Brindisi, known as the "Gateway to the East" because formerly strategic port of way for the Roman troops and its proximity to Greece and links with Turkey and Albania, is also the starting point for discovering the beauty of the countryside and small villages of his province, that spread along the coast and inland, in the valley of Itria, a journey that reveals the traces of its past with places full of art and history.

Itria Valley spread the provinces of Bari, Brindisi and Taranto and is known as the land of the Trulli (Valle dei Trulli). It is an ancient circular building with a conical shape and stone deck very characteristics of the area, you'll find scattered throughout the valley, but especially well preserved in places like Alberobello or Locorotondo.

There is an extensive network of green routes perfectly entitled to travel by bicycle and discover the beauty of its vast territory, winding through towns like Ceglie Messapica, Mesagne, Ostuni, San Vito dei Normans or Francavilla Fontana.

Brindisi

Brindisi has a great promenade but if you get into its narrow streets, you will discover its beautiful historical center that keeps many surprises, like many churches, Roman monuments and palaces. In Brindisi ends Via Appia, which was the most important road of ancient Rome. The 'Regina Viarum "connected Rome with Capua with its 530 km long, extending from the Porta Sebastiano of Rome to Brindisi, where two columns indicated its end point (nowadays only one of them is preserved). It was ordered to built in 312 BC by the censor Appius Claudius Caecus.

The white city of Ostuni

Called the White City for its picturesque whitewashed houses, Ostuni stands with all its beauty on three hills, giving it the appearance of an ancient Greek city. The city center is enclosed among Aragonese walls that remain from the original fifteen and the defenses surrounding the medieval city. Inside the fortress, there is a fascinating maze of narrow streets that lead to small squares and tangled alleys and stairs leading to the top, where we find the majestic Cathedral, and from where we can admire amazing views of olive trees plains.

Cisternino

On one of the terraces Mugia there is one of the jewels of Italy; Cisternino is one of the most beautiful towns in Italy. Cisternino, the capital of the Itria Valley, has received one orange flag thanks for the preservation of its historical city center. It is delicious to walk among the palaces of Amatialacio and Capece, the tower Normanda or severals ancient churches. Porches, white houses with flowered balconies, narrow alleyways, patios and stairs make the stroll through this delightful old village.

Natural Reserve of Torre Guaceto

The marine protected area and nature reserve of Torre Guaceto is just under 30 miles from Brindisi. Fortunately, this area has remained virtually untouched, apart from the wild constructions that have flooded other parts of the coast. This small oasis of tranquility allows cycling on the roads of scrub and olive trees, diving to admire the beauty of its coral reefs and seabed vegetation or simply enjoy its sandy beaches and crystal clear waters.

Grottoes of Castellana

A walk of about two hours into the depths of this underground world, which runs between stalactites and stalagmites, and that takes you to the White Grotto, a beautiful cave with limestone formations reflected in the underground lake creating a visual spectacle indescribable.

Cisternino by Kiuz | Grottoes of Castellana by tango7174 | Ostuni by Dronkitmaster | Torre Guaceto by Yoruno | Trulli by yellow.cat

Makes you want to go, right? Do it! Check out our prices here!

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.

At noon on 29 July each year, in the small Pontevedran church of San Xosé de Ribarteme, one of the most unusual processions in the world sets out – the Romaxe dos cadaleitos (Procession of the Coffins) of Santa Marta de Ribartemeo. San Xosé de Ribarteme is in the municipality of As Neves, some 30 kilometres from Vigo, which for centuries remained isolated from the influence of traditional, orthodox Catholicism.

The effigy of St Martha is paraded at the procession of Santa Marta de Ribarteme,protectress of the helpless and patroness of lost causes, one of the most devoutly worshipped virgins in the community. She is also the sister of Mary Magdalene and Lazarus, who was raised from the dead by Christ after having been dead for three days. Alongside her effigy and the images of St Benedict and the Virgin of Carmen, a funeral cortege comprising open coffins with living people insidefiles past, the coffins held aloft by family and friends. It is a profound act of faith, combining religion and symbology, by which the faithful intend to fulfil a promise they have made to St Martha out of gratitude for having survived some near-death experience. As the cortege files past, the other pilgrims sings the praises of the virgin’s healing powers to the rhythm of drums and the constant pealing of bells.“Virgin St Martha, Star of the North, we bring you those who saw death”.

The enactment breathes spirituality and a devotion typical of the Galician heartland. Visitors may be shocked by the scene, but every year more and more faithful, tourists and passers-by come to this small Galician village to experience this special moment. Galicia is a land of legends in which death and resurrection often play a major role. Stories which unfold across misty landscapes, like the one about the Holy Campaign – a procession of tormented souls who, in their grim wanderings, visit the homes where someone is about to die. This mysticism is part of the land’s charm – to discover the essence of Galicia, one has to come to terms with its ancestral customs.

In the International Limelight

The procession is arousing increasingly more interest among tourists and journalists around the world. It even came to the notice of The Guardian which ranked it the second most unusual festivity in the world, a fact which has increased its fame even further. Other landmarks in the area have also come to the prestigious newspaper’s notice – it has classed Rodas Beach and the Cíes Islands, in the archipelago of the same name in Pontevedra province, as the most beautiful in the world.

The journal, National Geographic, also set its sights on the Rías Baixas in a documentary on cultural traditions and communities around Europe. In the course of its making, the television presenter, Darren McMullen, got heavily involved in the action by climbing into one of the processionary coffins.

«El Concello de As Neves»

The Concello de As Neves municipality, closely linked to the river Miño, which forms the natural border with Portugal along a 10-kilometre stretch, is an ideal spot for delving into the past. This is evident at A Pedra da Moura, in the Taboexa parish district, and Monte das Carboeiras, in Liñares, as well as in the military vestiges at Cividá, Rocha and Altamira. The beautiful landscapes of As Neves can be viewed from several routes skirting the Miño riverbanks, notably the Sendeiro dos Pescadores de As Neves, which winds along the Galician side of the river, and the Ruta do Patrimonio Natural e Histórico-Artístico, a circular route which traverses the thirteen parish districts in the As Neves municipality.

Concello de As Neves also boasts fine cuisine, with such local produce as lamprey, baby eel, game, honey and queixo (cheese) das Neves, ideally washed down with a white wine from the Miño riverbanks such as Condado or Albariño, or the Rubios red.

Come and live out this extraordinary experience. Check out our flights to Vigo here.

Text by Scanner FM

Images by Ricardo Grobas for Vivir Galicia Turismo, Galicia Maxica, Un paseo o una foto

But, what and where is Lapland? This is a tough question. This territory, above the Artic circle is divided between Finland, Sweden, Norway and Russia. However, officially Lapland is where the Sami live. Generally, people refers to Lapland in Finland or Sweden, neither Norway or Russia refer to their territory under this name, and usually Lapland (or Laponian region) is the name used to the union of the Swedish and Finnish areas.

For the matter of this post, we should go to the north of Finland, in the Finnish Lapland. The capital is Rovaniemi, an iconic place in which the line of the Artic circle passes across. This is an area to start wild adventures, among thick forests and wooden houses (mökki) there is the highest mountain in the country, some of its fjords and one of the best places in Finland to see Northern lights and enjoy the amazing view of the sun at midnight.

This area is known for being Santa Claus hometown (Santa in Finnish is Joulupukki). The translation is quite confusing: “Joulu” means Christmas, all right, but “pukki” means, literally, deer or goat. Years ago, people was afraid of him and nobody knows when, eventually, he became the charming elder he is now. The tradition of Joulupukki is from the beginning of the 19th century, even most of the Finnish tradition was lost after the story of Santa Claus was Americanized.

Thousands of letters are sent to the postal code of this town with tones of Christmas whises. They are collected and arranged by Santa’s hard-working assistants, the elfs. Attention! The address is: Santa Claus, 96930 Polar Circle, Finland. When Santa Claus gets to people’s houses he asks "Onkos täällä kilttejä lapsia?" (There are well-behaved kids here?), and kids should answer a convincing yes to receive the gifts.

It’s not only Santa Claus who makes Rovaniemi one of the most visited places in Finland. Around his figure and Christmas traditions, Santa Claus village was built, about 8 kilometers northeast from Rovaniemi. This is a theme park to do some shopping, participate in gifts workshops or simply enjoy a great variety of activities.

You can also visit Joulukka, the place where elves prepare the trip for Santa Claus. You will find out how elves live, you’ll be able to help them bake ginger cookies with Christmas decoration and they will guide you to meet Santa Clause.

Do you want to see what is Santa Claus doing right now? Easy! Santa is so updated on new technologies and he has cameras streaming live his daily work. One camera is outside the office and the other is inside to watch how he gets ready for this special day.

A good option to go from Helsinki to Rovaniemi is taking the high-speed train, which takes only 10 hours. You’ll feel like the main character in the animation movie “Polar Express” who takes this train on Christmas Eve to meet Santa.

But, besides the visit to the land of Santa Clause, there are many other things to do while you are in Helsinki for your winter trip.

Even Finnish people use the sauna all the year, the contrast with the freezing cold outside is the best way to enjoy a hot sauna to get over the cold. Or, for those looking for unforgettable experiences, you should try avantouinti. What is that? There a clubs in Finland to practice ice swimming. They make a hole in the ice of a lake (the hole is called ‘avanto’) and they get in the freezing water after the sauna. They state it has beneficial effects for your health but be careful or you’ll get a cold.

The winter in Finland is the greatest time to take stunning nature photos. The snowy landscapes are unforgettable memories from your trip and the whole country is covered in white most of the winder. Take advantage to the opportunity of practicing winter sports too. Skiing or skating over iced lakes is such a unique experience.

Pictures by Tarja Ryhannen

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