Get travel inspo in your inbox every week. Discover wonderful places, delightful hotels, history and cultural experiences at home (USA) and abroad. Everything you see and read is 100% original by Paul, photographer and FAA-certified licensed drone pilot, and Marilee, the voice and writer behind Spotlight Sojourns.
✨The world’s most beautiful bookstores
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“This has got to be the world’s most beautiful bookstore,” wrote Susan in reply to last week’s email. “Please tell us more.” Yes, El Ateneo Grand Splendid in Buenos Aires is every bit as gorgeous and glamourous as the stars of stage and screen who once graced this 1919 opera house and movie palace. Tens of thousands of books, magazines, and music selections fill the vast interior, complete with original luxury boxes and ceiling frescos. The onstage café is a perfect place to sip an espresso and savor the soaring space. If Buenos Aires is on your travel horizon, Paul and I recommend planning your visit to El Ateneo Grand Splendid on a weekday morning. It’s extremely popular with literary locals, bookish travelers, and photo-seekers alike. Cărturești Carusel in old Bucharest is a treasure trove of visual and literary delights. Natural light pours through 6 pristine floors of a formerly derelict 1903 building. Like at El Ateneo, our weekday morning visit was lovely and quiet. Quiet isn’t quite the case at Livraria Lello r Irmāo in Porto, Portugal. Crowds foiled our previous attempts to visit this 1906 bookshop. We may yet succeed, since the store now charges an entrance fee (refundable with purchase) to manage the Harry Potter fan floods. Speaking of floods, Libraria Acqua Alta in Venezia was the topic of an April 2025 National Geographic article on how the store handles its global social fame. And we can’t help but wonder how many people waiting in line to snap a selfie also make a purchase. Hopefully, they all do. Assuredly, you and we do. Until next time, Reader Travel on, sparkle on, meaningfully✨ Marilee + Paul Kostadimas PS: Do you know friends or family who’d like a little inspo in their box? Please forward this email. They can subscribe by clicking the button below:
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Slow travel stories and hidden gems with the Hidden Gemologists®
Get travel inspo in your inbox every week. Discover wonderful places, delightful hotels, history and cultural experiences at home (USA) and abroad. Everything you see and read is 100% original by Paul, photographer and FAA-certified licensed drone pilot, and Marilee, the voice and writer behind Spotlight Sojourns.
Few would place the humble, hard-working city of Arta, Epirus, on their must-visit list in Greece. Few, that is, except you. Specifically, you came to Arta for its famous stone arch bridge. So, promptly upon arrival in town, you head straight to the Arachthos River in anticipation. First built during the Roman Empire, re-built over millennia by the Byzantine and Ottoman rulers, the Bridge of Arta holds a place in folklore and ballads. Assuredly, this long and lovely stone arch bridge does not...
As you traverse narrow mountain roads enroute to Greece’s mightiest gorge, historic stone bridges appear and disappear enchantingly. Hand-built centuries ago by master masons of Epirus, these stone arch bridges fill the Pindos Mountains with purposeful grace and rugged beauty. It seems as if you’re in a fairytale come true. And the bridges are characters in their own right. The first bridge you encounter is the Kokkorou Bridge, the stern guardian of Zagori. Its high single arch spans the...
Scenically surrounded by mountains and strategically set on a lake, the Epirus capital of Ioannina commands an urban setting unique in Greece. Ioannina’s lovely promenade along Lake Pamvotis draws locals and visitors alike by day and by night. Water taxis shuttle constantly between Ioannina’s dock and its small island in Lake Pamvotida. The locals call their island To Nisi, which simply means “the island.” To Nisi is inhabited, one of only two inhabited lake islands in all of Greece. The...