Carmen Maria David Profile
My trips come at the intersection of 3 factors: budget, holidays needed and accessibility (I don't drive). I have about 500 WHC sites on my wishlist (including those that I have covered already). I tend for search for local food as well, in Palermo I might have taken more photos of that than of monuments. I don't blog and I don't have an active Insta account either.
Visited Sites Carmen Maria David
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Recent Reviews Carmen Maria David
Padmanabhapuram Palace (T)
Carmen Maria David Luxembourg - 18-Jun-21
The trip started off the wrong foot. We had booked a tour through the tourist office in Trivandrum and as we got halfway, the minibus had a breakdown and all the tour director could say was that we had to wait. After 2 hours of eating red bananas, drinking coconut water and cursing next to a church (this is Kerala, after all), we finally started moving, but all I wanted to was to be done with the visit quickly.
Once on the premises though, I regained my excitement: the woodwork is impressive. One such example is the pillar in Thai Kottaram (pictured). After reading here about the murals, I started checking the photos frantically, but then I realised that the access Upparikka Malika's topmost floor was restricted to visitors in order to preserve the paintings.
Read OnVal di Noto
Carmen Maria David Luxembourg - 18-Jun-21
''Less is more'', they say. To me it seemed feasible to cover Noto and Modica by train with enough time to return and sleep in Catania, but then I was told at the train station: "Yes, there is a train doing Siracusa-Catania at those hours, but you cannot get a ticket for it. If you go to Modica, you will have to spend the night in Siracusa''. Right. Change of plans, skipping Modica and getting more time in Catania.
Since reviews have been written on Noto, I will just say that as of June 2021 the Duomo's renovation is done (the cupola has hipster-saints, if you ask me) and they are renovating now San Domenico (the one in Els and Ian's photos).
Read OnMount Etna
Carmen Maria David Luxembourg - 15-Jun-21
Mount Etna had been on my list for quite a while now, but some of the reviews here made me curious and disappointed at the same time: is it that boring and ugly? I started my trip on the 12th of June 2021 with the bus from Catania train station to Rifugio Sapienza. The bus driver got chatty once we left Nicolosi and by the time the bus arrived its destination, I was hooked. Together with a French couple we went for a guided tour (45 euro), first through the compulsory dress-up (only my jacket was deemed suitable) and then we took the cablecar to 2500 m (30 euro return trip). The cablecar is indeed pricey, but I felt it worth it for the spectacle we were about to enjoy.
Read OnPersepolis
Carmen Maria David Luxembourg - 27-May-21
If I could give it 6 stars I would do it. The level of craftsmanship shown in the delegations at Apadana for me is simply mindblowing. I visited Angkor several months after Persepolis and looking at the Khmer details, I felt slightly disappointed (I know that limestone and sandstone are not the same, but still). It takes a good guide (and not a lot of people around) to point out the intricacies of the delegations (ribbons on shoelaces, fingers bent while carrying vessels, various headgears). I am still in awe even now, 2 years after.
Read OnLongobards in Italy
Carmen Maria David Luxembourg - 26-May-21
When I first saw the list of inscribed properties, I was surprised to see the south, since I was associating the longobards with the north of Italy (Lombardy). Only afterwards did I become aware that while Langobardia Maior was in the north, Langobardia Minor was centered in the centre and south (duchies of Spoleto and Benevento).
The property selected for Benevento is Santa Sofia Complex, built under Arechi II in the 8th century, which still holds paintings from 8-9 centuries. The monument did not disappoint, but then again, I am always impressed when I find art between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Carolingian Renaissance. The UNESCO plate is outside the church, on the right, as you enter the garden.
Read OnProfile Data
- Name
- Carmen Maria David
- Country
- Luxembourg
- Most Impressive
- Persepolis
- Proposal
- Cold Desert Cultural Landscape of India
Recently Visited WHS
- Update 19.07.21
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Visited WHS
Rating StatsBrugge 5Budapest 5Cordoba 5Cracow 5Florence 5Granada 5Hué 5Meteora 5Prague 5Ravenna 5Reims 5Rome 5Tallinn 5Trier 5Vienna 5Visby 5Warsaw 5Abbey of St Gall 4.5Assisi 4.5Belem 4.5Ephesus 4.5Evora 4.5Fatehpur Sikri 4.5Golestan Palace 4.5Ha Long Bay 4.5Hoi An 4.5Istanbul 4.5Jantar Mantar 4.5Kronborg Castle 4.5Medina of Tunis 4.5Modena 4.5Mostar 4.5Nancy 4.5Pompei 4.5Riga 4.5Salzburg 4.5Segovia 4.5Strasbourg 4.5Valletta 4.5Vicenza 4.5Yazd 4.5Albi 4Angkor 4Arles 4Avignon 4Bukhara 4Kotor 4Matera 4Naples 4Oporto 4Seville 4Siena 4Sintra 4Split 4Tarraco 4Trogir 4Verona 4Vilnius 4Ahmadabad 3.5Bamberg 3.5Burgundy 3.5Canal du Midi 3.5El Escurial 3.5Itchan Kala 3.5Kairouan 3.5Orange 3.5Pasargadae 3.5Pienza 3.5Poblet Monastery 3.5Toledo 3.5Villa d'Este 3.5Aranjuez 3Avila 3Ferrara 3Lyon 3Paphos 3Syracuse 3Urbino 3Vézelay 3Belfries 2.5Bordeaux 2.5Cuenca 2.5Genoa 2.5Provins 2.5Quedlinburg 2.5Saint-Emilion 2.5Thang Long 2.5Úbeda and Baeza 2.5Corvey 2Lübeck 2Stoclet House 1.5Reviewed WHS
Visited TWHS
- Centro storico di Parma (T)
- Classical Karst (in Slovene language: Klasicni kras) (T)
- The Monastic City of Clonmacnoise and its Cultural Landscape (T)
- Cold Desert Cultural Landscape of India (T)
- Delhi - A Heritage City (T)
- Early Medieval Monastic Sites (T)
- Eglises byzantines et post-byzantines de Curtea de Arges (T)
- Historical Lisbon, Global City (T)
- L'église des Trois Hierarques de Iassy (T)
- Late Medieval Bastioned Fortifications in Greece (T)
- Le noyau historique de la ville d'Alba Julia (T)
- Le Palais de Justice de Bruxelles (T)
- Les passages de Bruxelles / Les Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert (T)
- Luther memorials in Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Bavaria and Thuringia (T)
- Mdina (Citta Vecchia) (T)
- Metz Royale et Impériale, enjeux de pouvoir, confrontations stylistiques et identité urbaine (T)
- Nasqsh-e Rostam and Naqsh-e Rajab (T)
- Nice, la ville neuve née du tourisme, ou l’invention de la Riviera (T)
- Nîmes, l'Antiquité au présent (T)
- Padmanabhapuram Palace (T)
- Pombaline Lisbon (T)
- Rade de Marseille (T)
- Residence Ensemble Schwerin - Cultural Landscape of Romantic Historicism (T)
- Site of the Retiro and the Prado in Madrid (T)
- Sri Harimandir Sahib (T)
- The Architectural Works of Alvar Aalto - a Human Dimension to the Modern Movement (T)
- The city of Bergamo (T)
- The Historic Centre of Sibiu and its Ensemble of Squares (T)
- The Historic City of Dublin (T)
- The Historical Port City of Izmir (T)
- The Jewish Cemetery of Altona Königstrasse. Sephardic Sepulchral Culture of the 17th and 18th century between Europe and the Caribbean (T)
- The Porticoes of Bologna (T)
- The timeless, humanistic architecture of Jože Plečnik (T)
- Torfajökull Volcanic System / Fjallabak Nature Reserve (T)
- Trakai Historical National Park (T)
- Zadar - Episcopal complex (T)
Reviewed TWHS