Take the 44 bus from Piazza Venezia and you’ll find the unimaginable: a slice of Rome untouched by tourists. Monteverde Vecchio, situated on Rome’s highest peak, is almost exclusively residential. Shopping is limited to neighborhood establishments. In addition to priceless views from Janiculum Hill, Monteverde offers a snapshot of everyday Roman life. Get off the » Read more

It seems that Knut, Berlin’s über-cute polar bear cub, is alive and well—and despite the opinion of some animal-rights activists that he should have been killed rather than humanized. Three-month-old Knut made his public debut at the Berlin Zoo last weekend to the adulation of large crowds of children and an international media feeding frenzy. » Read more

Today, Swiss sorta-low-cost carrier helvetic announced that their planned weekly Zurich-Split and Geneva-Split summer flights will not be going forward. Croatia fans up and down Switzerland are no doubt crying into their spätzle. Tied to this decision is the airline’s announcement that they’ll be ramping up service to Lamezia-Terme (Calabria) and Brindisi (Puglia) in July » Read more

Photograph especially as Prague is now one of the most expensive cities in the region—but Rail does name check one of Prague’s best cheap bars, Hapu (on Orlicka street in Zizkov). A tiny space below street level with mismatched furniture, Hapu was one of the first low-cost bars to excel at mixed drinks in Prague. » Read more

Star Date: 2007 Captain’s Log: A member of the Enterprise crew has detected a replica of my commanding station in a little town called Hinckley in Leicestershire, England on planet Earth. A single man, who goes by the name Tony Alleyne, appears to be living in a replica of the Enterprise “Bridge” remodeled from what » Read more

The important cities in Austria and Switzerland are where the action is when it comes to the UEFA European Championship 2008. According to the UEFA Web site, groundwork for a European national-team competition began in 1956, achieving fruition in 1958 as the European Nations’ Cup, and is now known as the UEFA European Championship. Fans » Read more

Photograph by Jet2 Jet2 has just announced a Newcastle-Gatwick route, with one-way fares (including taxes!) starting at £26.99. Jet2′s decision to launch this route was driven by the recent abandonment of said stretch by British Airways, and the airline is operating three flights a day in both directions. Best of all, when we tried to » Read more

It ain’t just Ryanair keeping fares low in and out of Ireland. AerLingus is pushing a bunch of cheap promotional fares right now out of Dublin and Cork. From Dublin: €9 fares (one-way, not including taxes, charges, and supplements) to and from Berlin, Bilbao, Brussels, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, and Madrid; from Cork: €9 fares (also one-way » Read more

March in Hungary is a bad month for pigs. In villages all over the country, this is pig killing season. The season is marked by colorful, if bloody, rituals. The condemned pig is brought out at sunrise and publicly slaughtered. His blood is immediately rushed away by the village women, who make the traditional pig » Read more