Astraftis

Italy \ Member since September 2020

#212 234 110 10

As an increasingly slow and detail-loving traveller, how could I not be attracted by the promised wonders of UNESCO World Heritage Sites? I appreciate that, despite their variety, from the more majestic to the most unassuming (and maybe disappointing) one, each is capable of highlighting a piece of world history in its own way. So, I greatly enjoy including them in my travels or planning routes centered around them. Nothing better than getting lost on the countryside pursuing that last remote component of a serial site! Until recently I heavily focused on Europe, but I am slowly reaching out into the world, without forgetting to visit those in my home country, which surely isn't at fault in that regard!

 

(Picture: overseeing the Curonian spit from the Raganų kalnas/Hexenberg/Witches' hill at Juodkrantė/Schwarzort, Lithuania)

My most impressive site: Bagan

My proposal for a new site: Takh wild horse conservation area in Khustai (Mongolia); caves in the region around Hpa-An (Myanmar); Yazılıkaya, the Midas tomb, and the Phrygian valley (TWHS, Turkey); the Navigli system of Lombardy (ATWHS, Italy); Ostia antica (FTWHS, Italy); raised bogs of the Baltic region (e.g. Čepkeliai, Lithuania)

Recent Visits
  • 4
    2
    June 17, 2025
    The big triangle of Latin linguistics: Augsburg, Caves and Ice Age Art, Großglockner High Alpine …
  • 1
    2
    June 3, 2025
    Ireland: Brú na Bóinne, Clonmacnoise , Early Medieval Monastic Sites ...
  • 3
    1
    April 22, 2025
    Upper Silesia: Centennial Hall, Churches of Peace, European Paper Mills ...

About Astraftis

Member since
September 2020
Country of Origin
Italy
Visits
Rank
#212
WHS
234
Tentative Sites
110
Website Participation
Reviews
17
Ratings

Ratings

World Heritage Sites
Tentative Sites
236 118
Photos
N/A
Locations
N/A
Zones
N/A
Reserved for members.

Reviews by Astraftis

Leuven by Astraftis

Leuven (On tentative list)

A city of colleges

The celebrations for the 600 years of Leuven's university (KU Leuven) have just started (on February 14-15th), so I feel this is the best occasion for a new review to …

Çanakkale (Dardanelles) and Gelibolu (Gallipoli) B by Astraftis

Dardanelles and Gallipoli Bat… (On tentative list)

Dardanelles and Gallipoli Battle Zones

I visited the area on a moody day of December 2022.

The official description is rather vague, as it seems to encompass everything about the war in the …

Yıldız Palace Complex by Astraftis

Yıldız Palace Complex (On tentative list)

Yıldız Palace Complex

This is a kind of Stoclet house that welcomes you with guns.

It may have been the fascination for the prohibited or the downright incomprehensible that led me to …

Via Francigena by Astraftis

Via Francigena (Nominated)

Via Francigena

This proposal is not entirely clear to me, or better: it is actually very simple in its grandiosity, as it just encompasses all the route from the Great St. Bernard …

Amalienborg and its district by Astraftis

Amalienborg and its district (On tentative list)

Amalienborg and its district

Frederiksstad and the walk to the Kastel and the Little Mermaid are probably my favourite parts of Copenhagen, so, since my first visit to the city, I always try to …

Kronborg Castle by Astraftis

Kronborg Castle (Inscribed)

Kronborg Castle

My visit to Kronborg in August 2021 was not the first one: I already went there in 2009. That time, though, we had not calibrated our trip too well: …

The Maritime Heritage of Dragør Old Town and Harbo by Astraftis

The Maritime Heritage of Drag… (On tentative list)

The Maritime Heritage of Dragør Old Town and Harbo

Getting out from the bus at Dragør on a beautiful summer day, the first thing I felt was the scent of marine breeze. It was already very different from Copenhagen, …

Roskilde Cathedral by Astraftis

Roskilde Cathedral (Inscribed)

Roskilde Cathedral

Denmark has a good number of lovely old, partly Romanesque country churches (especially on Møn island), and then also its good share of more imposing spire-crowned urban cathedrals, but Roskilde's …

A reconstructed longhouse at Trelleborg

Viking Age Ring Fortresses (Inscribed)

Echoes of an era of changes

Viking ring fortresses (ringborge) might have been the eventual factor that prompted my all-Denmark trip by rental car in August 2021 (besides massive listening to "Viking neo-folk ambient …

Santa Maria delle Grazie by Astraftis

Santa Maria delle Grazie (Inscribed)

Santa Maria delle Grazie

Curious: the name of this site implies that the main sight is the church, which just so happens to include Da Vinci's version of the Last Supper. This might be …

Evaporitic Karst and Caves by Astraftis

Evaporitic Karst and Caves (Inscribed)

Evaporitic Karst and Caves

This is to me a bit of a mysterious (tentative) site, and one that I don't know if it will ever manage to make it on the list, although it …

Archaeological Site of Delphi by Astraftis

Archaeological Site of Delphi (Inscribed)

Archaeological Site of Delphi

I am quite disconcerted at reading other travellers' comments that Delphi might not be the best in Greece, or that its ruins might be disappointing... allow me to claim that …

Deer Stone Monuments by Astraftis

Deer Stone Monuments (Inscribed)

Deer Stone Monuments

Disclaimer: at first I was convinced I had visited exactly one of the three sites of this TWHS, but then, after better checking, it seems that in mid-August 2018 I …

Tiya by Astraftis

Tiya (Inscribed)

Tiya

Tiya was one of the first things I saw of Ethiopia, on a morning of August in 2015, after having been picked up by our drivers/guides from the airport together …

Çatalhöyük by Astraftis

Çatalhöyük (Inscribed)

Çatalhöyük

Again, a place I went to as a last-minute decision and probably the most fascinating archaeological site I have visited up to date.

Some personal story of the visit: …

Sacred Mountains of Mongolia by Astraftis

Sacred Mountains of Mongolia (On tentative list)

Sacred Mountains of Mongolia

I am honoured to be the first to describe this tentative WHS site. No wonder, though, because if it ever makes it to the list, it will surely be one …

Fishpond Network in the Trebon Basin by Astraftis

Fishpond Network in the Trebo… (On tentative list)

Fishpond Network in the Trebon Basin

This was a case of serendipitous discovery for me during my car trip in Southern/Central Czech Republic (August 2020). I decided just the day before to spend a night in …