Archaeological, historical and cultural tour operator based in London, The Traveller (www.the-traveller.co.uk), just launched its 2008 brochure. It has quite interesting and original itineraries and unusual destinations.

Among Traveller's top 20 recommended tours that include well known destinations such as Jordan, Colombia, Libya, Syria, Tibet, Greece, among others, is Bessarabia. Tourists are invited to find out how ancient Bessarabia became modern-day Moldova. The tour is combined with visits to the painted churches of the Carpathians, which are on the western side of the Prut River, in Romania's Moldova.

It is a 15 days trip scheduled for August 2008 that includes 6 days in the Republic of Moldova and the rest in its western neighbor Romania. In the Republic of Moldova (former eastern half of the Principality of Moldavia that becomes Russia’s province in 1812 through a military occupation and, once again, a Soviet republic in 1940 and 1944) the tour offers the wine route (vineyards, Milestii Mici/Cricova vast wine underground cellars) and remote monasteries cut into steep cliffs (Orheiul Vechi/Old Orhei, Capriana, Tipova, Saharna) history and ethnographic museums and worship place of Geto-Dacian tribes, remains of a Dacian fortress and medieval fortress of Soroca on the Nistru River.

Crossing into Romanian Moldavia, tourist are invited to visit Iasi, former capital and thriving cultural and university city, then Sucevita, Moldovita, Agapia, Varatec, Voronet, Moldavia’s oldest, UNESCO listed monasteries. The Voronet Church, built in 1488, has original paintings displaying the famed ‘blue of Voronet’, which illustrates biblical scenes, town of Suceava with a citadel of the princes of Moldavia. A trip to Transylvania will include Maramures with its rich textile tradition and picturesque wooden churches, Gothic churches in Cluj, mediaeval citadel of Sighisoara, Sibiu citadel and other destinations.

The tour guide is Dr. Rosamund Bartlett, a writer, lecturer and translator specializing in Russia and Eastern Europe. She has taught at universities in the UK and USA, and has published widely in music, literature and cultural history. Amongst her current research interests are Russia’s Byzantine heritage, and the history of the Russian Empire. Her latest book is a biography of Chekhov.


Publication date: 24 January 2008   

Source: The Traveller

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