Alicante Vacation


by Lucas Robi - Date: 2007-04-23 - Word Count: 435 Share This!

Many people dream of a vacation to the real Spain. Alicante is a fine example of such a trip. A port city on the Mediterranean Sea, Alicante enjoys the famous Mediterranean climate. Famous for its oranges, the region is lush and has long been renowned for its agriculture and beauty.

Alicante has a long and varied history. The area has been inhabited for 7000 years, with trading posts in the area before 1000BC. However, modern Alicante can trace its history back to Hamilcar Barca and the foundation of Akra Luekra, or White Mountain. This fortified Carthaginian settlement led to modern Alicante. The Romans took the area and held it for 700 years. The collapse of the Roman Empire led to Vandal dominion over Alicante, still known as Lucentum, the Roman name. The Moors took the city, bringing with them oranges, rice, palm trees, Moorish art and architecture. In 1246 the Spaniards took Alicante, leading to the city's golden age as a major trading port. However, around 1610 the Spaniards forced the Moriscos to leave to hinder pirate raids from North Africa. This removed many skilled artisans and started an economic downturn. Alicante backed the losing contender in the War of the Spanish Succession, which made matters worse. The end of the 19th Century saw a revived economy, though the Spanish Civil War returned the bad old days. Alicante was one of the last Republican cities to fall to Franco, who punished the region.

As we enter the 21st Century, Alicante is the center of a growing region and the built up area, including satellite towns, is one of the ten largest in Spain. Despite this, the region is still steeped in local color. For the convenience of a tourist, there is an international airport, a major port and regular ferry trips to the Balearic Islands. The economy is based on tourism in the beaches from Costa Blanca coast, wine production, services and administration. Alicante exports wine, olive oil, and fruit, and possesses leather, textiles, and pottery industries. Turrones or torrons in Catalan is a honey and almond nougat, and is an Alicante food specialty. Alicante has thousands of residents from around the world, with several thousand from South America, North Africa and elsewhere in Europe.

Alicante Vacations provide castles, the food and resources a city can provide, the beauty and quiet of a rural region, a good traffic network to arrive, depart and support side trips and more history than you can shake a stick at. Whether your interest is in agriculture or architecture, the past or the present, Alicante has it ready and waiting for you.


Related Tags: vacation, europe, spain, costa blanca, alicante, mediterranean, altea, benidorme

Luca Robi is the owner and co-editor of AlicanteNews.com. Visit us if you want to learn more about Alicante Vacation.

Your Article Search Directory : Find in Articles

© The article above is copyrighted by it's author. You're allowed to distribute this work according to the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs license.
 

Recent articles in this category:



Most viewed articles in this category: