2010 December travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises spa and resorts

The Teatro alla Scala was founded, under the auspices of the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, to replace the Royal Ducal Theatre, which was destroyed by fire on 26 February 1776 and had until then been the home of opera in Milan.
The cost of building the new theatre was borne by the owners of the boxes at the Ducal, in exchange for possession of the land on which stood the church of Santa Maria alla Scala (hence the name) and for renewed ownership of their boxes.
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Pinacoteca di Brera in Milano is housed in a large palace from the 14th/15th centuries. It was built for the Jesuits who founded a school, a library and an observatory here. The original art collection at Brera was intended as study material for the students at Accademia di Belle Arti, which was founded in 1776. Many of the paintings came from closed churches and convents in northern Italy. Through the years the collection has been extended by donations and purchases.
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The Dives in Misericordia Church in Rome has been consecrated.Designed by American architect Richard Meier, the church project had won the international competition organized by the Vicariate in Rome. The simple yet severe design, which manages to combine the sacredness of the interior with the liveability of the large external spaces, features three impressive white concrete sails that swell out as if blown by an easterly wind.
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Owned by Richard Branson, Kasbah Tamadot is a luxury, award-winning 5-star resort in Morocco. It’s about 50 minutes from Marrakech in a town called Asni, in the heart of spectacular Atlas Mountains. Perched dramatically on a hilltop, the resort offers stunning views. Opened in 2005, Kasbah Tamadot features extensive gardens with rose, fruit and cactus plants designed to create a truly relaxing atmosphere.
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This bookstore is well worth the visit to this medieval city if you are ever in the area. Designed by Merkx+Girod architects, this bookstore is sets in a very unusual place – in a former 800 year old Dominican church. Bookstore Selexyz Dominicanen holds the biggest stock of books in Maastrich, Netherlands.
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Located in Stuttgart, T-0 12 is one of the coolest clubs in Germany. Spread over three floors, T-O12 is a dream in monochrome. Designed by architecture firm Ippolito Fleiz Group and graphic designers i-d buero, T-0 12 was top ranked by Playboy and Glamour magazine.
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It is Nike’s first and largest flagship store in Harajuku, Tokyo.  Store’ designer is architect Masamichi Katayama and his team at Wonderwall who used elements from shoes and the brand’s history to create playful treatments. The store is full of amazing styled elements like the sneaker chandelier, “Just Do It”, made of 500 white shoes, waffle iron wall-tiles, a turf track to test the shoes and a sculpture made up of Dunks that look like a giant fossil.
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Located in central area of Mexico City, The José Vasconcelos Library is a work of art – its glass walls invite the outside in. Its design belongs to the Mexican architect Alberto Kalach. His project wins an international competition in which 590 proposals were submitted by firms from all over the world. 
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The four-part logo of this night club in Bucharest refers to the organic theme that inspired its design: the various stages of development of an embryo. The entrance area leading into the windowless ground and basement floors is like a vagina; in the underbelly of the club a three-dimentional wall made of Comadur panels in the form of an oversized cell structure encloses the space. Complementing this variably colored, womb-like space, the rest of the interior fittings and the light membrane also imitate organic forms. The procreative process is also represented in the indirect lighting slots in the bar area, which are in the form of sperm cells.
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This is one  modern 4-star hotel in Milan, Italy. The Nhow hotel was built in 2005. It’s located a bit outside the city center in Via Tortona, a re-purposed industrial park. The area has enticing restaurants and bars, exhibition center, design and photography studios and shops.
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