The Carnival of Venice is an annual festival, held in Venice, Italy. The Carnival starts around two weeks before Ash Wednesday (dependent on the date of Easter) and ends on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday.
The Cascamorras is a festival that takes place in the towns of Guadix and Baza in the province of Granada, Spain, annually on September 6. The two towns fight for possession of a statue of the Virgen de la Piedad. The Cascamorras refers to representatives from Guadix, who are sent to the town of Baza to recover the statue. As the Cascamorras have to stay perfectly clean to gain possession of the statue, Baza residents attempt to make them as “dirty” as possible.
Machu Picchu, the lost Inca citadel, one of the most beautiful and enigmatic ancient sites in the world
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A hotel in the oil-rich emirate of Abu Dhabi, UAE, is bidding for an entry in the Guinness World Records for housing the world’s most expensively decorated tree. The $11m Xmas tree at Emirates Palace Hotel.
The 13-meter Christmas tree was decorated by the Style Gallery with jewellery, gold and precious stones worth more than 40 million DH ($11 million USD). It’s currently exhibited at the luxurious Emirates Palace Hotel.
Letitia Orsivschi is a craftwoman from the village of Vama in the Suceava Region of Romania. You can contact her to send you some of her beautiful handmade eggs or you can visit her shop. Letitia also runs a bed and breakfast.
Cultured pearls are grown on what are known as pearl farms. Like any other form of farming, pearl farming can be a risky business. An entire bed of oysters can be completely devastated by unpredictable factors, such as water pollution, severe storms, excessive heat or cold, disease.
After the pearls have been allowed to develop fully and extracted from the oysters, they are washed, dried, and sorted into general categories. Sometimes, the pearls are polished by tumbling in salt and water. The pearls are then sold to jewelers, manufacturers, and pearl dealers.
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