Algeria

Just a few hours’ flight from Italy, Algeria is a country that amazes for the immense variety of cultural, historical and environmental riches hidden in its vast territory. It is a land that seduces with its atmospheres, taking you back to distant and mysterious times, in a kaleidoscope of eras and cultures that overlap, intertwine and are lost in echoes of Ottoman raids by epic corsairs, pagan ceremonies dating back to the days of ancient Rome, and sacred litanies that mingle with the Muezzin’s gentle call to prayer.

The north, with its turquoise shores lapped by the Mediterranean, is the undisputed realm of archaeology lovers, thanks to the remarkable sites of Constantine, Djemila, Tipaza and other Roman provinces of Africa, which preserve splendid evidence of ancient splendour and a priceless historical heritage, second only to Italy.

Algiers, the capital, is one of the most fascinating and refined cities of the Maghreb, with an inebriating mixture a little nostalgic of colonial and modernist architecture, a refurbished kasbah and a traditional medina where it is beautiful to lose oneself among alleys disseminated of bazaar and characteristic places.

But Algeria’s main attraction is its extraordinary Saharan region, where ancient caravan cities, lush palm groves and the boundless expanses of sand and rock of the desert are the country’s best features. Majestic dunes of a thousand shades, mountain massifs with arches, spires and lava peaks towering over the surrounding territory, and spectacular rock formations and canyons that conceal ancient hermitages, Neolithic remains and rock graffiti. Priceless treasures, miracles of nature and verdant oases, the result of the skilful civilisation of the desert peoples.