This city’s name is spelled so many different ways –Tzefiya, Safad, Zefat, Sefad. A rather small town located in Northern Israel, 900 meters above sea level in the mountains of the Upper Galilee, it commands magnificent views east to the Golan. If you see any of these on your itinerary, (for long a well kept secret even to most Israelis) it’s a place you’ll want to visit.
Category:
Travel
India is a mosaic of different religions varying from the ancient animistic beliefs of the tribal communities to the rigid orthodoxies of the Hindu caste system. I wandered through different degrees of spiritual energies, absorbing openhearted all that surrounded me with great passion and an observer’s devotion.
Vivaha or traditional marriage in India, becomes for a man an important institution, a bonding with his partner not only in this lifetime but, supporting the Hindu belief of reincarnation, in all lives thereafter. I run in the direction of what is going to be the most incredible experience I have ever lived in the last few years…
My body aches, I am a wreck and still terribly jet lagged. Moreover, I need a suntan and I honestly could do a break from the city traffic, holy cows, and dust. I decide to have a look at the Oberoi’s recently renovated magnificent Spa.
This grand Mosque built in 1695 by the emperor Shah Jahan on a natural rocky outcrop, took six years and 5,000 workmen to construct at a cost of nearly a million rupees. It accommodates up to 20,000 people at prayer times especially during Friday prayers and on Eid, it looks like a sea of worshipers. Barefoot, I am climbing my way up to one of its minarets.
One night in Delhi has passed and I am feeling like I am missing something extremely important. Whenever I close my eyes and concentrate on the city’s energy, I can’t avoid connecting with a certain elegance present in its austerity, discipline and asceticism.
Commissioned by Shah Jahan (Taj Mahal) in 1639, it took nine years to build one of India’s most important building complexes- This seat of Mughal power encapsulates a long period of Indian history and its arts, its significance transcending time and space.
Capri is a rocky mountain rising from the sea, dotted with build-up areas and villas immersed in the typically Mediterranean vegetation. A slow erosive process allowed the sea and the Sorrentine Peninsula to squeeze in. But it also caused the formation of free-standing rocks and spectacular natural marvels.
I heard about a girl who lived 250 years ago, and before leaving her house to get married, wrote a letter of her good fortune in love. Her letter apparently was found during renovations to the house she lived in. I must find that place before I leave Marrakech.
My friend Adriana decided to host a dinner in my honor. She invited her friends and inaugurated the beautiful dining room at her Riad Nour. Among Adriana’s guests, a top haute couture designer Zineb Joundy, from Casablanca, former Comissaire de la Mode in France for Les ‘Temps du Maroc’.
At the Royal Air Maroc check-in in JFK, I notice a large group of African women dressed in long multicolored Kaftans . I realize suddenly that I’ve totally packed the wrong clothes. It’s the first time in my life that something like this happens… I have a strange feeling that I’ m going to learn something unusual on this trip.
Body adornment is a universal art, practiced by Berber women covered with amulets and pendants, Indians sheathed in their bridal saris, Africans with highly codified headdresses, Geishas disappearing under their ghostly white makeup, and Maoris, their bodies sculpted with spiral tattoos.
Mucha exercised his greatest influence through his Encyclopaedia for Craftsmen (1902) a catalogue of Art Nouveau decorative elements , forms and designs whose precise drawings and sketches in small shelves are absolutely superb.