13. Guell Park, Barcelona, Spain
The beautiful Guell Park is located in the North of the El Carmel hill, in Catalonia Region of Spain. It has a surface of totally 17 ha and it was projected by the famous architect Antonio Goudi. Its construction began in the 1900s and lasted for 14 years. If you think about visiting this place you will be surprised by the architectural elements and details, beginning with the rivers that seem made of lava, the intertwined paths and finishing with the mosaic pieces which seem to be a sort of keyword of the entire park.
These mosaic pieces are called Trencadis and it was mostly used by the modern Catalan artists. It’s actually made of shards of tile, glass or ceramic. The materials Gaudi used for The Guell Park came from Pujol I Bausis factory. He actually took the pieces, broke them and created several surfaces in order to create a three-dimensional effect and he stacked them on the buildings in the park. This park is located outside the city and its initial purpose was of a human and religious refugee. A lot of the columns in the park were inspired by nature and they look like trees, the windows are designed to look like oversized flowers and the lights imitate drops of water.
12. Portmeirion Village, Wales
If you didn’t hear until now about Portmeirion, it’s time to! The little village in Wales is located in Gwynedd Region and was designed by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975, who wished to imitate an Italian ensemble with the same colored looks. Today, Portmeirion is owned by a charity found, but you get pretty easy access inside, although we talk about a private property. This village was shown in lots of films and TV series among them even The Prisoner (the episode The Village, released in 1960, was entirely filmed here).
Although he was several times accused of plagiarism and that he has entirely coppied the design of the city Portofino from Italy, Sir William-Ellis denied it each time and said that his only purpose was to recreate and bring to Wales the atmosphere on the Mediteranean Sea. Why worth visiting? There are so many reasons, but I think the most important is that the village looks like a fairy tale land, where all your wishes could come true, no matter how impossible they seem. You will find buildings looking as they were made of cotton candy, very alive colors, roads looking like ginger bread and so on. But if you already bought your holiday tickets for this summer, don’t worry, it is open to visitors all year long.
11. Las Vegas, USA
Welcome to Las Vegas! It’s the city where Elvis can come to marry you or you can take a ride on the gondola without stoping by in Venice first! This is probably the most popular American city, it is located in Nevada, U.S.A, Count District and gathers every year millions of visitors and slots addict, maybe also because taxes on these activities are very small here. Unfortunately, criminality here is also high, but don’t leave this … detail ruin your holiday plans! It’s said that “Las Vegas never sleeps”: no matter the hour you decide to leave your place, the streets are crowded, huge lighted commercials are non-stop and you can get any kind of services because the employees here work on separate shifts at any hour.
If you get to Las Vegas, you must try one of the biggest casinos, but our advice: don’t leave all your savings there! You can also take a camera in your trip and admire the spectacular architecture. It was also said several times that this city is the master of kitsch: a lot of very separate elements mixed up together, without any logic, but anyway…not looking bad, either. But you can’t say the same thing about the hotels: they were all built by famous architects and look like true jwelery. Our recommandations include Caesar’s Palace, The Chandelier’s Bar and The Venetian.
10. Isola di Burano, Venice, Italy
This small island is located 7 kilometers away from Venice which means about 40 minutes to travel by motor boats and is inhabited by 2.800 people. Probably the Romans were the first to live here, then the island was inhabited by the Alto tribe, but it’s most probable that The Buranas were the ones who made the place look this way, providing also a name for the island.
The island became famous during the 16th century when women here started selling soft lace they used to produce. But nowadays, the island is famous for its colored houses which manage to attract artists from all over the world. If you like the island so much that you decide to buy a house or even to construct one, you should know that everyone here must send requests to the City Hall in order to find out which is the shade of paint they are allowed to use. There aren’t really many things to do on this island, but a lot of painters decided to move in for their final years of life. Interested in?