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Vittoriosa - one of the Three Cities, Malta 2006

2006 Diana's World Travel Awards

And the nominees are:
Malta
Italy (Milan, Vicenza, Treviso, Torino, Genova, Sicily)
France (Paris and Saint-Denis)
It is with a great pleasure that I announce the winners of this year
World Travel Awards
voted by… me:

2006 World Leading Destination
MALTA
a paradise on earth for all those who admire natural beauty, architecture, history and tradition
And who would ever thought that the peaceful Malta can be also an adventure trip destination: our terrible sea trip to Comino Island was followed by an explosive come back.
It is true that we were on the footsteps of St Paul, but when the boat's engine almost exploded, we all thought that the shipwreck was not in the program. At least not in ours....
But, special destinies are only meant for unique persons, thus we arrived to shore and managed to enjoy other Malta's attractions: Bugibba - Qawra summer resorts, Dingli famous cliffs, Azure Window & Fungus Rock, Ggantija megalithic temples, Ta' Pinu Pilgrimage Church or Marsaxlokk fishing village.

Special Award
ITALY
A business trip turned into a perfect comeback to some Italian cities I really love, the perfect occasion to discover new attractions.
Milan – Italy's largest city, fashion capital and one of the world's major commercial and financial centers.
Vicenza – the city of Palladio's outstanding palaces and villas and home of tasteful Baccala alla Vicentina
Treviso – as the Italians say: "if you see it you fall in love with it"
Genova – with its second largest aquarium in the world and Via Garibaldi, listed by the World Heritage in 2006.
Padova –St Anthony's town, with the small Scrovegni Chapel, whose inner walls are entirely covered with paintings by Giotto.

Best New Destination Award
Sicily
a place like no other; a fantastic day spent between Catania, Taormina and the Etna volcano, the tallest and most active in Europe.

Year's Event
Paris and Saint-Denis
fabulous destinations for a perfect birthday spent in… Tour Eiffel.

Cairo, Egypt - 2005

2005 Diana's World Travel Awards winners

2005 World Leading Destination
EGYPT
a journey back in time to discover the ancient civilization with some of the world's most important monuments, including the Giza Pyramids and Luxor’s Valley of the Kings, walk on the footsteps of the Holy Family in Bilbays, Mostorod and Al-Matariyah, climb Mt. Sinai, visit Aswan's High Dam and the Egyptian's Pearl of the Mediterranean Alexandria

Special Award
Belgium
Antwerp, Mechelen, Leuven, Brussels, Banneux
Austria
Mauthausen and Linz

Best New Destination Awards
Netherlands
we took our clogs and walk along the Amsterdam's canals, admire the famous Dom Tower of Utrecht, enjoy the tasteful Gouda cheese, visit the "international city of peace and justice" - Den Haag and watch the ships in largest habour in Europe, Rotterdam.

Year's Event
XX World Youth Day in Cologne
perfect occasion to meet hundreds of thousands of young people from all over the world, sing, pray and celebrate together with the Holy Father Benedikt XVI and subsequently discover other fantastic German cities: Frankfurt am Main, Aachen, and the surprisingly beautiful sanctuary of Kevelaer.

Year's Comeback
Rome
a journey back to "The City of the Seven Hills" (the coin thrown in the Trevi Fountain really works!) and a fantastic plus: Venice, Ravenna, Lucca, and Genoa.

Trollstigen, Norway

Other Places I love

Norway – the country "where sea meets mountain, where nature creates art".
The impressive statues in Oslo's Frogner Park, Lillehammer's Olympic ski slope, Ringebu and Gol 's amazing stave churches, Loen with its sad story and the great blue Kjenndal glacier and the stunning fjords in Stryn and Geiranger or the dramatic trip on Trollstigen, all of them are part of one of the most wonderful trips I had so far.

Sweden - another Scandinavian jewel, and its capital, Stockholm with the stunning Gamla Stan organized according to a medieval street system, my second favorite town ever, Vadstena and Alvastra - the cities of St Brigitta, Europe's Patron Saint and the wonderful Cathedral in Linkoping.

Denmark - one of the oldest monarchies in the world with its capital, Copenhagen, considered one of the world's best cities in which to live; Roskilde, one of Denmark's oldest cities with its famous Cathedral, the burial place for the Danish royal family and the small town of Hillerod with the most beautiful castle I've seen so far, Frederiksborg.

The Sunken City, Kekova-Simena, Turkey

Turkey - between Asia and Europe, cradle for several civilizations with its 10,000 year-old heritage that can be still discovered in Bergama - the city of the "parchment paper" (Pergamene Kaste) with its wonderful Aesclepion and Acropolis; Selcuk - with the ruins of St. John Basilica and the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the World; Priene (Gullubahce) – with the high cliff of Mt. Mycale, the silent participant to the transformation of the Temple of Athena and the Bulenterion; Miletus (Balat) - homeland of Thales; Tarsus – St Paul’s birthplace; Kale (Myra, Kekova and Simena) - with the spectacular sunken city and the old tombs, the natural wonder - Pamukkale, the cyan waters beach in Kalkan (Patara and Kaputas) and the wonderful discoveries Datca and Knidos with its harbor on two seas.

Rome, the city I love

Dream travels that came or will come true… soon

2005 was definitely my best travel year so far: a comeback to Rome after 5 years plus other new parts of Italy discovered, the participation to the World Youth Day in Cologne with a series of German cities visited along the way plus a week extension to explore Netherlands and Belgium and the top of the tops: Egypt in September.

Following the trace, I have started the New Year 2006 with a week in Paris (the perfect occasion to celebrate my birthday), continued with 10 days to explore the northern part of Italy in May and the fabulous trip to Malta and Sicily at the end of August.

For not loosing my good habits I closed the 2006 season with a week between Austria and Germany at the end of September.

Thanks to a new budget flight to Rome, I have spent another wonderful birthday. A week in the Eternal City is not enough. Was just the occassion to fall in love again... with Rome.

2007 trips:
January: Rome, ITALY
March: Milano and Torino, ITALY
June: Budapest, HUNGARY
July: Torino, ITALY
August: HUNGARY – CROATIA – SLOVENIA – BOSNIA – ITALY - AUSTRIA
Budapesta – Zagreb – Ljubljana – Postojna Caves – Opatija – Rijeka – Plitvicke National Park – Split – Trogir – Medjugorje – Dubrovnik – Bari – Monte Sant'Angelo - San Giovanni Rotondo – Foggia – Pompei – Napoli – Capri Island – Cascia – Assisi – Loreto – Padova – Venice - Graz
September: Munich, GERMANY
October: Milan, ITALY
November: Torino, ITALY

2008 trips:
January: Vienna, AUSTRIA
February: Rome, ITALY
March: Torino and Milan, ITALY
June-July: AUSTRALIA
Sydney - Blue Mountains - Canberra - Melbourne - Great Ocean Road - Mt. Gambier - Adelaide - Cairns - Frankland Islands - Port Douglas - Mossman Gorge - Innisfail - Airlie Beach - Whitsunday Islands - Brisbane - Beerwah - Mooloolaba - Gold Coast - Surfers Paradise - Byron Bay - Coffs Harbour - Newcastle
August: Sardinia, ITALY: Sassari, Cagliari, Tempio Pausania, Castelsardo, Alghero, Grotta di Nettuno, Monte Limbara, Ardara, Villanova Monteleone, Isola Rossa

2008 Planned trips:
September: Vienna, AUSTRIA
October: Golden Sands, BULGARIA

Gamla Stan, Stockholm, Sweden

A hobby to go along with VT and a prize

I love to take pictures.

From my trip to Scandinavia I came back home with more than 5,000 pictures; from Egypt I have 3,500, while Malta left me with another 4,040 plus 900 from the 1-day trip to Sicily all ready for being renamed, arranged and put on VT.

Three of the pictures I took during my trips participated to a contest and proudly made me win a camera.

The family conflict related to the right person to use the camera was finally solved and a new domestic competition is now in place: "who takes the best picture".

The strangest flower I've seen so far

When I was in school I used to be good in writing, but when you spend most of your time plunged into figures you certainly lose this ability.

I don't usually have enough time to do what I like, but visiting Egypt in September 2005 was such a great experience for me that I've decided to share my feelings about the time spent there with other persons.
So I've started to write my VT pages about Egypt and when I finished this job, I found myself so addicted to this that I couldn't stop.

As I said, I'm working with figures, statistics are my "life", but I will not make any top of "my favourite country, monument, people, etc..." because I realized that in every place I visited I found something interesting, new, good, favorite.

I love Italy with the great squares and monuments, but I also love Turkey or Egypt where you can touch the history with your own hand, Norway with the stunning fjords and the stave churches, Sweden that I've always wanted to visit, Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Malta...

Which one is on the first place?

All of them...

Intro Updated Sep 4, 2008
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Comments (190)

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LoriPori Mar 29, 2013 at 5:26 AM

Hello Diana! How have you been? I know that you don't log in to VT much anymore. Did you know that the annual VT Euromeet will be held in Sibiu, Romania this year in June! Hans and I will be there for ten days. It would be so cool to finally meet you there. It's not that far from Bucharest. xx Lori
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Mailo Jan 20, 2013 at 6:36 PM

Feliz Cumpleaños amiga, que tu vida siga llena de cosas maravillosas y mucho amor.
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Jef5 Jan 20, 2013 at 11:36 AM

Happy Birthday, and enjoy life to the fullest.
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codrutz Jan 20, 2013 at 6:04 AM

La multi ani!
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akkipaa Jan 20, 2013 at 5:33 AM

Happy Birthday Diana and greetings from snowy Finland.
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pieter_jan_v Jan 20, 2013 at 12:24 AM

Happy Birthday, PJ
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Minceta Aug 30, 2012 at 5:18 AM

Hello, Diana!

I just saw one of your photos and decided to write you. If you want, we can stay in touch.

Best regards from Belgrade,

Jasmina
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Martin_S. Mar 27, 2012 at 5:20 AM

Enjoyed your souvenier page and if you would like to learn to make what you called "sand coffee", there should be an explanation on my Israel pages. Here it is called "black or Bedouin" coffee.
Martin
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connectingrod Jan 19, 2012 at 10:22 PM

A birthday is just the first day of another 365-day journey around the sun. Enjoy the trip.
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pieter_jan_v Jan 19, 2012 at 10:20 PM

Happy Birthday greetings from the Netherlands. PJ