It seems 7/11 of the components in the Linz hotspot (https://www.worldheritagesite.org/connection/Linz+Hotspot) fall into another hotspot and are closer to other hotspot centres and should be removed from the linz hotspot

Graz: Also in vienna hotspot closer to vienna
Prehistoric Pile Dwellings: In 8 other hotspots with better, closer serial components (I understand if you want this to remain)
Primeval Beach Forest: In 12 other Hotspots with better, closer serial components (I understand if you want this to remain)
Schöbrunn: In vienna hotspot, literally in vienna
Vienna: Literally the centre of the Vienna hotspot
Semmering Railway: Also in vienna hotspot, closer to Vienna
Wachau: Also in Vienna Hotspot, in between the two cities

The other 4 components can be added to other hotspots or left alone (if left alone beech forest, wachau and pile dwellings can join)
Salzburg: 2h30m from Vienna by train
Hallstatt: about 4 hours with transfer in Attnang-Puchheim from Vienna
Holasovice + Cesky Krumlov: Can probably be added into a new prague hotspot

Although I can understand the general point of easiness of border crossings, this really is a more common one than you'd think. Many Israelis visit the Sinai. There are numerous day trips on offer from Eilat, also when I researched a trip for April 2020. I will remove the comment of 2016, which isn't accurate anymore.

elsslots
Is Wadi Rum also doable?

done, also added a text that links Linz hotspot to the Vienna hotspot

It is only 80km, so yeah.

I think we may have a new WHS hotspot in Rio de Janeiro:

Rio de Janeiro: Cultural landscape that includes Corcovado (with Christ the Redeemer), Sugar Loaf, and Copacabana beach

Valongo Wharf: Downtown at Jornal do Comércio Square

Sítio Roberto Burle Marx: Residence and gardens on outskirts of Rio, accessible via subway and public bus (~2-2.5 hours each way)

Paraty and Ilha Grande: Ilha Grande is accessible from Rio via bus and ferry several times a day (~3 hours, 50 minutes each way)

For the last one, Rome2Rio has transport information.

Prague is not listed as part of the Prague Hotspot and Prague should be removed from Brno

It's 3h by direct train. Czechia is a small country. I would agree that a "neighboring" hotspot concept could help to make hotspots more locally concise.

I agree with this however I'm not sure that the largest hotspots like frankfurt and Brussels can be split up as nearby cities already have their own hotspots.

Primeval beech forests can be added to Messina (sicily) hotspot as Aspromonte National Park is roughly 2 hours by ferry + bus

Milan hotspot seems overextended and many sites should be removed from it
Ivrea, much closer to Turin than milan
Royal House of Savoy, in turin which has its own hotspot
Verona, has its own hotspot
Vicenza, Much closer to verona
You probably could add a disclaimer that most of Verona (veneto) hotspot is doable from milan like the disclaimer provided for linz

@TaiTT: I agree Northern Italy is a bit of a mess.
* They overlap.
* Some are city based, other region based. I think I would stick to region. (No to Verona)
* Cross border (Triest) is not possible by public transport.
* We should stick to regions and mention bordering ones. However, Genova or Nizza are just on the border of two regions, so they will still be listed twice.

Remove:
* Triest. While Palmanova is missing (+1), Croatia and Slovenia are impossible to do as a day trip cross border.

Rename
* Milan -> Lombardy
* Turin -> Piedmont

Lombardy Hotspot
Neighbors Piedmont, Veneto, Emilia Romana, Switzerland?
- Remove Ivrea (Piedmont)
- Remove Residences of the Royal House of Savoy (Piedmont)
- Remove: Verona. Own hotspot.
- Remove: Vicenza. Verona & Veneto.
- Add: Jungfrau Aletsch. I think this can be done. Brig (CH) is 2h by train and on the Southern side of the glacier.
- Bellinzone - Direct train.
- Crespi d'Adda - Metro & Bus.
- Genoa - Train
- Longobards in Italy - Brescia.
- Monte San Giorgio - Train to Mendrisio
- Prehistoric Pile Dwellings - ???
- Rhaetian Railway Tirano is 2.5h from Milan
- Rock Drawings in Valcamonica - Connection via Brescia.
- Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy - Orta and Como.
- Santa Maria delle Grazie - In town.
- Venetian Works of Defence - Bergamo
- Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont - Nizza Monferrato via Alessandria.

Piedmont Hotspot
Neighbors Lombardy Hotspot.
- Looks fine.

Veneto Hotspot
Neighbors Emilia Romana, Lombardy hotspots.
- Venetian Works of Defence: Palmanova, Peschiere del Garda

I'm normally not much involved in the discussions re hotspots. Just would like to point out that this regional approach makes, in my opinion, little sense for a traveller. If you're stuck in a little Lombard village, you won't necessarily be able to do a day trip (at least per public transport) to more out-of-the-way places at the other end of Lombardy.

On the other hand, if you're in Milan, it is perfectly possible to do Turin, Verona, etc per high-speed train. Did Turin a few years again, it was a breeze. For travellers, knowing that you can do Turin as a day-trip from Milan is probably more useful than knowing which sites are located in Lombardy. If you start doing "Lombardy", "Piemont", etc. then we'll soon end up with "Sites per sub-national divisions" - with "Sites in Hesse", "Sites in Wales", "Sites in the State of New York" next.

My suggestion in case of overlapping hotspots would be to choose the city with the biggest network of transportation as the centre of the hotspot. I.e. Milan, Frankfurt etc. These are the cities most travellers would likely choose as a base for exploring surroundings.

We already state the center. So hotspot is Lombardy, center is Milan.

If we add the information to the head of the hotspot that there are nearby hotspots within a days travel, that could make the hotspot lists less. repeating.

Hotspot Lombardy
Center Milan
Neighboring Hotspots: Veneto (Venice), Piedmont (Turin), Emilia Romana (Bologna)

I was amazed when I visited that Skojan wasn't visitable from Trieste, it is less than 20km from the city centre, but there were no transport connections at all.

My trip which I tought was going to have some Viennese style cafes instead enjoyed the Brutalist casinos of Nova Gorica!!

I'm a bit surprised to hear that. I know when I traveled to northeast Italy in 2017, I was easily able to take a bus from Trieste to Koper, Slovenia, and from there a train to Divača, from where a shuttle bus runs to the caves. It seems that route, and others (via train directly from Trieste to Divača twice a day) should still be feasible, according to Rome2Rio. Has anyone traveled there recently?