Category: Italy 🇮🇹 (Page 1 of 3)

Lisbon is this year’s best-value European city

2023.05.14 / Robert

Every year, Post Office Travel Money compares the costs of short breaks in cities across Europe for UK holidaymakers – overall and for specific items like accommodation, meals and cultural attractions.

Our annual City Costs Barometer helps you see upfront which destinations are the best value or most expensive before planning your trip, including how prices have changed in the past year.

Best-value cities
1. Lisbon £224.76
2. Vilnius £225.01
3. Krakow £250.91
4. Athens £262.22
5. Riga £284.99
6. Porto £325.30
7. Zagreb £329.72
8. Budapest £330.53
9. Warsaw £330.95
10. Lille £332.11

What happens when you become too popular » Travel destinations that want tourists to stay away

2023.05.02 / Robert

According to the Timeout web site, some of the world’s most popular tourist destinations are increasing tourist taxes or otherwise restricting the number of visitors allowed in an effort to reduce over tourism.

Amsterdam
Lanzarote
Bali
Venice
Barcelona
Bhutan
Santorini
Amalfi Coast
Machu Picchu
Thailand

The most populated countries in the world

2023.04.19 / Robert

On 15 November 2022, the world’s population surpassed 8 billion people.

Earth’s population continues to explode » from 1 billion in 1820 to 2 billion in 1930, to 3 billion in 1960, to 4 billion in 1974, to 5 billion in 1987, to 6 billion in 1999, to 7 billion in 2012, and 8 billion in 2022.

Following are the 50 most populated countries using the latest figures available »

India » 1,425,000,000 (April 2023)
China » 1,413,143,000
United States » 339,665,000
Indonesia » 279,476,000
Pakistan » 247,654,000
Nigeria » 230,843,000
Brazil » 218,690,000
Bangladesh » 167,184,000
Russia » 141,699,000
Mexico » 129,876,000
Japan » 123,719,000
Ethiopia » 116,463,000
Philippines » 116,434,000
Democratic Republic of the Congo » 111,860,000
Egypt » 109,547,000
Vietnam » 104,799,000
Iran » 87,591,000
Germany » 84,220,000
Turkiye » 83,594,000
Thailand » 69,795,000
France » 68,522,000
United Kingdom » 68,139,000
Tanzania » 65,643,000
Italy » 61,022,000
South Africa » 58,048,000
Myanmar » 57,970,000
Kenya » 57,052,000
South Korea » 51,967,000
Colombia » 49,337,000
Sudan » 49,18,000
Uganda » 47,730,000
Spain » 47,223,000
Argentina » 46,622,000
Algeria » 44,758,000
Ukraine » 43,306,000
Iraq » 41,266,000
Afghanistan » 39,232,000
Canada » 38,517,000
Poland » 37,992,000
Morocco » 37,067,000
Angola » 35,981,000
Saudi Arabia » 35,940,000
Malaysia » 34,220,000
Ghana » 33,846,000
Mozambique » 32,514,000
Peru » 32,440,000
Yemen » 31,566,000
Uzbekistan » 31,361,000
Nepal » 30,899,000
Venezuela » 30,518,000

Ursula Martin has spent the last two years walking solo from Ukraine to the most westerly point of Spain. And her journey’s not finished.

2021.06.09 / Robert

Jazz Nobel writing in Outdoors Magic »

Ursula Martin defines herself as an ‘extreme rambler’. And that she certainly is. Between 2014 and 2015, she walked 3,700 miles in and around her homeland of Wales, all whilst undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer. Along the way she raised over £12,000 for cancer charities and helped to draw attention to the symptoms of ovarian cancer to thousands of people.

A few years later, Ursula embarked on another trek, hitchhiking from Wales to Eastern Europe to begin a solo walk across the bulk of the continent. Starting in Ukraine, she travelled through the Balkans and into Southern Europe, steadily making her way towards the Atlantic Ocean. All was going well enough until the beginning of 2020, when a roadblock arrived in the form of a global pandemic.

Top 30 countries ranked for adventure (2021)

2021.06.09 / Robert

The US News and World Report has again ranked countries according to how well they break from the norm and fulfill people’s wanderlust and desire for adventure.

The top 30 adventure rankings for 2021 are »

1. Brazil 🇧🇷
2. Italy 🇮🇹
3. Spain 🇪🇸
4. Greece 🇬🇷
5. Thailand 🇹🇭
6. Mexico 🇲🇽 (Up from #11 in 2020)
7. New Zealand 🇳🇿
8. Australia 🇦🇺 (Up from #10 in 2020)
9. Portugal 🇵🇹 (Down from #6 in 2020)
10. Costa Rica 🇨🇷 (Down from #8 in 2020)

Changing conditions for visa-free travel to EU for non-EU nationals from December 2022

2021.06.04 / Robert

From December 2022, non-European Union nationals who do not require a visa to enter the Schengen area, will need to request prior authorisation to visit Schengen countries.

You will be able to apply online for authorisation via the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS).

The ETIAS authorisation is not a visa. Nationals of visa liberalisation countries will continue to travel the EU without a visa but will simply be required to obtain a travel authorisation via ETIAS prior to their travel. ETIAS will be a simple, fast and visitor-friendly system, which will, in more than 95% of cases, result in a positive answer within a few minutes.

An ETIAS travel authorisation does not reintroduce visa-like obligations. There is no need to go to a consulate to make an application, no biometric data is collected and significantly less information is gathered than during a visa application procedure. Whereas, as a general rule, a Schengen visa procedure can take up to 15 days, and can in some cases be extended up to 30 or 60 days, the online ETIAS application only takes a few minutes to fill in. The validity will be for a period of three years, significantly longer than the validity of a Schengen visa. An ETIAS authorisation will be valid for an unlimited number of entries.

The ETIAS travel authorisation will be a necessary and small procedural step for all visa-exempt travellers which will allow them to avoid bureaucracy and delays when presenting themselves at the borders. ETIAS will fully respect this visa-free status; facilitate the crossing of the Schengen external border; and allow visa free visitors to fully enjoy their status.

The exact date on which these changes will come into force is not yet clear.

Updated » Elia Origoni has started a 7,000km solo hike through Italy

2021.06.02 / Robert

Updated 2021.06.02 » Rebecca McPhee of Explorersweb reports »

After walking for 16 weeks, and making his way across 10 regions, the walk has come to an abrupt halt. Origoni is in the hospital with several broken ribs after an avalanche.

Originally published 2021.02.20

Over the next eight months, Elia Origoni plans to hike 7,000 km through his home country, across 20 regions, the Alps, the Apennines, to Italy’s islands. He plans to cover 30 to 40 km per day.

Rebecca McPhee, writing for Explorersweb »

To make the entire journey human-powered, he will row from Sardinia to Sicily, across the Strait of Messina and across Lake Maggiore — 300km in all.

Starting in Santa Teresa di Gallura, a small seaside village on the north coast of Sardinia, he “indulged in one last beer” on February 7 before finding shelter for the night away from the wind. He didn’t bother putting up his tent but came to regret it when it began to pour in the middle of the night.

Video » A quick ride through the Alps of northern Italy

2020.02.14 / Robert

Switzerland remains the best country in the world » Canada has moved up to the second spot » U.S. News 2020 Best Countries rankings

2020.01.15 / Robert

For Switzerland, the 2020 ranking is the the fourth consecutive yearhas been judged No. 1 by residents of 36 countries. Canada was chosen second, overtaking Japan in the U.S. News’ fifth annual survey.

The Best Countries report, produced from an annual global survey of more than 20,000 people in 36 countries including the United States, reflects increasingly negative views of the world and within countries. Nearly half of survey respondents say conditions around the world have worsened in the past year. Likewise, an increased percentage of people say the gap between the rich and poor has grown and that nationalism is increasing.

According to the ranking, here are the Top 25 Countries in the World

Switzerland
Canada
Japan
Germany
Australia
United Kingdom
United States
Sweden
Netherlands
Norway
New Zealand
France
Denmark
Finland
China
Singapore
Italy
Austria
Spain
South Korea
Luxembourg
United Arab Emirates
Russia
Portugal
India

The Bottom 5 of the U.S. News 2020 Best Countries rankings are

Lebanon
Serbia
Oman
Belarus
Tunisia

See the full report.

Japan and Singapore top 2019 list of world’s most powerful passports

2019.10.01 / Robert

Euan McKirdy and Maureen O’Hare at CNN write »

Japan and Singapore have held onto their position as the world’s most travel-friendly passports.

That’s the view of the Henley Passport Index, which periodically measures the access each country’s travel document affords.

Singapore and Japan’s passports have topped the rankings thanks to both documents offering access to 190 countries each.

South Korea rubs shoulders with Finland and Germany in second place, with citizens of all three countries able to access 188 jurisdictions around the world without a prior visa.

Finland has benefited from recent changes to Pakistan‘s formerly highly restrictive visa policy. Pakistan now offers an ETA (Electronic Travel Authority) to citizens of 50 countries, including Finland, Japan, Spain, Malta, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates — but not, notably, the United States or the UK.

The best passports in 2019 are:

1. Japan, Singapore (190 destinations)
2. Finland, Germany, South Korea (188)
3. Denmark, Italy, Luxembourg (187)
4. France, Spain, Sweden (186)
5. Austria, Netherlands, Portugal (185)
6. Belgium, Canada, Greece, Ireland, Norway, United Kingdom, United States, Switzerland (184)
7. Malta, Czech Republic (183)
8. New Zealand (182)
9. Australia, Lithuania, Slovakia (181)
10. Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Slovenia (180)
More at the Henley Passport Index

Notes

» Canada has been ranked 6th four years in a row. They were ranked 2nd in 2014, then dropped to 4th in 2015, and have been holding steady in 6th since 2016.

» The USA been on a steady decline since 2014 when they were ranked 1st. They dropped to 2nd in 2015, 4th in 2016, 5th in 2017 and 2018, and to 6th this year.

» The UK has been on a steady decline in the rankings, dropping from 1st in 2015, to 3rd in 2016, to 4th in 2017, to 5th in 2018, to 6th this year.