Throughout the summer the new lowcost Ryanair flight from Milan/Orio al Serio approaches Cork, second city of Ireland by number of inhabitants, to Italy, making it a must of summer 2011. An opportunity not to miss to discover the capital of the homonymous County, the gateway to the South West that represents the Riviera dell’Isola di Smeraldo, as well as the gastronomic capital of the country. It is enough to visit its famous English Market, the ancient market that animates the city since 1788, to understand its reason (as Queen Elizabeth II did during her recent visit to Ireland).
Experience its neighborhoods along the mouth of the Lee and in the islet that rises between two arms of the river, where thousands of activities are concentrated. Among its prerogatives, St. Patrick Street, from the remarkable architectural examples over time enriched with new features, the Grand Parade, built in 1850 on a dry branch of the Lee River then covered and the City Hall – one of the highest buildings in Ireland.
The emblem of Cork is the bell tower of Shandon, north of the town, "The four-faced liar" (literally the four-sided liar), because each watch is set on a different time from the other three. Tradition wants Shandon's bell to be played for a fee by those who ask for it, to which it is entitled to testify with the obvious saying "I played the Shandon bell".
Born in Michael Collins, one of the architects of Irish Independence, Cork has always cultivated many interests. Culture at the forefront, as evidenced by the Cork Opera House, the Cork Arts Society and the Everyman Palace Theatre.
Poli of reference of a culture that since the 19th century is in the DNA of the city and in the 20th century has favoured the flourishing of music and literature. Giving considerable fame to local writers such as Sean O’Faolain, Frank O’Connor and Seán Ó Ríordáin, and musicians like Sean O’Riada, Aloys Fleischmann and Rory Gallagher. And let's not forget that actors Cillan Murphy and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Irish of birth, also grew up in Cork County.
But the story of this view of the seas that boasts the second largest natural port in the world handed down also of several sailing companies, now entered the myth. From the first Viking raids to the present day. In Cork, which was founded, at the beginning of the 18th century, the first sailing circle in the world and is in the waters facing the coasts of the county every year sailors from all over the world contend the first positions of the Fastnet Rock race.
Event that is only one of the many of the understanding summer and the vibrant autumn of Cork and surroundings. Among the events – all available on the website www.festivalscork.com – certainly not to be missed the Decades Festival (21-22 August, www.decadesfestivalcork.ie), the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival (24-31 October, www.corkjazzfestival.com), the Corona Film Festival ( 6 – 13 November, www.corkfilmfest.org).
All around the city, the Atlantic coastline (over 1000 km of coastline) is stretched, carved by dozens of promontors. From the famous Ring of Kerry to the Skelling Michael with its visitor Centre, to the spur that culminates with Mizen Head, the southernmost head of Ireland, from the peninsula of Beara, with its sequela of small villages and never forgotten ancestral traditions, to the very particular Ivereagh Peninsula.
Among seize and fishing villages, nestled as jewels, dozens of gardens of public residences and private houses, Cobh/ Queenstown, port of departure of entire generations of Irish at the time of the Americas, Kinsale, gastronomic cradle of Ireland, and the Killarney National Park.
