It’s back to Italy again since our Italian user community has been very active recently. One of the pictures from Italy that was uploaded within the past few days was from the town of Gallipoli. Due to its location and climate, tourism has long been an important industry in Gallipoli; one of the attractions enjoyed by tourists have been the beaches, including the Spiaggia di Lido San Giovanni.

Have a look at people taking a rest on that beach some 69 years ago:

Spiaggia di Lido San Giovanni in 1940

It looks like not much has changed in the way people spend their time on the beach now, except that kayaks have been introduced since:

Spiaggia di Lido San Giovanni nowadays

Update (19 Mar 2009): after reading this post, user ledy2 who uploaded the first picture of Lido San Giovanni, added one more photo of the place, taken in 1955. In his own words (according to Google’s translation from Italian): “where there was wood, behold, cement …”

Lido di San Giovanni in 1955

Related links:

Wikipedia article on Gallipoli

Web discounts for Gallipoli hotels

Technorati Tags: history, holidays, photos, travel

We’re back from our snowboard holidays now, recovering from a broken finger and several other injuries:) What that also means is that we are back to writing posts for this blog. While we were away, user cityweb posted this picture of the Bagni Pancaldi baths in Livorno, with visible signs of the 1944 bombings:

Signs of 1944 bombings in Livorno

Compare that with this picture, available on the Bagni Pancaldi website, which shows how the baths are beautifully maintained nowadays:

Modern view of Pancaldi Acquaviva

Technorati Tags: history, holidays, photos, travel

There are many Lafayettes around the globe, but most of them are located in the U.S. One of them is the old capital of the Yamhill County, Oregon and it prides itself in its over 160 years history. Take a look at this 1946 picture of Kelty Estate, a 136-year-old B&B built in Colonial Revival style, posted by our user headgorilla2008 from the Yamhill County Historical Association:

675 3rd Street, Lafayette, Oregon, U.S.

The building is being carefully taken care of now, so it might look very similar today, especially if winter over there is as harsh as in Europe at the moment.

Technorati Tags: architecture, history, holidays, photos, travel