Ilya Burlak Profile

Ilya Burlak
Ilya Burlak.

I only started prioritizing visiting World Heritage sites a few years ago and with my limited US-based corporate-warrior time-off allocation and family obligations I can only add a handful to a dozen in any given year. Looking forward to visiting them all after I am able to retire...

USA Last Update 07.09.22 163 WHS Visited 94 Reviews 163 WHS Rated 35 TWHS Visited

Visited Sites Ilya Burlak

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Legend

  • ●● Cultural
  • ●● Natural
  • ●● Mixed

Recent Reviews Ilya Burlak

Venice and its Lagoon

Ilya Burlak USA - 14-Jul-22

Venice and its Lagoon

Having just returned from my fifth trip to Venice - but the first for nearly a decade - I feel compelled to say something about a timeless place that is so well known and so well reviewed that it is impossible to offer an original thought in appreciation. Anyway, here is my personal restatement of what others offered in the past: There is no place in the Western Hemisphere that continues to fascinate me as much as La Serenissima, and no other place that I believe is as rewarding when explored on foot.

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Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles

Ilya Burlak USA - 08-Jul-22

Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles

It is hard to say anything original about the magnificence of these frescoes. This serial site is definitely one of the most impressive of its kind. Visiting all of its components is possible on a single Urbs Picta ticket, which is what I did in June of 2022.

Scrovegni Chapel is the headline item and one place that requires advance planning. You have to book a specific 15-minute time slot to visit when you buy your ticket online (you actually end up with a voucher to be exchanged for the actual ticket at the Musei degli Eremitani). The printed ticket somewhat amusingly declares that unless you are at the entrance at least 5 minutes before your scheduled time, you will not be let in. I was there a good 15 minutes before but told the lady at the door that I would sit outside of the glass entry pavilion instead of being inside. It turned out that I had to sit through the introductory movie prior to getting into the chapel

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Early Chicago Skyscrapers (T)

Ilya Burlak USA - 31-May-22

Early Chicago Skyscrapers (T)

In May of 2022, I took an hour-plus out of my business-trip itinerary in Chicago to visit the buildings in this serial property. In a notable fail of the expedition, I did not read Kyle's review below prior to the walk. I assumed that all of these buildings allowed some form of easy public access to explore the interiors - and would actually have something to offer in that respect. But only a few of them do. And because I was moving northward from the southernmost of the buildings, the first five that I stopped by did not exhibit anything of value in their interiors (or could not really be entered). So, I mostly gave up and did not even attempt to enter Marquette or Rookery, which Kyle marked as the most impressive

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Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings

Ilya Burlak USA - 27-May-22

Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings

I found an opportunity to visit Frederic C. Robie House in Chicago recently, which was my third visited building for this property. True to the inscription, the house exhibits discernible elements of “organic architecture” and a number of techniques and solutions that mark Frank Lloyd Wright as one of the foremost innovators of the 20th century in his field. And yet it is somewhat underwhelming once you step inside. There are lovely partially stained-glass windows throughout, notable built-in features doubling as decorative elements, and examples of impressive masonry echoing the exterior, but the relative emptiness of the house mutes the impression quite a bit.

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Mount Etna

Ilya Burlak USA - 30-Jan-22

Mount Etna

I rarely prioritize nature over culture when traveling. Even with my comparatively short roster of WH sites, Mount Etna is only the fifth natural or mixed site that I visited. My better half is usually even less keen, especially whenever there is a whiff of danger – such as, for instance, going up an active volcano. Nonetheless, it was she who suggested that we modify our plans for the trip to Sicily in the late September of 2021, and take advantage of a private Jeep tour with a local guide for a half-day on the mountain. (“Jeep” is not meant here as a brand name, but rather as a generic term. Our ride was a Land Rover Defender.)

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Profile Data

Name
Ilya Burlak
Country
USA
Website
website

Recently Visited WHS

Update 07.09.22
  • Caves of Maresha and Bet Guvrin
    • Rating Stats
    Amsterdam Canal Ring 5
    Brugge 5
    Budapest 5
    Cordoba 5
    Costiera Amalfitana 5
    Florence 5
    Granada 5
    Kremlin and Red Square 5
    Loire Valley 5
    Palau de la Musica Catalana & Hospital de Sant Pau 5
    Paris, Banks of the Seine 5
    Petra 5
    Portovenere, Cinque Terre, and the Islands 5
    Prague 5
    Ravenna 5
    Rome 5
    Segovia 5
    Siena 5
    St. Petersburg 5
    Venice and its Lagoon 5
    Vienna 5
    Wadi Rum 5
    West Norwegian Fjords 5
    Works of Antoni Gaudí 5
    Acropolis 4.5
    Assisi 4.5
    Bryggen 4.5
    Cracow 4.5
    Grand Place, Brussels 4.5
    Istanbul 4.5
    Oporto 4.5
    Piazza del Duomo (Pisa) 4.5
    Pompei 4.5
    Potsdam 4.5
    San Gimignano 4.5
    Seville 4.5
    Sintra 4.5
    Stonehenge 4.5
    Toledo 4.5
    Vatican City 4.5
    Versailles 4.5
    Villa Romana del Casale 4.5
    Albi 4
    Alto Douro 4
    Avignon 4
    Botanical Garden, Padua 4
    Brú na Bóinne 4
    Chartres Cathedral 4
    Chichen-Itza 4
    Cologne Cathedral 4
    Convent of Christ in Tomar 4
    Delos 4
    Drottningholm 4
    Dubrovnik 4
    Edinburgh 4
    Giant's Causeway 4
    Gwynedd Castles 4
    Kinderdijk 4
    Kyiv 4
    L'viv 4
    Monastery of Alcobaça 4
    Monastery of Batalha 4
    Mostar 4
    Mount Etna 4
    Nice 4
    Old City of Jerusalem 4
    Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles 4
    Paseo del Prado and Buen Retiro 4
    Rietveld Schröderhuis 4
    Roskilde Cathedral 4
    Schönbrunn 4
    Split 4
    Tower of London 4
    Upper Middle Rhine Valley 4
    Urbino 4
    Verona 4
    Vicenza 4
    Westminster 4
    Arab-Norman Palermo 3.5
    Archaeological Site of Delphi 3.5
    Arles 3.5
    Bom Jesus do Monte 3.5
    City of Bath 3.5
    Daphni, Hosios Loukas and Nea Moni of Chios 3.5
    El Escurial 3.5
    Ferrara 3.5
    Fortified City of Carcassonne 3.5
    Graz 3.5
    Guimarães 3.5
    Kotor 3.5
    Kronborg Castle 3.5
    La Fortaleza 3.5
    Mycenae and Tiryns 3.5
    Old City of Berne 3.5
    Pienza 3.5
    Pont du Gard 3.5
    Québec 3.5
    Tarraco 3.5
    Trinity Sergius Lavra 3.5
    Val di Noto 3.5
    Villa d'Este 3.5
    Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines 3.5
    Agrigento 3
    Alcala de Henares 3
    Belem 3
    Belfries 3
    Canterbury 3
    Caves of Maresha and Bet Guvrin 3
    Evora 3
    Fortifications of Vauban 3
    Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings 3
    Great Spa Towns of Europe 3
    Incense Route of the Negev 3
    Ir. D.F. Woudagemaal 3
    Kew Gardens 3
    Mantua and Sabbioneta 3
    Maritime Greenwich 3
    Masada 3
    Medici Villas and Gardens 3
    Modena 3
    Reims 3
    San Marino and Mount Titano 3
    Statue of Liberty 3
    Strasbourg 3
    Syracuse 3
    The Porticoes of Bologna 3
    Trogir 3
    University of Coimbra 3
    Val d'Orcia 3
    Vézère Valley 3
    Beemster Polder 2.5
    Bethlehem 2.5
    Biblical Tells 2.5
    Cathedral of St. James in Sibenik 2.5
    Forth Bridge 2.5
    Independence Hall 2.5
    Madriu-Perafita-Claror Valley 2.5
    Major Town Houses 2.5
    Necropolis of Bet She'arim 2.5
    New Lanark 2.5
    Novodevichy Convent 2.5
    Old City of Acre 2.5
    Poblet Monastery 2.5
    Residences of the Royal House of Savoy 2.5
    Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France 2.5
    Santa Maria delle Grazie 2.5
    Schokland 2.5
    Semmering Railway 2.5
    Skogskyrkogarden 2.5
    The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier 2.5
    Venetian Works of Defence 2.5
    Wadden Sea 2.5
    Canal du Midi 2
    Dutch Water Defence Lines 2
    Frontiers of the Roman Empire 2
    Stećci 2
    The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales 2
    White City of Tel-Aviv 2
    Bahá’i Holy Places 1.5
    Van Nellefabriek 1.5
    Mount Carmel Caves 1
    Rock-Art of the Mediterranean Basin 1
    Stoclet House 1

    Reviewed TWHS