AZERBAIJAN - Land of Fire and Design

Neither Europe nor Asia, Azerbaijan is an incredible tangle of contradictions and contrasts.

  Refusing someone offering you tea is a strong indicator you don’t like that person. When receiving a gift, you’re supposed to refuse a few times before actually taking it. If you’re offering a present, insist by all means. Remove your shoes upon entering and don’t display the soles of your feet. Don’t even think about crossing your legs! Avoid chewing gum, pointing fingers and randomly touching people. They don’t appreciate it. Also, never, ever, mention Armenians. You can’t possibly imagine the reactions you’ll get.

It’s a fascinating nexus of ancient historical empires. Yet it’s also a new nation finding its feet as it emerges from a war-torn post-Soviet chrysalis on a petroleum-funded gust of optimism. Surrounded by semi-desert on the oil-rich Caspian Sea, the nation’s cosmopolitan capital Baku is a dynamic boomtown, where flashy limousines and mushrooming skyscrapers sweep around a picturesque Unesco-listed ancient core. Yet barely three hours’ drive away lies an entirely different world: 

Timeless villages clad in lush orchards from which shepherd tracks lead into the soaring high Caucasus mountains. Where Baku is multilingual and go-ahead, the provinces shuffle to the gently paced click of nard (backgammon) on tree-shaded teahouse terraces: women stay home, herds of cattle wander aimlessly across highways, and potbellied bureaucrats scratch their heads in confusion on finding that an outsider has wandered into their territory.

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BRUSSELS EUROPEAN CROSSROADS

 Full of contrasts, contradictions and intrigue, this is a multicultural equation that goes much deeper than just red tape and Eurocrats. An historic heirloom is closer to the mark. And in an age where so much is already discovered, Belgium’s capital seduces as one of Western Europe’s unknowns. 

Brussels is a city of fine food, café culture, Art Nouveau architecture and the surreal. Pull up a chair and join laissez-faire locals who value the city’s casual atmosphere. Watch money go down on swish Ave Louise or buy dried caterpillars just blocks away in Matonge, the capital’s African quarter. Some of the world’s most enduring images of surrealist art were created in the nondescript northern suburb of Jette. And the architecture ranges from monumental edifices such as the Grand Place to organic Art Nouveau façades and the EU’s real-life Gotham City.

Constant among all this is the quality of everyday life – the shopping’s great, the restaurants fab, the chocolate shops sublime and the pub scene extraordinary. For a long time Brussels didn’t go out of its way to impress, but its stint as Cultural Capital of Europe in 2000 saw the city dusted and polished in a flurry that brought renewed life to historic buildings and decaying streets. A new spirit, just short of cockiness, emerged, flaming outside interest and inner-city regeneration. Nearly a decade on, Brussels is looking better than ever.

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Montenegro the new beauty of the Balkans

A beguiling mix of drop dead gorgeous landscapes, vibrant culture that mixes Slavic, Italian and Central European flavours, ancient towns and bustling fishing ports, Croatia has oodles of holiday appeal. And did we mention the sea? 1778km of glistening coastline just crying out for sailing, swimming and kayaking in the clearest of Adriatic waters. Bliss.

From the cobbled streets and red-rooved houses of medievel Dubrovnik to the charming fishing harbour of Hvar, the chic walled town of Korcula to the vibrant city of Split - gateway to the Dalmation Islands - a luxury holiday in Croatia offers lashings of culture, beautiful historic towns and miles of lovely beaches just waiting to be explored.

 Passion4luxury recently featured the luxury Aman Sveti Stefan Resort that was once a fishing village.

 Meanwhile in Montenegro, the secret is finally out. Just a couple of hours drive from Dubrovnik, outstanding natural beauty and rich cultural heritage combine here to create an unexplored and compelling luxury holiday or honeymoon destination. THE place to stay? Well it has to be in Sveti Stefan at the new Aman Sveti Stefan hotel which blends definitive luxury with authentic tradition and charm.

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VATICAN - THE SMALLEST STATE

Vatican City is the smallest independent state in the world with a total area of 0.44 square kilometers and the total length of the state border of 3 kilometers.

The "border" is quite symbolic. It's a white line on the pavement along the outer perimeter of St. Peter's Square and the defense wall built in the XVI century to prevent trespassing. Actually, this type of wall surrounds any monastery or a bastion. Vatican has neither border guards nor passport control, but it has a certain dress code. Since Vatican is a religious country, visitors are supposed be dressed appropriately (no shorts or cleavage). However in general, Vatican and its majestic monuments belong to a long list of Rome landmarks. 

Vatican has almost two thousand years of history. Mons Vaticanus hill was here in the past; the name is translated from Latin as "the place of divination." It was considered sacred in ancient Rome. The Circus of Nero was built here, a place where the ruthless emperor tortured his victims. Also, it was in this circus that Saint Peter met his death. In 326 A.C., when Christianity came to this land, Constantinian Basilica was built atop of alleged tomb of Saint Peter, which gave start to Papal State. 

It rapidly expanded, and by the end of XIX century it occupied most of the Apennine peninsula. In 1870 the Kingdom of Italy seized the papal lands. At that time the Pope locked himself in the Vatican Hill, declaring himself a prisoner. It took six decades to settle the political confrontation between the Italian Government and the Papacy. So in 1929 Vatican City State became a sovereign territory of the Holy See. 

Despite its small territory, Vatican City has fabulous treasures. The treasures have accumulated gradually, and over time this collection has grown so much that now it requires separate museums. So today the main Vatican landmarks contain priceless works of art, created by famous artists and sculptors. 

Famous St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City is more than just a tourist attraction. It's the heart of the country, a symbol of Catholicism and, until recently, the largest Christian church in the world. It employed several generations of great artisans, including Raphael and Michelangelo.

The church has the internal floor area 15160 square meters (with total area about 23000 square meters). Its height is 133 meters and length is 211.5 meters (with portico). The dome sits on top of four heavy pillars; it has an inner height of 119 meters and 42 meters in diameter. St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City has given up its first place only recently. In 1990 a church in the capital of Cote d'Ivoire, an African country, surpassed it in size. But even this largest Christian church was built after St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City!

And of course, we should mention the giant Cathedral Square, which was built to accommodate maximum number of believers. It's a world masterpiece of urban planning. It has monumental fountains and an obelisk, which contains pieces of the Holy Cross. At nighttime the square is illuminated, creating a special atmosphere in this sacred place. 

Of course, Vatican City is more than just a church, the square, and museums. Over a half of the city-state territory is filled with gardens established during Renaissance and Baroque era by order of the Pope. Most of the gardens are well maintained, but there are wild areas with dense thickets of oak, cypress and other wild trees. There are bats, snakes, rabbits, and birds in the gardens! As well as Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Pius IV villa decorated with mosaics, palaces, towers, college, and the Vatican Railway: cleanest and most un-crowded train station in the world.

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Cuba, land of Lyberty

Where else do you find vintage American cars running off Russian Lada engines, ration shops juxtaposed against gleaming colonial palaces, and revolutionary sloganeering drowned out by all-night parties?

Habaneros (inhabitants of Habana) love their city and it’s not difficult to see why. Amid the warm crystalline waters of the sparkling Caribbean, over 500 years of roller-coaster history have conspired to create one of Latin America’s most electric and culturally unique societies. The stomping ground for swashbuckling pirates, a heavily fortified slave port for the Spanish and a lucrative gambling capital for the North American Mafia, Habana has survived everything that has been thrown at it and still found time to innovate. At the forefront of modern Latino culture, Habana has spawned salsa and mambo, Havana Club rum and Cohiba cigars, mural painting and Che Guevara iconography… And the list goes on.

But with its crumbling tenements and increasingly traffic-clogged streets, Habana is no conventional beauty. Despite boasting colonial edifices to rival Buenos Aires and a dramatic coastline to match California, the city lacks the jaw-dropping magnificence of Paris or the spectacular physical setting of Rio de Janeiro. Instead, a large part of Habana’s attraction lies in the visceral and the abstract. Walk the mildewed neighborhoods of Centro Habana or Vedado and you’ll soon pick up the scent – here a mysterious Santería ritual, there a couple of drummers pounding out a rumba beat. The ins and outs are often hard to define and the contradictions endlessly confusing – perhaps this is why Habana’s real essence is so difficult to pin down. Plenty of writers have had a try, though; Cuban intellectual Alejo Carpentier nicknamed Habana the ‘city of columns,’ Federico Lorca declared that he had spent the best days of his life there and Graham Greene concluded that Habana was a city where ‘anything was possible.’

But thorn or flower, Habana’s mesmerizing powers will quickly lure you in. The opportunities to lose yourself in the melee are limitless – take a guided tour around Habana Vieja’s enchanting colonial monuments, experience the pizzazz of a late-night cabaret show, stroll along the Malecón (Av de Maceo) as the waves crash over the sidewalk, or admire the skillful reconstruction job on a sleek, streamlined 1956 Cadillac.

Traditional sights aside, Habana’s greatest attraction is its earthy authenticity. This is no trussed-up tourist resort or cynically concocted amusement park. There are museums here, of course, along with beautifully preserved palaces, top-notch hotels and rather tasty restaurants. But walk a couple of blocks north of leafy Parque Central and you’ll suddenly find yourself on the set of a real-life Elia Kazan movie, a dusty 1950s time warp where workingclass mothers still go shopping with their hair in rollers and young kids play baseball in the street with sticks and rolled-up balls of plastic.

While 50 years of Socialism have taken their toll on Habana’s fragile social and economic fabric, the indomitable spirit of its citizens is a constant source of inspiration. In a society that invented camel buses, stretch Ladas and steaks made from grapefruit skin, survival is second nature and personal sacrifice almost a rite of passage. But how ever much you fall in love with this flawed yet utterly seductive city, capturing it in a sentence will always be a conundrum. ‘Habana is very much like a rose,’ said Fico Fellove in the movie The Lost City, ‘it has petals and it has thorns…so it depends on how you grab it. But in the end it always grabs you.’

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