TRAVEL writer Ron Smith completes his journey to Sud Tyrol in northern Italy, telling of a tough businesswoman ahead of her time, and of how easily this awe-inspiring part of Europe can be explored using a travel card (Mobilcard, see www.mobilcard.info)...
THE Sud Tyrol in the north of Italy has a very strong culture and identity, and although everywhere here has two names, in Italian and German, the German one is used by the locals, and so I will do so, too.
IT is difficult to know where to start; the whole of Croatia's Dalmatian Coast is bejewelled with so many wonderful places, so I will start at the place where I first arrived – Split.
YOU may not think of Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, as being at the heart of Europe, but our perception of Europe is changing as the EU grows with more and more countries in the East joining.
BELGIUM is a surprisingly interesting and varied country, but suffers from being used as a stepping-stone – too many people just pass through and miss so much. Ghent is the same.
FOR those of us in the North-east and North of Scotland, going on holiday abroad always involves a trail to the south, usually passing through the undignified, degrading, humiliation of Heathrow, being hustled into queues, removing clothing, being shouted at about liquids and only one bag, stand there and remove your glasses, passport out of holder, and so on. I hate it.
LUZERN (pronounced "lute-zern", not "loose sern" as we so often say) is such a picture-postcard pretty town; it is no wonder that it has been popular with tourists for a couple of hundred years.
BEFORE it was blown apart by the First World War, the mighty Austro-Hungarian Empire revolved around four magnificent cities – Vienna, Prague, Bratislava and Budapest.
