a giant tree affording good shade… and by their soups! Located in the Neve Tzedek district, next door to the Bat Sheva Dance Company.

The Old Man And The Sea

Several restaurants are sited in Jaffa Port. This one, which recalls Hemingway’s novel, The Old Man and The Sea and specialises in seafood cuisine, presents diners free-of-charge with a jug of lemonade and 22 side dishes, along with your order. The prawns and calamari are very fresh, and the mussels are served with garlic butter. Tea and coffee are also on the house. Open every day from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

The Prince

You hesitate when about to step into this particularly dark, rickety entrance. If you’re a daredevil and cross the threshold, on the first floor you come to this venue, with one of the quaintest terraces in Tel Aviv. There you can enjoy a cocktail or beer, apart from ordering something simple to eat. Open every day from 5 p.m. to 11.30 p.m.

Aria

A two-storey house with two distinct proposals – upstairs is a gastronomic restaurant featuring delicate, modern, elegant and balanced international dishes based on locally sourced produce. Downstairs is a lounge bar. A tad more expensive than the rest, but a good option for giving yourself a treat. Opens at 7 p.m.

Book your Vueling to Tel Aviv and indulge in their culinary offerings.

Text and photos by Ferran Imedio of Gastronomistas.com

Movie tourism is a fun way to explore a city, discovering the places where some of our favorite scenes were filmed and where our favorite actors ever acted.
No one can deny the close relationship between Sicily and the cinema when 60 kilometers from Palermo, we come across a city like Corleone that makes the island a world tourist destination for curious and moviegoers.
Let us therefore take a tour around the locations of one of the most famous trilogies in movie history!

1.- Massimo Theatre

The Masimo Theatre in Palermo is located in Piazza Verdi and is the largest of the opera houses in Italy and the third largest in Europe, a neoclassical building dating from the nineteenth century.

On the front steps of this Opera House in Sicily, Coppola filmed the final scene of the film The Godfather III, one of the highlighted moments, in which Mary, Michael Corleone’s daughter, is killed by a gunman while the Intermezzo for Pietro Mascagni Cavaleria’s Opera Rusticana is played on the background .

2.- Villa Malfitano

This neo-Renaissance villa style is found in Via Dante Alighieri, 167 and is home to the Whitaker Foundation. The art collections compiled by the owner during his travels, like furniture, paintings, porcelain and Flemish tapestries from the sixteenth century garnish the rooms in the inside. Its beautiful garden is rated 5 hectares with curious plants from around the world, such as Tunisia, Sumatra, Australia, and some 150 different kinds of orchids. You can visit Villa Malfitano every morning from Monday to Saturday

Here took place the toast to Anthony‘s debut as opera singer. Anthony is the son of Michael Corleone.

3.- Castello degli Schiavi

Castello degli Schiavi, a Sicilian villa into decay already used in 1968 by Pier Paolo Pasolini to shoot some scenes for the movie The orgy is located  in Via Marina Fiumefreddo,  in the other end of the island. But surely, appearing in The Godfather I and II, has made the castle famous. Coppola used it for various scenes, especially is remembered for being Michael Corelone‘s death place.

4.- Corleone

Even if the name makes this famous family come to your mind, Corleone was not the real place for the film’s shooting. Want to know why? By the time of filming “The Godfather”,  a judge’s murderer was nearby so they had to find new location for filming scenes corresponding to Corleone. They finally took place in two small coastal towns: Savoca and Forza D’Agro.

Despite his fame, today Corleone is a key city in the fight against the Mafia. The proof of this is Laboratorio della Legalità, a museum center founded by organizations involved in fighting the mafia, and dedicated to Magistrate Paolo Borsellino, killed during the mafia’s massacres. At the time, this building provided shelter to Bernardo Provenzano, the head of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra until his arrest in 2006.

Do not leave Corleone without trying their famous cannoli, a Sicilian origin dessert prepared here as nowhere else! This is a tube-shaped pasta filled with sweet creamy made of ricotta . “Leave the gun, take the canoli” says Peter Clemenza in a movie scene.

5.- Other Sicilian movie sites

If you are interested in this type of film tourism, you can also get close to Chiusa Sclafani, the magical village that inspired Giuseppe Tornatore to create Giancaldo in Cinema Paradiso as well as Bagheria, Castelbuono, Cefalu, Palazzo Adriano  or Santa Flavia de Sicila.  Piazza Bellini in  Palermo was the scene of some sequences for Talented Mister Ripley.

Imagen de Michael Urso

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

By Panenka www.panenka.org

Panenka, the football magazine you can read, leads us through its passion for the soccer to other countries, this time to the Czech Republic’s capital, Prague. They show us their ideal eleven for places related to sport king as for the most touristis ones.

SPORTING ELEVEN

1 Dukla | The Czechoslovak Army’s team was one of the most hated. With democracy had a hard time but has returned to the top.
2 Strahov | They say it is the second largest stadium in the world (200,000 people can fit) but it seems a field with bleachers.
3 Palacio Michny | Home for Czech Sport: in 1862 the Sokol movement, paneslavian style, here
4 Teatro Nacional | Well worth the visit, even more when you know that there it was held the state funeral in memory of a legend: Emil Zatopek.
5 Sparta |> Workers club in Prague, founded in 1893, with 11 leagues from Czechoslovak division since 1993. Play in the old Letna.
6 Club de Tenis | Inside Stvanice island is located the club that forged the best tennis players in the East: Martina Navratilova and Ivan Lendl.
7 La Carrera de la Paz | At the Rude Pravo’s newspaper’s offices was founded in 1948 ‘Tour Cyclist of beyond the Wall ‘.
8 Dolicek | A humble stadium where a young Antonin Panenka devised his countercultural penalty. The Bohemians play again in here the second division league.
9 Slavia | The other main team in Prague, the one for the bourgeois and intellectual, has just scored three championships in the last two decades.
10 Krematorium | Here have ended up some Czech sports legends like Frantisek Planicka, goalkeeper of the finalist at Italia’34.
11 O2 Arena | 18,000 seats to enjoy Ice Hockey, the sport that delights the Czechs. Six times world champions after 1993.

TOURISTIC ELEVEN

A Astronomical Clock | Located in the wall of Old Town City Hall, is one of the biggest tourist attractions.
B Petrin Hill| A promontory perfect for taking pictures of the city and stroll through its old vineyards. A funicular gets you up to the top.
C Jewish Cemetery | Testimony of the richest Jewish past of the city. Up to 12,000 graves are in this breathtaking corner
D Museum of Communism | The dictatorship left so many bad memories that when finished, two decades ago, Czechs and Slovaks were forever separated.
E Mucha Museum | Before the totalitarian gray, Prague was a city colored by modernism. Alphonse Mucha brought Art Nouveau to the city.
F Karlovy Lazne | You get into the biggest club in Central Europe for just 180 crowns. Different ambients, 50 meters from Charles Bridge.
G Oktoberfest | The Czechs average the highest consumption of beer on the planet. The Oktoberfest Prague is in late May.
H Bridge Tower | One of the most characteristic elements of the city’s skyline, leading into the Stare Mesto (Old Town).
I Dancing House | Not everything is medieval in Prague: Frank Gehry designed this deconstructivist building on the banks of the Vltava in 1997.
J Wenceslas Square | Emotional center of the Czech Republic. This square-like avenue starred the Velvet Revolution (1989).
K John Lennon Wall | A wall painted in memory of former Beatles’ generated this monument to the Freedom of expression.

Ilustration by Pep Boatella / @pepboatella

So you feel like visiting Prague, do you? Book your flights here!

In general the rule is that the further north you go in Italy, the more entrenched is the habit to enjoy the appetizer. Not surprisingly, the Piedmont area is known for the production of vermouth with brands such as Martini, Cinzano and Carpano.

The vermouth was invented in the cellar of Antonio Carpano’s in Turin in 1786 and from there the Piedmontese nobility made it fashionable. There are other versions that trace their origin to Hippocrates, the famous Greek physician who mixed white wine with plants like the wormwood to create a beverage for medicinal purposes. But it was not until 1838 that the brothers Giuseppe and Luigi Cora began to develop it industrially and distributed it worldwide.

Now the word vermouth has a more generic meaning. It refers both to the drink and to eat a tapa before lunch. In Italy the starter is not at noon as in Spain, but after work. It usually starts from 18:00 and end at 21:00 AM and is an economical way to take a break from work while sipping a drink and snacks, which can be alcoholic or not.

A very common option is the spritz, -with aperol, champagne, an orange slice and ice- the Negroni -with gin, campari, vermouth and an orange slice- the mascerotti -with wine, soda and champagne- or the Amaretti di Voltaggio, which goes along with their famous focaccia, savory pastries and other delicacies.

In Genoa, a port where botanical species from around the world arrived, the habit is strictly fulfilled and the tastiest appetizers are prepared. Here vermouth is a deeply ingrained habit, a social act that almost no one renounces. A moment to enjoy after work, listening to the tinkling of ice crashing.

You can have it in the historical premises or in the modern establishments that agglutinate especially in the Piazza delle Erbe, San Donato, Via San Bernardo or Porto Antico area.

Here’s the theory, now let's put it into practice!

Pasticceria Liquoreria Marescottis Cavo
Via di Fossatello, 35R and 37R

In the old town of Genoa, -the largest medieval quarter in Europe- you can find this historic café, bakery and liquor store. A local that dates back from the eighteenth century, which retains its old Charles X style furniture and a floor designed by Rubens himself. Tourists come to the establishment to observe the "prettiest pastry Genoa", to try their high quality confectionery and the Marescotti appetizer, a herbal vermouth.
You must keep an open mind to find the restaurant on the first floor because they have no sign.

Le Corbusier
Via di San Donato, 36R

Another historic local is Le Corbusier, specialists in cocktails-some self-created- and that has gained prestigious national and international awards. Martini itself can be found in twelve different variants.

Caffè il Barbarossa
Piano di Sant Andrea 23
www.cafeilbarbarossa.com

With an enviable location -very close to the house where Christopher Columbus lived-, and one of the most fun places to enjoy the most original appetizer in Genoa with its pleasant outdoor area, especially during summer.
The Caffè Barbarossa offers a wide range of whiskeys, cocktails and international wines and sparkling Genoese, in their restaurant, you will find vegetarian and vegan dishes. Look closely at their walls where the original rates of the brothels of the historical town hang.

Libreria delle Erbe
Piazza delle Erbe, 25R

An old bookstore downtown now transformed into a modern place. It still retains the spirit of the literary coffee -to consult and buy books-but, while enjoying cultural interventions you can also have a good coffee, snacks, cocktails, wines and beers.
They have a full weekly program of activities for lovers of art and culture.

Picture by Termolan

We’ll be there. If you want to come too, check out our flights here.