Delta Air Lines and American Express are making it easier to plan a summer getaway with new card offers, offering up to 110,000 bonus miles when card holders sign up.
17.05.2024 - 22:47 / euronews.com / Charlotte Elton
Several tourists have already been caught smuggling sand, stones and archaeological remains from the Italian island of Sardinia this year.
Authorities rumbled a French visitor attempting to take home stalagmites and shells and a German family with a kilo of stones from the seabed.
For years, holidaymakers have been pillaging the natural treasures of Sardinia's beaches despite facing fines.
It’s normal to go home from holiday with a souvenir. But stick to a magnet or a snow globe.
Sardinia’s white sand beaches are world-famous - but taking, holding or selling sand, pebbles, stones or shells from the coast or sea is punishable by a fine of up to €3,000.
Tourists can even face jail time if they are convicted on the charge of theft with the aggravating circumstance of having stolen an asset of public utility.
Last year, a Frenchman was arrested after police found 41 kilograms of pebbles and stones from pristine Lampianu beach in the boot of his car.
It might seem like a small problem, but stealing sand and pebbles from beaches can have serious ecological consequences.
After a French couple was arrested in 2019 for smuggling 14 plastic bottles full of sand from the island, Sardinian environmental scientist Pierluigi Cocco explained these to the BBC.
“Only a fraction of the tourists visiting Sardinia spend their time digging up to 40kg of sand each,” he said.
“But if you multiply half that amount times 5 per cent of the one million tourists per year, in a few years that would contribute significantly to the reduction of beaches.”
In 2021, the campaigning group ‘Sardinia robbed and plundered’ (‘Sardegna rubata e depredata’) estimated that at least six tonnes of sand had been taken from the island’s beaches by mid-August.
“Most people don’t really have a motive,” a Sardinia Robbed and Plundered campaigner wrote on its Facebook page.
“Perhaps to arouse the envy of friends and relatives, to relive the emotion of the holiday in their drawing room, or even to decorate an aquarium.”
“(Tourists are likely) trying desperately, but unfortunately in vain, to take a piece of it away [in] their hands, instead of keeping memories in memory and heart.”
Delta Air Lines and American Express are making it easier to plan a summer getaway with new card offers, offering up to 110,000 bonus miles when card holders sign up.
The US is vast, so big that choosing between coast or mountains, islands or quaint small towns can get downright overwhelming.
I hesitate to share this information because I think my friend and I would be perfect for the job but GetYourGuide, in partnership with On Location Tours, is kicking off a search for a couple of Swifties to lead Taylor Swift-themed tours in two major cities.
Learn how proxies can protect your privacy on Telegram. Discover why you need them and how they guard against online threats.
Bikini to swimsuit. Factor 15 to 50. Paperback to Kindle. The answers to my holiday prep questions have changed over time, but this year there was one extra decision: pedal bike or electric?
They tell a story in the Magdalen Islands about a winter so bitter that they were completely cut off, with no way to guide their boats through the frozen harbors.
I paddled hard to stay in front of the two-foot wave, repeating the sequence of movements I’d just practiced on land. Press hands beneath shoulders, keep chest up, drive knee forward, plant back foot, then pop up into a crouch like a sprinter ready to take off. As I eased onto my feet, the wave crested and propelled me forward: I was surfing! My heart fluttered.
“The Isole Pontine are very special to me. I have been visiting Ventotene and Ponza, the larger two of the six islands, since I was a child, as my family was one of the first to buy property on Ventotene. My mother was born in Rome, and it’s where my parents first met. Even though we lived abroad all our lives, we always returned to Italy to visit relatives. My family’s a bit unusual in that Romans tend to holiday more in Ponza, whereas Ventotene is more Neapolitan.”
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This year marks the 75th anniversary of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949, which secured access for everyone to some of our wildest and most beautiful places. There are now 15 national parks across the UK, covering a staggering variety of landscapes, from the heather-clad uplands of the Cairngorms in Scotland to the chalky grasslands of the South Downs, England’s newest national park. We’d love to hear about your favourite beauty spots and outdoor activities, whether it be paddling the tranquil waterways of the Norfolk Broads or birdwatching on the craggy Pembrokeshire coast.