Editor’s note: I loved my week in Seoul. I wrote about it. It was great. But there is a vast difference between spending a few days as a visitor and living there, as writer Mike shares with us here. For more of Mike’s writing, click here to visit his index page on The Royal Tour,…
It seems that every dynasty has that one monarch somewhere down the line who gets to define the house. Sometimes it is due to greatness - and indeed the number of monarchs with that epithet probably all qualify - and sometimes it is for another quality. Sometimes it is for a specific deed, guiding the…
Editor’s note: While it holds a majority of the state’s population, it seems so many visitors to Hawaii view Oahu as a last choice for an island to stay on. That is truly a shame, and in this piece, Jackie Gish explains why Oahu deserves a visit. I happen to agree! For more of Jackie’s…
Editor’s note: I believe this is Sam’s final piece from his travels in Morocco, and just in time, since the final arrangements for my own journey are being made this week. (I’ll be there in April and May of next year, and doing my own writing to supplement these amazing guides.) Make sure to click…
Gazing across Marsamxett Harbor at the skyline of Valletta is a surreal experience. The capital of the tiny island nation of Malta is itself minute, almost pocket sized, with a population of around 6,000. (However, the Valletta area contains the majority of the country’s residents, at about 400,000, and it feels like a single entity.)…
Palermo, the capital of and largest city in Sicily, has a history that dates back thousands of years. Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Byzantine… all of these civilizations had settlements or large cities here. But the golden age of Palermo, and indeed all of Sicily, began with the Arab conquest of the island starting in 826. Palermo…
Editor’s note: when visiting a major city, I like to plan at least one day trip. It’s a pleasant change of scenery and pace, as well as a chance to see something new while not changing my lodging. This day trip from Bangkok to Ayutthaya is exactly the sort of thing I’d love, and I’m…
In 1453, Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II and his army conquered Constantinople, putting an end to the Byzantine Empire. (Read more about Constantinople and Byzantine Istanbul here.) The victorious Turks renamed the city Istanbul, moving their capital here, where it remained until the fall of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War One. While…
Note: since writing this article, the Danish Queen Margrethe has announced her abdication, with her son Frederik ascending to the throne. So while I have endeavored to replace instances referencing the Queen as the current monarch, please excuse any I missed. It is, in theory, the oldest continuous monarchy in the world. Dating back to…
It is easy to see why this place has been a retreat for Rome’s elite since imperial days. Tivoli, a small town in the hills about twenty miles outside the city, is - quite literally - a breath of fresh air from the chaotic Italian capital. Today a town of about 50,000 (although walking around…