Village Walks: Ostuni – Southeastern Italy (4K)

Ostuni is a city in Italy’s Apulia region that’s known for its whitewashed old town. Ostuni Cathedral combines Gothic, Romanesque and Byzantine elements, while the arched Porta San Demetrio is one of 2 remaining medieval gates. The Civic Museum and Archaeological Park houses Ostuni 1, the skeleton of a woman from Paleolithic times. Northwest of town is the Santuario di Sant’Oronzo complex, with a triumphal arch. 

Old Town Walks: Prague – Czech Republic (4K Video)

Prague, capital city of the Czech Republic, is bisected by the Vltava River. Nicknamed “the City of a Hundred Spires,” it’s known for its Old Town Square, the heart of its historic core, with colorful baroque buildings, Gothic churches and the medieval Astronomical Clock, which gives an animated hourly show. Completed in 1402, pedestrian Charles Bridge is lined with statues of Catholic saints.

Economics: Is Inflation Making A Comeback? (WSJ)

Recently, the U.S. inflation rate reached a 13-year high, triggering a debate about whether the country is entering an inflationary period similar to the 1970s. WSJ’s Jon Hilsenrath looks at what consumers can expect next. Photo: Alexander Hotz

World Economic Forum: Top News Stories (06/25/21)

This week, we’re highlighting these four top stories: watch Peruvians fix an ancient bridge with just wild grass and ancient Inca skill, see how NASA is improving life on Earth, learn how a movie snack is being turned into packaging and catch the latest technology making our world a more sustainable place.

News: Top 5 Stories For June 25, 2021 (Reuters)

Five stories to know for June 25:

1. Rescue crews picked through tons of rubble looking for survivors after the collapse of part of an oceanfront apartment tower near Miami, where officials reported at least one person dead and nearly 100 missing.

2. Hours after President Joe Biden declared “We have a deal” to renew the infrastructure of the United States, the Senate’s top Republican lashed out at plans to follow the $1.2 trillion bipartisan bill with another measure funding what Democrats call “human infrastructure.”

3. Former Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin will be sentenced for murdering George Floyd in May 2020 after a trial that was widely seen as a watershed moment in the history of U.S. policing.

4. An indigenous group in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan said it had found the unmarked graves of an estimated 751 people at a now-defunct Catholic residential school, just weeks after a similar, smaller discovery rocked the country.

5. The U.S. government, once openly dismissive of UFO sightings that for decades sparked the popular imagination, is poised to issue an expansive account of what it calls “unidentified aerial phenomena,” based heavily on observations by American military pilots.

Views: Colosseum In Rome Opens Up Substructure

Visitors will be able to walk in the footsteps of Roman Gladiators in the same areas where they prepared to fight to the death. The Colosseum is opening up its deepest depths to the public. Chris Livesay reports.

The Colosseum is an oval amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheatre in the world today, despite its age. 

Tropical Architecture: The Dominican Republic

The house reveals itself slowly. On a remote stretch of the Dominican Republic coast, a stone footpath winds its way through a dense landscape of old-growth trees, zamia, and native flowers. Gradually, a timber structure comes into focus, its undulating form seemingly afloat above the jungle floor.

Only upon stepping past that wood-clad volume, under a 70-foot-wide span and up into the central courtyard, do you see the ocean. 

That progression is all expert choreography on the part of architect Bryan Young, principal of the Brooklyn-based studio Young Projects and nowadays very much a name to know. “Every decision facilitates the experience of the landscape,” he notes of the property, which includes two additional houses of his design. One is a low-slung string of four adjoining stucco bungalows, the other a monolithic enigma—chamfered at the corners and covered in graphic, almost pixelated tile, earning it the name Glitch House. Together this trio of buildings provides the ultimate escape, a place for friends and extended family to come together and decompress, as envisioned by his intrepid clients, Mike and Sukey Novogratz, a New York City couple with wellness on the brain.

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Tours: Desenzano Del Gardo, Italy (4K Video)

Desenzano del Garda is a resort town on the southern shore of Lake Garda, in northern Italy. The remains of the Roman Villa include elaborate mosaic floors. The Antiquarium is home to artifacts excavated at the villa, such as kitchenware and lamps. In a former convent, the Rambotti Archaeological Museum displays items from the Paleolithic to the Bronze Age, including a plow. Desenzano Castle has sweeping lake views.