Have a look at this interesting picture of Sestriere in Italy, posted by user calval:

Sestriere - Italian ski resort

Originally, Sestriere was a sheepherding community; in the 1930s it was developed into a ski resort by one of Fiat bosses and is used as such until today. Moreover, in 2006 during the Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Sestriere hosted plenty of events. That is largely due to its location at snow-secure 2000 meters. What is really amazing is the type of architecture you can encounter there - it is quite unusual for these altitudes.

Related Links

Sestriere website

Web discounts for Sestriere hotels

Technorati Tags: history, photos, travel

Today we are posting a really old picture - have a look at this great photograph of Almshouses in Colton, UK, taken as early as 1885:

Almshouses in Colton, Staffordshire, UK

These six Almhouses, also known as The Barracks, were built in 1793 to serve the poor of Colton. Some of the ladies you can see in the picture could have been born in the 18th century!

This picture was uploaded by the Colton History Society - on their website you can find a lot of articles about the history of this village located just outside of Rugeley in Staffordshire.

Related links

Wikipedia article on Colton

Web discounts for Rugeley hotels

Technorati Tags: history, people, photos, travel

Kadzielnia - Kielce, Poland

User www.kielce.vel.pl has posted this picture of the Kadzielnia hill in Kielce, Poland. Kielce is a city of about 200,000 citizens with history dating back to the origins of Poland in the 10th century. For the last 500 years, Kielce was an important industrial city due to its richness in natural resources. The picture above is a good example of that - since the 18th century until the 1960s, natural lime resources in the Kadzielnia hill were extracted in an open-pit mine. Afterwards the area was turned into a nature reserve with an emerald-coloured lake and an amphitheatre for 5000 spectators, drilled in the hill’s stone.

Related links:

Wikipedia article on Kielce

Web discounts for Kielce hotels

Technorati Tags: history, industry, photos, travel

We’re back to Italy again today thanks to our user calval and we are looking at one of Ferrara’s landmarks - the Aqueduct.  It is 37 meters high and made from concrete. Unlike many real aqueducts which you can find in Italy, and which date back to the Roman times, this one was built as late as the 1930s. It’s more ancient Roman than you probably think though - did you know that concrete was widely used by Romans (it was invented by Assyrians though)?

Aqueduct of Ferrara

The Ferrara aqueduct is located in the Garden District, a lovely area which is at the same time green, quiet, centrally located and full of nightspots such as bars and cafes (is that really possible?). All of that makes it a  popular meeting point, especially among the young part of the Ferrara population.

Ferrara aqueduct in 2008

Related links:

Wikipedia article on Ferrara

Ferrara hotels

Technorati Tags: architecture, history, photos, travel

Penzance, United Kingdom, is famous for many things, for example the English expression “From Orkney to Penzance” - for being located in the southernmost area of England. Another one is the opera “The Pirates of Penzance”, the title of which does not really correspond to this town’s peaceful character. Have a look at this picture of cable layers from the 1920s, posted by HistoGrafica user vingoe. The area where the picture was taken is called Causeway Head and is nowadays a pedestrian precinct with a wide selection of shops.

Cable layers in Causeway Head, Penzance, UK

Related Links:

Wikipedia article on Penzance

Hotels in Penzance

Technorati Tags: history, people, photos, travel

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

That is quite a coincidence - today is Saint Patrick’s Day in Ireland and our new user sirfmemon has posted a very interesting picture of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in Karachi, Pakistan:

Saint Patrick's Cathedral, Karachi, Pakistan

The Cathedral was built in 1845 and is an exquisite example of neo-Gothic style - probably people who haven’t been to Pakistan wouldn’t expect to encounter this architectural style there. But there it is - and it’s still standing today, accompanied by the Chris the King monument, built after the picture above was taken:

St. Patrick's Cathedral in Karachi nowadays

Technorati Tags: architecture, history, 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

Some things never change. One of them is London being one of the world’s most vibrant cities. Pick up any location in London City and it will be full of people, vehicles, colours and activity. Take Piccadilly Circus as an example - it’s still one of London’s busiest junctions. One more thing has not changed either: it is still running on horsepower (except now it’s mechanical):

Piccadilly Circus 100 years ago

Piccadilly Circus today

Technorati Tags: history, photos, travel

Shopping in Herald Square in New York has been in for at least a hundred years. Fashion victims from 102 years ago could enjoy stores looking like this:

Picture of Herald Square in 1907, posted by user kd

Where do New York shoppers go today? Have a look at this picture from http://newyorkpanorama.com:

Macy's in Herald Square in 2008

Looks like a completely different place, doesn’t it? Well, there is one thing that connects these two pictures, but it’s not too easy to spot.

Have you found it yet? If you look very closely at the building in the centre of the old picture, you’ll notice a sign at the top saying “Macy’s”.  This particular Macy’s store has been there for long, and since 1924, after the 7th Avenue expansion, it has been famous as “The world’s largest store”·

Related links:

Wikipedia article on Herald Square

Web discounts for New York hotels

Technorati Tags: history, photos, travel