If you have Europe in your summer travel plans, you may consider ticking off one of these three gala events. Take a journey through Europe's summer spectacle, offering a trifecta of cultural, sporting, and gastronomic experiences. Whether you're a sports enthusiast, art aficionado, or culinary connoisseur, there's something for everyone to relish.
Starting with the first two, this is a call to all the sports enthusiasts. Germany and the world will be engrossed in June and July with 'the beautiful game' - the 17th edition of the 2024 UEFA European Football Championship, or Euro 2024. You have 10 German cities as Euro 2024 hosts to choose from, where 24 national teams will compete for the European title. Euro 2024 kicks off in Munich on June 14 and ends with the final in Berlin on July 14. Apart from the football fiesta, both Munich and Berlin are incredibly vibrant cities steeped in history to enjoy a holiday.
The second quadrennial sporting extravaganza, the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad, will be held between July and August. While Paris's history, art and culture continue to draw millions of visitors, the Summer Olympics (July 26 to August 11) is an extra special reason to visit or revisit one of the most romantic cities in the world. Moreover, this is the Olympic games where Indis's golden boy, Neeraj Chopra, goes to defend his javelin gold. And he needs the inimitable Indian vibe backing him in Stade de France.
If sports is not your thing and you are still high on art, history, culture, environment, and food, look no further than Terra Madre Salone del Gusto in Turin, Italy, between September 26 and 30. Hosted every other year, Terra Madre combines a global gathering of Slow Food communities with conferences, a market, workshops, networking, music and the flavours of the world. The Terra Madre network celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Terra Madre Salone del Gusto is organized by Slow Food, the City of Turin and the Piedmont Region.
Terra Madre, or the Slow Food Festival, has created this wonderful network that connects the farmers, chefs, and customers who can procure single-origin organic produce, as well as the remarkable diversity, flavours, and tastes. By showcasing such an extraordinary variety of products – cheese, olive oil, jams, fennel, coffee, craft beer, wines and a plethora of other dairy, meat and agriproducts, Terra Madre aims to raise awareness about environment and biodiversity through sustainable farming practices.
By promoting a model of agroecology based on local biodiversity, the movement stands for food sovereignty—access to good, clean and fair food for all. Here, you shall meet artisanal farmers and indigenous food producers who have kept the traditional small-scale sustainable production of quality food alive and are conserving biodiversity in their countries.
Turin, or Torino, as the Italians call it, is a wonderful city to visit with its arched covered walkways connecting one grand square with the other, all in a grid formation. While Rome, Florence, and Venice get all the tourist attention, few know that Turin was Italy's first capital city, located on the banks of the River Po. Loaded with breathtakingly baroque architecture, palaces, museums and historical monuments, Turin remains Piedmont's capital, a region famed for its red wines from the Nebbiolo grape. A special recommendation is to try either the Barolo or the Barbaresco.
For the history nerd, one of the must-see places in Turin is the Egyptian Museum - the world's oldest museum (opened to the public in 1832) devoted entirely to ancient Egyptian culture. Turin's many fine palaces-turned-museums are also home to the finest collections of ancient arms in Europe.
Turin is also home to Fiat. The automobile giants have a museum where the focus is not just on their legendary cars but also on their aeroplanes, trains, tractors, bicycles, washing machines, refrigerators, war technology and ship engines to put on a show. There will also be a Fiat reference when the 2024 edition of Terra Madre Salone del Gusto opens in Parco Dora. The German landscape architect Peter Latz and his team restored thirty-five hectares of the disused sites of five Fiat and Michelin factories near the Dora Riparia River. It is a magical place that retains remnants of the recent industrial past, juxtaposing them with meadows, trees, ponds and watercourses. Come September, Parco Dora will come alive with music, food and things to connect us with nature.