Providence Travel Guide

To think is to think of Florence art and culture. But also fun. It has always seemed very pleasant stroll through the streets and relax in one of their elegant cafes. The visit to this Italian city have to take it easy because you can not see all its buildings and museums in one day.

We begin our tour of the Piazza del Duomo, which surrounds the impressive Cathedral of Santa Maria di Fiore. The exterior facade is decorated with white marble, pink and green and her right stands Il Campanile, designed by Giotto. Opposite the cathedral is the Baptistery, one of the oldest buildings in the city, Italian Romanesque style, highlight its bronze doors of Renaissance style.

Behind the cathedral is the Museum of the Opera del Duomo, where you can admire Mary Magdalene by Donatello and Michelangelo’s Pieta. The next visit is in the National Museum which houses a delas finest collections of Renaissance sculpture in Italy. It works by geniuses such as Michelangelo, Donatello and Benvenuto. If we continue our cultural tour of Florence, we will head to Palazzo degli Uffizi which houses the country’s most valuable art collection with works by Caravaggio, Rembrandt and Canaletto. Here are the famous’ Birth of Venus “and” La Primavera “by Botticelli and ‘The Virgin and Child with angels’ of Filippo Lippi.

What can we do in Malaysia? This country, which gained independence from the British in 1957, has in its capital Kuala Lumpur, the highest skyscraper in the world. The two highest in the world are twin towers built by the country’s largest oil company, Petronas. But if we see something different, you can visit the island of Borneo, inhabited by indigenous tribes like the Iban, Bidayuh and the Melanau. In the region of Sarawak Malay customs blend with modernity: traditional houses, crafts, hunting and fishing, crafts and setting up their homes in the middle of the jungle. The dances and spiritual rites (some quite morbid to Western morality). Currently, 80% of citizens living in rural Sarawak, Iban tribes and represent 30% of all tribes living in an almost primitive.

The Iban are a number of vertebrate tribes around the river, trying to have a type of ancient life. These blowgun fishing in rivers and lakes in the forest hunting monkeys, wild cats and reptiles. The staple diet is fruit and leaves. They are governed by their own laws, where they choose in perpetuity their great chief. Usually distributed by families, and are self-sufficient, also enjoying good health, which can only be exacerbated in the case of consuming a harmful plant. They are midwives to pregnant women, as well as a spiritual doctor to cure diseases with natural products that have at your fingertips.

We can see in these jungles, one of the most dense in the world, the importance of orangutans, which are currently endangered by instability in populations, and poor conservation of their natural habitat, which is being cut. Therefore, these tribes have built the center Sepilok orangutan rehabilitation in the town of Sandakan. Also, if you want to know more about these tribes, we can visit the Sarawak Cultural Village Museum, although it is recommended to live with them at least a day.

The best way to reach the villages is through the rivers, not very deep but very brave, on vessels elongated wooden handmade. Upon arrival, a woman with a gong to alert the rest of the arrival of a new person, and are welcoming children, youth and then finally the elderly. The houses are built high for two reasons: either to flooding from rivers not destroyed, as well as to prevent animals from entering them. Around the Longhouse or communal house, a wooden building very large and elongated, the backbone of the other buildings. This longhouse has two distinct parts: the Ruai, speaking, smokes, you can play, make crafts or make important decisions for the community, as well as where they are made parties, dances and rituals. Through this corridor open doors to private rooms where families live, and there are cooking, sleeping, and can only enter if you are invited. Up to 150 people live in the Longhouse, governed by a Tuai Rumah (head) and laws and traditions.

A characteristic feature of this tribe are the tattoos are an integral part of culture, with a specific ritual associated with spiritual beliefs. These tattoos, which are carried by more than one hundred years, have repeated elements, such as the Rose of Borneo, which carry the tattoo as a way of identifying them in a higher hierarchy level, while other accounts say it is the passage of the childhood to adulthood. Another is the Borneo Scorpion, also known as Kala, and appears to be a dog or dragon interpretation related to the protection of malevolent spirits. The technique is tattooed with two rods, one with the T-shaped tip and the other to hit and go by and the tattoo.