Alessandro Votta Profile
My dream is to visit as many WHS as possible. I started living this dream in 2010, let's see how far I can go!
2014 Trips done (37 new sites):
January 2014: Southern Spain and Portugal (10 sites)
February 2014: Waterton Park (second visit)
March 2014: Central Mexico (8 sites)
April 2014: Arizona-New Mexico-Colorado (3 sites)
May 2014: Poland (Malbork & Bialowieza, 2 sites)
July 2014: Newfoundland and Labrador (Gros Morne, L'Anse-Aux-Meadows, Red Bay)
August 2014: Southern Italy (Matera, Castel del Monte, 6 sites in Sicily)
September 2014: Eastern USA (Monticello, Mount Vernon TL and Independence Hall)
October 2014: Central Mexico (Guanajuato, San Miguel, Queretaro, Franciscan Mission in Sierra Gorda, second visit to Camino Real with Hacienda de Buenavista, Former Royal Hospital in San Miguel & Puente de San Rafael)
Dec14: Italy-France-Spain (21 new sites)
Feb-15: Xochicalco-Morelia-Monarch Butterfly Reserve (3 sites)
Apr-15: USA (Yosemite)
May-15: USA (Pueblo de Taos-Carlsbad)
Jan-16: Cuba (4 sites from Havana)
Aug-16: Canada-Alaska parks (Kluane, Glacier Bay), Nahanni, Wood Buffalo. Missed Sgaang Gwaay due to bad weather, despite of 3 beautiful days in Gwaay Hanaas :(((
Jan-17: San Antonio
May-17: Yucatan peninsula, Mexico (Palenque, Campeche, Uxmal, Chichen Itza, Sian Ka'an)
Wishlist:
August-17: USA: Great Smokey Mountain, Mammoth Cave
November-17: Mexico: Oaxaca, Mitla
December-17: tbd!! Somewhere in South America?
Visited Sites Alessandro Votta
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- ●● Natural
- ●● Mixed
Recent Reviews Alessandro Votta
Franciscan Missions in the Sierra Gorda
Alessandro Votta Italia - Canada - 24-Oct-14
We've visited 4 out of 5 missions inscribed in this WHS during our Queretaro trip on October 2014. The missions are very similar and they show some of the characteristics of the about 2 centuries older missions around Popocatepetl, like the open chapel at the side of the church.
Luckily for us the restoration project seen by Paul Tanner is over, and all the facades look like they've just been cleaned (they are protected only with a net, probably against birds). It took about 3.5 hours driving from Queretaro to Jalpan. We first visited Mission Conca, which shows many mesoamerican elements in the facade (climbing lions, "indio" faces, many natural elements). Mission Jalpan shows more traditional catholic elements (only saints and natural elements). Mission Landa was the most spectacular for us, showing both religious and mesoamerican elements. It also shows the representation of 2 religious sitting with a desk (one each side of the facade), with a 3-D effect which we found amazing
Read OnLas Pozas, Xilitla (T)
Alessandro Votta Italia - Canada - 18-Oct-14
During my 2 days trip to Sierra Gorda de Queretaro, I've managed to take the 1,5 hours driving from Jalpan to Xilitla, where out of the village and apparently in the middle of nowhere, you'll find the entry to Las Pozas. The gardens are open every year and there is a small entry fee. The main "palace" is very close and visible from the unpaved dirty street you have to take in order to get to Las Pozas (it may become particularly hard to drive, after a rainy day (luckily it wasn't out case). The gardens and concrete structures are well integrated into a main surrealistic environment, many of the concrete structures are just "useless" and just for beauty, mostly representing flowers or bamboo
Read OnGuanajuato
Alessandro Votta Italia - Canada - 17-Oct-14
I've visited 5 WHS in Central Mexico in October 2014 and I've really liked Guanajuato. It is different from the nearby cities of San Miguel de Allende and Queretaro, it is much more colourful and its layout is so strange, set against the hills and with so many underground streets!
It gets complicated to get around by car (a GPS here it's really useless, because underground and overground streets overlap and the GPS doesn't know [...]
Read OnXochicalco
Alessandro Votta Italia - Canada - 22-Mar-14
Not sure where to write this... Anyways Xochicalco site is closed since 2 days because of a protest of local farmers. People trying to get close to the gates are sent away with machetes. My guide didn't know anything about it, so I got there this morning (March 22nd 2014) and I witnessed the unpleasant scene. Against more than 100 people, there wereonly a couple of police patrols. Hopefully the situation will be cleared soon, but I've missed the visit to the site, since my next days are fully booked. Anyways I could "admire" the Unesco logo in the washrooms (luckily these people let us use the toilet when they realized my 6-years-old kids needed it)
Read OnWriting-on-Stone / Áísínai’pi
Alessandro Votta Italia - Canada - 19-Sep-13
This is an easy TL site to reach from Calgary, it is a 4-hours each way driving and it could be managed in a one-day road trip. I don't think there is any public transportation leading to this site, therefore a car rental is the only feasible option. The park is easy to reach even without GPS, there are plenty of road sign, once left the small town of Milk River on the hwy 501 driving east. The park is a "small replica" of the Dinosaur Provincial Park, same badlands aspect; with the landscape made of hoodoos, cliffs and the Milk river flowing in between, it would be a nice site itself, even without the "writing on stone"
Read OnProfile Data
- Name
- Alessandro Votta
- Country
- Italia - Canada
- Most Impressive
- Palenque, Urnes Stavkirke, Polonnaruwa, Petra, Al-Hijr Archaeological Site (Madain Salih)
Recently Visited WHS
- Update 30.07.19
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11 Countries Complete
Bahrain . Cyprus . Estonia . Holy See . Luxembourg . Moldova . Oman . Qatar . San Marino . Sri Lanka . United Arab Emirates .Visited WHS
Rating StatsStonehenge 4.5El Tajin 4Hegra 4Meteora 4Gwynedd Castles 3.5Olympia 3.5Provins 3.5Rhodes 3.5Mystras 3Nancy 3Vegaøyan 3Al Zubarah 2.5Mount Athos 2.5Thessalonika 2.5Tlacotalpan 2.5Vézelay 2.5Qalhat 2Saltaire 2Southern Öland 1.5Turaif Quarter 1.5Reviewed WHS
Visited TWHS
Reviewed TWHS
Top 50 Missing Sites
- Death Valley National Park
- Divided Cities along the German Border
- Klondike and the Gold Rush Trails
- Major Buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright
- Mecca, Kaaba
- Mount Rushmore
- Neuschwanstein Castle
- Panama Canal
- Petrified Forest National Park
- Scrovegni's Chapel
- Suez Canal
- Vers une architecture: Major Buildings of Le Corbusier