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Hotel Accommodations in Gloucestershire for a Magical Break

Blessed with stunning scenic splendor and enchanting small towns and villages, Gloucestershire is one of the English counties that attract tourists from all over the world. The city is steeped in Royal History and boasts a unique blend of historic sites and interesting attractions. Cotswold Hills, the Forest of Dean and the Vales of Severn and Berkeley are the major tourist locations here. If you are planning a relaxing vacation with your family and loved ones to this paradise on earth accommodation requirement will not pose a major problem. There are plenty of hotel, family-run guest house and B&B accommodations available in Gloucestershire to suit varying tastes and budget choices.

Unwind yourself in a Cozy Hotel in Gloucestershire
Most of the major hotels boast the advantage of scenic locations offering an ideal setting for a memorable stay. Eternal joy can be achieved by staying in a hotel in Gloucestershire that overlooks the dreamy wilderness of the surrounding Forest of Dean. A good number of Gloucester hotels feature delightful and finely appointed bedrooms full of character.

Some of the rustic charm-inspired hotels feature magnificent and distinctive antiquities and furnishings. Some of the very old farm houses and manor houses have been sympathetically refurbished into luxury hotels without spoiling their intrinsic rustic beauty. Warm soft furnishings offer the much desired tranquil atmosphere complimenting the stunning views outside from the picture windows. The entire ambience is enhanced by the intelligent use of natural colors and supple lighting. Traditional features are merged perfectly with contemporary furnishing. These elements are sure to offer breathtaking environment for a romantic weekend that you were longing for.

Since finding a suitable parking lot in Gloucestershire is not an easy task, most of the hotels offer free parking facilities. Decide on the places you are going to explore and select a hotel in the walking distance of that location. You can park your car in the hotel itself and go for a leisurely walk. Luxury hotels offer en suite facilities, conference rooms, business centers, spas, hot pools, leisure clubs, gyms, whirlpool baths etc. Alfresco dining on the terraces allows you to have a perfect summer holiday by staying in a hotel in Gloucestershire.

Finding a hotel in Gloucestershire that combines reasonable level of quality with genuine good value is not a difficult task. Staying in a comfortable hotel in Gloucestershire is the regarded as the best option to explore the surrounding stunning locations such as the Cotswolds.

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Snorkelling – The Low Cost Adventure

There is something so relaxing and calming about being in the water amongst the marine life. From the surface you can swim over and around reefs with hundreds if not thousands of fish all around you. This adventure activity is more widely practised than scuba diving because you don’t need any certification, training or equipment. You can head down the water whenever you feel like it put on your snorkel and jump in.

Many tropical resorts and islands offer free snorkelling gear which makes this a fun a cheap activity to do whilst on holidays. But also buying a snorkel is generally inexpensive with the low range snorkels starting from around $20 AUD which makes this activity much more appealing.

Some good places to snorkel are generally tropical countries such as Vanuatu, Tonga and Hawaii. But other spots around the world include the famous Great Barrier Reef in Tropical North Queensland Australia and the increasingly popular Red Sea in Egypt. My particular favourite spot locally in Sydney is Clovelly Bay where you can snorkel amongst a whole range of underwater life but most impressively are the Blue Gropers.

Many water sports have also taking in snorkel as part of their sport such as underwater hockey, underwater rugby and spear fishing. Underwater hockey is a sport where the puck is on the floor of a pool and swimmers with snorkels swim down to pass to their team mates and score goals like regular hockey. Underwater rugby however is not at all like rugby. There are two goals at either end of the pool and using a semi buoyant ball the players need to score in either bucket. Both these games are similar and require strong swimming skills, knowledge of snorkelling and great positioning for goals.

For a cheap but fun and active adventure, snorkelling is easy and accessible all over the world. To read about many other adventures like shark diving, fishing, bungee jumping, African safaris and many more visit http://www.nothingbutadventure.com, your encyclopaedia all things adventure travel, hobbies and activities.

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Italian Restaurants

Of the hundreds of types of ethnic restaurants in the United States, Italian restaurants, including pizza chains, boast the largest number. They also offer an array of opportunities for would-be franchisees and entrepreneurs and the possibility of coming up with a concept modification. Italian restaurants owe their origins largely to poor immigrants from southern Italy, entrepreneurs who started small grocery stores, bars, and restaurants in Italian neighborhoods in the Northeast. The restaurants began serving their ethnic neighbors robustly flavored, familiar foods in large portions at low prices.

The foods were based on home cooking, including pasta, a paste or dough item made of wheat flour and water (plus eggs in northern Italy). Spaghetti, from the word spago, meaning ”string,” is a typical pasta. Macaroni, another pasta, is tubular in form. In the north of Italy, ravioli pasta is stuffed with cheese or meat; in the south, it may be served in a tomato sauce without meat. Pastas take various shapes, each with its own name. Pizza is native to Naples, and it was there that many American soldiers, during World War II, learned to enjoy it.

Pizza eventually made John Schnatter a millionaire; his Papa John’s chain has made hundreds of small businesspeople wealthy. Although independent Italian restaurant owners typify the Italian restaurant business, chain operators are spreading the pasta concept nationwide and selling franchises to those qualified by experience and credit rating. The range of Italian-style restaurants available for franchise is wide, from stand-in-line food service to high-style restaurants where the guest is greeted by a maitre d’hotel, seated in a plush chair, and served with polished silver.

A Romano’s Macaroni Grill costs upward of $3.5 million to build, equip, and open. As is true in upscale Roman restaurants, guests get to review fresh seafood, produce, and other menu items as they enter the restaurant. An extensive menu lists more than 30 items, including breads and pizza baked in a wood-burning oven. The Olive Garden chain, with more than 547 units, is by far the largest of the Italian restaurant chains. As might be guessed, many Italian-style restaurants feature pizza and might be properly called stepped-up pizzerias.

Pasta House Co. sells a trademarked pizza called Pizza Luna in the shape of a half moon. An appetizer labeled Portobello Frito features mushrooms, as does the portobello fettuccine. Spaghetti Warehouses are located in rehabilitated downtown warehouses and, more recently, in city suburbs. Paul and Bill’s (neither owner is Italian) sells antipasto, salads, and sandwiches for lunch, then changes the menu for dinner. The sandwiches are replaced by such items as veal scallopini with artichokes and mushrooms in a Madeira sauce. Osso bucco (veal shank) is another choice. Potato chips are homemade, and a wood-fired oven adds glamour to the baked breads and pizza. Fazoli’s, a Lexington, Kentucky, chain, describes itself as fast casual dining.

Guests place their orders at a counter, then seat themselves. A restaurant hostess strolls about offering unlimited complimentary bread sticks that have just been baked. The menu lists spaghetti and meatballs, lasagna, chicken Parmesan, shrimp and scallop fettuccini, and baked ziti (a medium-size tubular pasta). The sandwiches, called Submarinos, come in seven varieties. Thirty percent of sales come via a drive-through window. The chain franchise has some 400 units and is growing. Italian restaurants based on northern Italian food are likely to offer green spinach noodles served with butter and grated Parmesan cheese. Gnocchi are dumplings made of semolina flour (a coarser grain of wheat).

Saltimbocca (”jumps in the mouth”) is made of thin slices of veal rolled with ham and fontina cheese and cooked in butter and Marsala wine. Mozzarella cheese is made from the milk of water buffalo. Risotto, which makes use of the rice grown around Milan, is cooked in butter and chicken stock and flavored with Parmesan cheese and saffron.