Short breaks in Europe: extend the summer

Sicily: Learning to do nothing between old walls

Filmreif: the old tuna fishing area of Scopello

Three streets, a medieval courtyard piazza, a bar, a bakery and a few pensions. With a great view over the Gulf of Castellammare - there is nothing more in Scopello. And you do not need more for relaxing days in Sicily. In the 80-inhabitant village in the northwest lives the serenity. A dog yawns under an oleander bush, two neighbors talk from window to window, old signori sit on folding chairs in front of the house, look at the visitors. Scopello is the starting point for hikes in the nature reserve Zingaro - on the rocky coast you go on narrow mountain trails and peeks between palm trees, cactus and bushes on bays. Below the village is a historic Tunfi scarf with a weathered palazzo, which often serves as a movie set. Here, Brad Pitt and George Clooney shot for "Oceans Twelve", which did not tear the Signori from the folding chairs either. Where people are so relaxed, stress has no chance.

Judith Liere

Stay

Pensione Tranchina. Simple rooms with bath, some with balcony and sea view. For breakfast fig jam and cheese, in the evening Sicilian home cooking, then the fire crackles in the fireplace. DZ / F from 72 Euro (Via A. Diaz, 7, I-91014 Scopello, Tel. 00 39/09 24 54/10 99, www.pensionetranchina.com).

Lake Maggiore: lake view and grandeur

Gorgeous: the Palazzo Borromeo on the Isola Bella

When the holidaymakers are back home, it's time for us to travel to Lake Maggiore. At the lakeside promenade we sunbathe in the still powerful rays and admire the snow-covered summit of the more than 4600 meters high Monte Rosa.

Even a steamboat ride is still possible, preferably from Stresa to the car-free fishing island Isola Superiore dei Pescatori, where you can stroll through a manageable village and sit down for a cappuccino. On polished elegance, however, famous places on the Swiss west bank. If, for example, you stroll along the promenade of Ascona, you can easily dream into one of the sailboats on the blue-green shimmering lake or into one of the old villas.

Annette turnip seeds

Stay
Albergo Pironi. Palazzo with frescoes on the walls and vaulted ceilings, small country-style rooms. DZ / F from 150 Euro (I-28822 Canobbio, Via Marconi 35, Tel. 00 39/03 23/706 24, www.pironihotel.it).
Enjoy
Osteria dell'Angolo. Pasta and fish, in good weather under the pergola in the front garden (Verbania, Pallanza district, Piazza Garibaldi 35, Tel. 00 39/03 23/55 63 62).

Madeira: getting paint

To the amazement: the flower island in bloom

It melts in the mouth like ice cream and tastes of wild, sun-sweet strawberries - who sucks the meat of a cherimoya, feels the summer on the tongue. The fruit is harvested on Madeira in winter. But what does winter mean on the Atlantic island, which is closer to Morocco than to Portugal and has a subtropical climate in its south? Here the colors never go out of nature. On the coast, Levkoje and Greater Adderhead paint purple swabs, in the mountains gorse produces bright yellow, strong red paint hibiscus and azaleas, delicate blue and pink hydrangeas. We see and smell them on walks through the island's capital Funchal and on walks, for example along the Levada do Norte, which leads past private gardens and through forests. Even more intense, we breathe the air in the "Jardim Botânico" above Funchal, where we sit on a park bench as in the amphitheater. Soft light, a stage of flowers and bushes, metallic blue shimmering sea as a backdrop. Palm leaves fanning warm air, birds sing. Nothing that could lure us away from this box seat now.

Doris Ehrhardt

Stay
Casa do Papagaio Verde. As private as the surrounding area, a residential area in the west Funchal, is also the hotel. Modern house, sunny, terrace with sea view. DZ / F from 60 Euro (9000-656 Funchal, Travessa do Papagaio Verde, 31, Tel. 003 51/291/77 59 00, www.casadopapagaio.com).
Enjoy
Armazém do Sal. Portuguese and Argentinian cuisine in 400-year-old walls with a knight ambience. Good wine selection, near the harbor (Funchal, Rua da Alfandega, 135, Tel. 003 51/291/24 12 85,
www.armazemdosal.com).

Nice: The increase of savoir-vivre

Strolling: over the flower market in the old town

In the hotel room, I pull my boots off my feet, slip into my sneakers and run downstairs.Out! In the Mediterranean light, in the colors, the sun, the life! Colors, that's in Nice: pigeon-blue shutters on saffron-yellow facades, emerald green on ocher and orange cream. I leave the station behind me, meander through cheerful, sophisticated streets to the arcades of the Place Masséna, finally I rummage through the alleyways of the old town. Until the market Cours Saleya with its flowers and delicacies opens in front of me. I buy black olives under a red striped awning, then go up the steps to the castle hill, in the Parc du Château on the rooftops of Nice. Deep below me the glittering blue sea carries white sails, I want to open my arms and fly. Under the palm tree in the grass, it's nice too, I put olives in my mouth, inhale the scent of the cypresses: goodbye, summer, until next year!

Susanne Arndt

Stay
Hotel Durante. Nice and quiet rooms around
around a paved courtyard full of palm trees, lemons, oranges, olives
and Strelitzia. At the station. Double from 95 Euro (16 Avenue Durante,
Tel. 00 33/493/88 84 40, Fax 87 77 76, www.booking.com/hotel/fr/durante-nice.en.html).

Algarve: Where the wind breaks

Romantic: The moorish town of Tavira is located on the river Gilão

So many storks! Their clatter echoes over the whitewashed, interlaced cube houses of Olhao, over flat roofs with chimneys like mini minarets, through a network of narrow streets. In the street cafes sit fishermen and housewives, students and business people. We also took off our jackets and put on the sunglasses. And that after only two and a half hours flight! The eastern part of the Algarve, stretching from Faro to the Spanish border, is called Sotavento. Translated: Where the wind takes a break. The primal forces rage less here than in the west of the Algarve with its spectacular cliffs. Here the coastline is shallow, a diverging line of salt marshes, lagoons, creeks, dunes, long sandy beaches and offshore islands. In a protected lagoon, wading birds stagger, royal fishermen flutter by. No hype, little installed. And it's romantic when the evening sun in the elegant Mauren town of Tavira makes the stuccoed patrician houses glow in the lazy river.

Nicole Schmidt

Stay
Vila Monte Resort. The former estate with old trees is hidden in the hills of the Sotavento Natural Park near Olhaõ. 55 elegant rooms in guesthouses. Spa, three pools, good restaurant, golf academy with three-hole course. One week in a double / F from 660 euros, including golf course use (Sitio de Calios, Moncarapacho, Tel. 003 51/289 79 07 90, www.vilamonte.de).

Santorini: The once-in-a-lifetime panorama

Is that about ...? No! No snow! Even if it looks remotely while the ferry is heading for Santorini: the icing sugar canopy on top of the island - these are Santorini's houses. Small, cubist cuboid, bright white, freshly whitewashed for the first tourists of the year, in two big bales, one on the right, one on the left: the two small towns of the island. Fira is the bigger one. We want to Oia. To the hotel "Chelidonia". On our terrace. There are not too many places in the world that are even more beautiful in reality than on postcards. Santorini can do it. And that's why the island is already working in very small doses. Apart from the fact that now all shops are closed in Oia except for the bakery and the grocery store, the guest in "Chelidonia" finds it incredibly difficult to leave his terrace - and thus this once-in-a-lifetime panorama, steeply down into the Sea and beyond for all eternity. One sits, drinks a coffee, drinks a drink of water, drinks a wine, sits and watches as time passes. And feel something in the stomach, something small, silvery, strike a bliss.

Stefan Nink

Stay
Chelidonia. Apartment hotel in the center, ten charming studios with terrace. Day from 180 Euro (Oia, Tel. 00 30/228 60/712 87, Fax 716 49, www.chelidonia.com).
Enjoy
Scale. Authentic Greek tavern with rustic dishes (Oia, Odos Nikolaos Nomikos).

Barcelona: Shopping in the sales

Elegant: the streets of the city

It's still warm enough to hang the jacket over the chair in the sidewalk café, squint in the sun and watch flaneurs. There is no better place in Barcelona than between the trees and stalls on the Boulevard Les Rambles. Now the city belongs to the locals, now you can pretend to be strangers as if you count them.

And then into the crowd around the shopping street Passeig de Gràcia! At each corner there are branches of the Spanish brands Zara, Mango, Women's Secret and the shoe chain Vogue. One could give a detour to the department store colossus El Corte Inglés on the Plaça de Catalunya, if the view from the roof terrace would not be terrific. Unfortunately, in the Art Nouveau market hall "Boqueria" it is over with the feeling of being (at least) at home: Only those who live in Barcelona can cook something from the huge offer of eggplant to zander at home.One of us buys ham and cheese - and packs everything suitable for travel.

Anke Scheer

find accommodation
Hotel Cram. Unobtrusive designed rooms, large beds. Double room from 114 Euro (Carrer D'Aribau 54, in Eixamp le, 08011 Barcelona, Tel. 00 34/93/216 77 00, Fax 216 77 07, www.hotelcram.com).
Enjoy
Tapa tapa. Great place for a thousand tapas snacks (for example Passeig de Gràcia, 44, Tel. 00 34/93/488 33 69, www.tapataparestaurant.com).

Cyprus: Let's see the cultural part

Historic: Church of Panagia Chrysopolitissa at Paphos

Banana trees like no cold. Around Paphos, they thrive magnificently. Envelop a small town without high-rise buildings, half of which seems to be made up of history - and therefore interesting outside the bathing season. There is, for example, a British lighthouse over a Roman theater. And ancient mosaics that tell of love and wine. Egyptian royal tombs strewn in flower meadows, or early Christian columns between palm trees. Unlike many places in Cyprus, Paphos, deep in the mild west, does not hibernate at all. A pelican sways up and down in front of the fish restaurants on the harbor, he does so in front of an audience, and who in the upper town drinks his mocha under the domes of the former Turkish hamam, sits in the middle of the locals.

Klaus Bötig

find accommodation
Hotel Dionysos Central. Relatively close to the sea and centrally located, pleasant in the off season, otherwise very busy. Simple rooms, small unheated pool. DZ / F from 62 Euro (1, Dionysos Street, 8101 Paphos, in the center, Tel. 003 57/26/93 34 14, www.dionysoshotelpaphos.com).
Enjoy
Laterna. Wirt Christos bakes his pita bread himself and is a specialist in salads and vegetables, such as chard with some scrambled eggs. Folkloric atmosphere, open fireplace (2, Apollonos St.).

Tenerife: Above the clouds

Majestic: the Teide, Spain's highest mountain

The best remedy for a cloud cover is to break it. And then to stand above the things, a whole island at your feet and nothing but sun and shimmering red rock around you. Perched in the center of the largest Canary Island, the Teide, a 3718 meter high volcano, sits in a landscape that consists only of stone, light and shadow - so tidy and perfect that the sight of the landscape clears your head. If you want to blow your head completely free, it's best to set off - there are many to choose from. Especially beautiful and not crowded: from the "Parador" hotel climb the steep path to the Guajara, Tenerife's second highest mountain. From the summit plateau you have perfect view of Teide, clouds and the big nothing (up and down in about four hours).

Tinka Dippel

Stay Hotel Rural El Patio. 16th century property, in the middle of a banana plantation near Garachico, with tennis court, pool, patio with plants and sofas. DZ / F from 84 Euro (Finca Malpaís El Guincho, ES-38450 Garachico, Tenerife, Tel. 00 34/922/13 32 80, Fax 83 00 89, www.hotelpatio.com).

Enjoy La Perla. Restaurant in the coastal village of Garachico. Nice service and good Canarian cuisine, z. B. rabbit or fish (closed Wednesday, Calle XVII Julio 8).