Island in the Aegean Sea 8 km (5 miles) from the Turkish Coast, and the traditional home of the poet Homer. Chios flourished in the 5th Century BC. It was Captured first by Venetians (1204), then Genoese (1261), and finally the Turks (1566). A massacre of the islanders by the Turks in 1822, during the Greek War of Independence, is re-created in a masterpiece by the French artist Eugene Delacroix, The Massacre of Chios, which hangs in the Louvre, Paris. Chios became part of modern Greece in 1912. It has an 11th-century Convent, Nea Moni, with fine mosaics. Piryi is an attractive medieval fortress-town on the island, with decorated houses and streets spanned by arches. It is a centre for producing mastic, a tree resin used as chewing gum and in varnish. At the town of Mesta, local women still wear the island's traditional Costume.
Locals hypothesize that the legacy of Italian blood and culture in Cologne, colonized by the Romans more than 1500 years ago, makes the people more jovial and lighthearted. Cologne is the largest city on the Rhine.
Kolsch is not only the dialect spoken here but, also the name of their own top-fermented beer. There are more than 4,000 pubs, restaurant's and brewery taverns in Cologne.
Unlike many of the world's large cities, Cologne, with a population of over a million, gets better every day, there are more things to do and see, more new and innovative buildings... more
Travel is an opportunity to learn, whether geography, languages, history or other subjects.
Cologne is situated on the beautiful Rhine River.