itravelnet.com Travel Blog

Learned Pig - Siena, Italy.

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Spend longer than 5 minutes in Italy and you will realise that Italians are nuts about Nutella. Here is a cafe dedicated to the chocolatey spread in Bologna.

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Pigeons by the thousands at the Piazza of San Marco, Venice.

Labels: italy, pigeons, rats with wings, venice

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Trieste is situated in the North East corner of Italy. I knew very little about Trieste, as it seems most people do as well. I did know that James Joyce spent 11 years in exile from Ireland here.

Trieste is a beautiful city with its Adriatic waterfront, grand apartments and commercial buildings and, weather permitting, the Alps as a backdrop. All this and hardly any tourists. If you were to go into exile in a city in Europe, then I can think of no better place - no one would find you here.

Trieste was the principle port for the Habsburg Empire when it controlled these lands. So the city looks Austrian but it feels Italian. Here you find Vienese style cafes alongside Italian pizzarias.



The lack of crowds is more apparent if you have just come from Venice, two hours train ride west of Trieste.

Labels: adriatic, habsburg, illy, italy, james joyce, trieste

Posted by James Clark - editor of itravelnet.com
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Posted by James Clark - editor of itravelnet.com
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I was taken to this place by a friend, otherwise I would never have found this place. £2.95 all you can eat is one of the best deals in London. It is in Chapel Market near the Angel tube station.

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I would be the first to agree that England Rocks, as a land and for its musical output. As the list here shows, England has produced some of the greatest rock acts of all time, but AC/DC! Now that is cheeky. They are an Aussie band even though most of the original members were immigrants. Even if you were to use that point to discredit Australia's claim to Acca Dacca (what other country could come up with a nick name "Acca Dacca"?), the Youngs and Bonn Scott were Scottish anyway.

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Archibald Alexander Leach, born in Bristol, England in 1904. Most people know him as Cary Grant.

Labels: archibald alexander leach, bristol, cary grant, england

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Brunel's ss Great Britain in Bristol. ss Great Britain

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Where there's surf, there's Australians. Aussie theme pub Walkabout overlooking the beach at Newquay, England.

Labels: england, newquay, walkabout

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Newquay in Cornwall, Southwest England is the surf capital of Britain, if you can say such a thing.

Labels: britain, cornwall, england, newquay, surf

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Out of all the counties that I have visited in England, Cornwall, more than anywhere in England, you have a sense of what county you are in.

Cornwall is at the tip of the south-west peninsula of Britain. It is bounded by sea and County Devon. Its Celtic heritage and geography helps in fostering the Cornish identity.

Driving to Cornwall from Plymouth in Devon you cross the Tamar Bridge over the River Tamar. Here you are greeted with the Cornish coat of arms and Cornish flag. People in Cornwall refer to themselves as Cornish more so than English.

Cornwall Links

Cornish Not English

Cornish Assembly

Cornwall Commonwealth Games Association

Labels: celtic, cornish, cornwall, england

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Coat of arms of Germany.

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Kölner Dom (Cologne Cathedral) houses what is said to be the remains of the Magi (the three wise men).



The Shrine of the Three Kings makes Colognes Cathedral one of great pilgrimage churches of Europe.

Labels: cathedral, cologne, dom, germany, magi, three wise men

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Labels: berliners, cologne, germany

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Building at Neumarkt, Cologne - Germany

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I seem to find myself at Maoz all the time when I'm in Amsterdam. Good falafels that you pack yourself.

Labels: amsterdam, falafel, maoz, netherlands

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Labels: amsterdam, netherlands, urinal

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The buildings in Amsterdam lean forward slightly. It is not sinking nor a trick of the eye after a day on the smoke. The fronts lean forward slightly so furniture can be hoisted up via the hooks that hang from the top.

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Amsterdam has this new tourism slogon everywhere, including this one in front of the Rijksmuseum. It's similar to Londons current Totally London campaign, but it works much better. This giant "I amsterdam" is a great photo opportunity as well.

If I was coming up with a slogon I think amsterdam cool would be an apt slogon for Amsterdam.

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Posted by James Clark - editor of itravelnet.com
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The area around Centraal Station and Damrak, the main street leading from the station, is a great mess of construction activity. There is a new subway line being built, the Noord-Zuid-Lijn (North-South Line), which is due to completed in 2011.

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KLM homebase, Amsterdam Schiphol.

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A view of the river Thames and Greater London from a flight between London Gatwick and Amsterdam Schiphol.

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Royal Mail Boxes in the U.K are marked with the initials of the reigning monarch. Most of the boxes are ER II. Occasionally you can find a George box, or rarer still Victoria.


Elizabeth (London)


George (Cambridge)


Victoria (Warwick)

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