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The 10 smallest countries in the world

Alex Robertson Textor — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Europe, Oceania, Maldives, Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City, St. Kitts & Nevis, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Tuvalu, Caribbean

The world's ten smallest countries in terms of area fall into two general categories: European microstates (Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, San Marino, and the Vatican) and small island nations of the Indian Ocean, Pacific, and Caribbean (Maldives, Marshall Islands, Nauru, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Tuvalu.) Some of these countries are quite new as independent nations: Tuvalu gained independence from the UK in 1978, while the Marshall Islands gained full independence from the US in 1986. Others have been around for a very long time. San Marino dates its founding as a republic to 301. These countries vary greatly from one another along other axes as well: population, income, life expectancy, industry, tourist facilities, and membership in various international organizations.

Gallery: World's ten smallest countries

[Image of Tuvalu: Flickr | leighblackall]

The 10 smallest countries in the world originally appeared on Gadling on Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Photo of the day - St. Peter's and a puddle

Meg Nesterov — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Photos, Europe, Italy, Vatican City, Photo of the Day

When taking travel photos, we spend a lot of time looking for the right background. Whether it's capturing a candid portrait or framing the perfect landscape, it's not always easy to convey a beautiful scene in a photograph. Flickr user John Overmeyer used a humble puddle of rain to elevate this night shot of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Of course, flawless composition, lighting, and luck didn't hurt, but it all comes together for a beautifully romantic shot that makes the puddle look like a grand river.

Show off your perfect travel shots by adding them to the Gadling Flickr pool. We may choose yours for a future Photo of the Day.

Photo of the day - St. Peter's and a puddle originally appeared on Gadling on Thu, 17 Nov 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Schengen and the disappearance of European passport stamps

Alex Robertson Textor — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Europe, Cyprus, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Vatican City

Creative new use for border crossing posts at German/Austrian border.

In the late 1980s, an American spending a summer traveling across Europe with a Eurailpass would see his or her passport stamped possibly dozens of times. With a few exceptions, every time a border was crossed, an immigration agent would pop his or her head into a train compartment, look at everyone's passports, in most cases stamp them, and move on. Every Eastern Bloc country required visas, some of which could be obtained at the border and others of which had to be applied for in advance.

Today, an American can enter the Schengen zone in Helsinki, fly to Oslo and then on to Amsterdam, proceed by train through Belgium, France, Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland, then by bus to Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, and then by ferry back to Helsinki before catching a flight to Athens and landing in Greece without once needing to submit a passport to a border guard's scrutiny.

The development of the Schengen agreement across Europe has altered the geopolitical map of the continent in many ways. For tourists, the development of the Schengen zone has simplified travel by drastically reducing the number of times a passport can be checked and stamped as national borders are crossed.

The Schengen Agreement is named after the town of Schengen in Luxembourg. It was here in 1985 that five countries-Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, West Germany, and France-signed an agreement to essentially create borderless travel between them. A model for this agreement had been created years before by the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg), which eliminated border controls back in 1948. The Nordic countries also did away with internal border posts, in 1958.

In 1995, the five original Schengen countries plus Portugal and Spain inaugurated the zone. In 1997, Austria and Italy joined. Greece followed in 2000 and the five Nordic countries joined in 2001. In late 2007, nine more countries joined the Schengen zone; most recently, Switzerland signed up in 2008.

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Schengen and the disappearance of European passport stamps originally appeared on Gadling on Tue, 01 Mar 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rome's Vatican Museums host rare Aboriginal art exhibition

Laurel Miller — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Arts and Culture, History, Learning, Festivals and Events, Europe, Oceania, Italy, Vatican City, Australia, Papua New Guinea, News

No one can ever accuse the Vatican of acting impulsively. In 1925, over 300 artworks and relics were sent to Rome by Aboriginal Australians, for a papal show. Since that time, the items have been squirreled away, despite being one of the world's finest collections of Aboriginal art and artifacts, according to a recent New York Times article.

Fortunately, these treasures are now on public display, thanks in part to Missionary Ethnological Museum curator Father Nicola Mapelli. Last summer, Mapelli flew to Australia and visited Aboriginal communities to request permission to display the collection. His objective was to "reconnect with a living culture, not to create a museum of dead objects." His goal is accomplished in the exhibition, "Rituals of Life," which is focused on northern and Western Australian art from the turn of the 20th century. Despite the fairly contemporary theme of the exhibition, Aboriginal culture is the oldest surviving culture on earth, dating back for what is believed to be over 60,000 years.

The items include ochre paintings done on slate, objects and tools used for hunting, fishing, and gathering, a didgeridoo, and carved funeral poles of a type still used by Tiwi Islanders for pukamani ceremonies. The collection also includes items from Oceania, including Papua New Guinea and Easter Island (Rapa Nui).

The collection was originally sent to Rome because it represents the spiritual meaning everyday objects possess in Aboriginal culture (each clan, or group, believes in different dieties that are usually depicted in a tangible form, such as plants or animals). The items were housed, along with other indigenous artifacts from all over the world, and stored at the Missionary Ethnological Museum, which is part of the Vatican Museums.

"Rituals of Life" is the first exhibition following extensive building renovations and art restoration. The museum will continue to reopen in stages, with the Aboriginal art on display through December, 2011.

For an exhibition audio transcript, image gallery, and video feature from ABC Radio National's "Encounter," click here. The Australian series "explores the connections between religion and life."

[Photo credit: Flickr user testpatern]

Rome's Vatican Museums host rare Aboriginal art exhibition originally appeared on Gadling on Fri, 31 Dec 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Why Luxembourg matters

Andrew Evans — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 09:30:00 EST

Filed under: Hiking, Europe, Andorra, Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Vatican City

Europe has lots of tiny countries. The rest of the world reminds itself of this fact periodically, almost as a running joke. How Vatican City is the smallest "independent" state, but (come on people), is it really a country? Andorra sounds charming, too, until you go there and discover it's only the European Union's largest outlet mall. Likewise, Monaco's just a casino with a racecar track, and Liechtenstein's a drive-thru bank for dodgy Russians with Austrian passports.

Despite the less-romantic realities of present-day Europe, we travelers still get a kick out of these nifty, little hold-out principalities and monarchies. Somehow, they've prevailed in the tempest of European history, avoiding absorption into their larger neighbors all the way into the 21st century when we can ironically celebrate quirky existential nationhoods in the face of supranationalist sentiments.

I first visited Luxembourg on a whim--hopped a train in Brussels and three hours later, stepped off somewhere deep in the Ardennes. I was young, brave, and poor and it was late at night. I walked away from the one-room station in Arlon and disappeared into the forest, bumbling in the woods until the sounds of passing cars disappeared. When I found a comfortable spot, I pushed away the pine needles and lay down on the cold ground, using my lumpy canvas backpack as a pillow.

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Why Luxembourg matters originally appeared on Gadling on Thu, 08 Jul 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Take a virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel

Jeremy Kressmann — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 15:30:00 EST

Filed under: Europe, Italy, Vatican City, Internet Tools

Seeing the Vatican's Sistine Chapel is a hassle. It's constantly mobbed, you're not allowed to take pictures (unlike the sneaky photographer on the right) and you have to walk through a maze of rooms to reach it. But the minute you gaze up at the beauty of this Michelangelo masterpiece, all the pains of getting there evaporate. Now there's a totally new way to view this stunning masterwork without all the fuss, courtesy of the Internet and some high resolution photography.

The Sistine Chapel Virtual Tour offers web-surfers the pleasure of exploring this oft-packed wonder all by themselves, all rendered in gorgeous detail. You're free to zoom in on the most minute details of the frescoes, examining them up close in a way never before possible. To help get you in a properly pious mood, your Virtual Sistine tour is also accompanied by the sound of an ethereal chorus (get your mute button ready if you're not a fan of choirs). As you spin your cursor in circles around the room, you literally feel like you were there.

Thanks to technology, everyone can now get up close and personal with this amazing landmark. Best of all, there's nobody around to yell at you if you try to take a photo...

[Via Buzzfeed]

Take a virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel originally appeared on Gadling on Sat, 03 Apr 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Little Countries, Big World: Gadling's pint-sized guide to the world's smallest countries

Aaron Hotfelder — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:30:00 EST

Filed under: Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City, Nauru, Tuvalu, Budget Travel

I'm not sure what it is about small countries that makes me so interested in them. Maybe it's the fact that they seem so manageable, so knowable. I could spend the next five years in, say, China, and still feel like I hadn't seen a fraction of what it has to offer. But in some of my favorite smaller countries-- Ecuador, Guatemala, the Czech Republic-- I've always felt like I have a fighting chance.

As for the countries below, the world's five smallest, you could get to know most of them pretty well in an afternoon. Here's a quick 'n dirty guide that proves that size, as the old adage goes, is not everything...

Vatican City

In a nutshell: The world's smallest sovereign state at just under two-tenths of a square mile, Vatican City is headquarters of the Catholic Church and home to the Pope. The Vatican, an enclave within the city of Rome, features the magnificent Sistine Chapel, famous for its Michelangelo-painted ceiling, as well as St. Peter's Basilica, the world's biggest Christian church.

Turn-ons: Carpenters from Nazareth, piety, extolling the Christian virtues of humility and simplicity in the midst of unparalleled opulence

Turn-offs: Prostitution, drugs, promiscuity, and just about anything else fun

Interesting factoid: The College of Cardinals has never made it to an NCAA Tournament.

Continue reading Little Countries, Big World: Gadling's pint-sized guide to the world's smallest countries

Little Countries, Big World: Gadling's pint-sized guide to the world's smallest countries originally appeared on Gadling on Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Travel Read: 100 Places Every Woman Should Go

Brenda Yun — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Biking, Climbing, Arts and Culture, Hiking, History, Learning, Skiing, Surfing, Festivals and Events, Stories, Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania, South America, Antarctica, Benin, Egypt, Morocco, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Iran, Japan, Laos, Lebanon, Nepal, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Vatican City, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, United States, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Camping, Books, Ecotourism, Budget Travel, Nightlife, News, Travel Health

I never knew there could be a book so thoughtful and inspiring for women as this one. Stephanie Elizondo Griest's second travel book, which lists far more than just 100 Places Every Woman Should Go, is truly an encyclopedia for women travelers. It's the kind of book that could never have existed fifty years ago, but is so refreshing that free-spirited, female travelers should feel grateful that it exists now, and fully prepared for that next trip into the wide, wonderful world.

Griest's great book is packed with helpful historical information, inspiring stories, and travel tips. It's broken up into nine sections -- my favorite being the first: "Powerful Women and Their Places in History." There's so much worth digesting in each locale described. For instance, I had no idea that the word "lesbian" came from the birthplace of Sappho (Lesbos, Greece). Griest fills each description with great travel tips that often include specific street addresses for particularly noteworthy sights.

Continue reading Travel Read: 100 Places Every Woman Should Go

Travel Read: 100 Places Every Woman Should Go originally appeared on Gadling on Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sistine Chapel: A Reason to Look Up

Jamie Rhein — Mon, 14 May 2007 14:01:00 EST

Filed under: History, Europe, Italy, Vatican City

I recently saw a good friend of mine who returned from a vacation spent in Rome which she deemed fabulous. Instead of hitting several spots in Italy, she and her friend decided to focus on the Eternal City. When I asked her about the highlight, Vatican City was the winner. The Sistine Chapel was one of the reasons.

Having been there myself, I have to say, I can understand her sentiment. I can't remember the summer crowd that I'm sure was there when I went. I do remember being in awe, as corny as that sounds. St. Peter's Basilica may be impressive in its size, history and majesty, but there's something about the Sistine Chapel that is such a story of triumph. Who in his or her right mind would paint a ceiling in such detail these days, particularly when lying on one's back? Michelangelo would probably be thrilled to find out that his efforts are such a big tourist draw. Also, the Sistine Chapel is listed in Lonely Planet's Bluelist as being one of the five reasons to look up when in Europe.

When I saw the Sistine Chapel, I knew a tad about its history and could pick out a few images I had seen in pictures before. Mostly, I didn't know the specifics of what I was looking at. The Sistine Chapel section of the Vatican Musuems Web Page is designed to fill in the details with a virtual tour. You can click on sections of the ceiling to find out specific details about each. This would be a handy virutual tour to take before visiting the chapel in person.

Sistine Chapel: A Reason to Look Up originally appeared on Gadling on Mon, 14 May 2007 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The 5 Smallest Countries in the World

Justin Glow — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 10:40:00 EST

Filed under: Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City, Nauru, Tuvalu

Traveling through Europe as a teenager, we made a stopover in Liechtenstein, a small, landlocked principality nestled between Switzerland and Austria. Crossing the border, I remember thinking to myself, "wow, this country has a lot of letters in its name. I'm hungry." And so we found a place to eat, but then I realized that all of Liechtenstein was less than 70 square miles! I couldn't believe it. I lived in Texas at the time, which was roughly 4,000 times larger, and it was only a state! This was an entire country, and I could probably run from one side to another in a few hours! Insane.

I was sad to find out, then, that Liechtenstein didn't even make the cut in the "5 Smallest Countries in the World" profile by Neatorama.com. What a bummer. Here are the countries that did make the list:

Vatican City - 0.17 square miles
Monaco - 0.8 square miles
Nauru - 8 square miles
Tuvalu - 9 square miles
San Marino - 24 square miles

Liechtenstein comes in sixth. Sixth. So close. If I would have visited any of these on that trip, my head probably would have exploded for the shear novelty of being in such a small country. What can I say? I'm easily amused.

The 5 Smallest Countries in the World originally appeared on Gadling on Thu, 25 Jan 2007 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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