Charming
Charleston and
The Spoleto Festival USA
Photo source: Spoletofestivalusa |
It began in 1977 as a counterpart to the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto ,
Italy – the brainchild of
Pulitzer-Prize winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti. And it has steadily grown
in scope and prestige since then, today attracting fans from around the
world.
The dates for this year’s Spoleto USA
is May 23 through June 8.. For complete
information on shows, schedules, tickets, and venues, go to www.spoletousa.org.
It’s only fitting that an event of high culture should find
its way to the “low country” and Charleston .
Low country is where fresh water and ocean water merge in beautiful estuaries
and marshes. It’s an area of the South
Carolina coast where great plantations thrived and aristocratic
gentlemen and genteel ladies held sway.
Charleston is a grand ol’ southern lady as genteel as they come. She has withstood wars, fires, earthquakes,
hurricanes, and hard economic times with her fan still fluttering. Her historic
downtown district still boasts beautiful
pre-revolutionary and antebellum homes. Her neighborhoods and parks are
as graceful as ever, adorned with majestic oak trees draped in Spanish moss,
and azalea bushes that burst into spectacular colors in the spring.
The marshes of the Low Country
teem with shrimp, crab, oysters, and a wide variety of fish. Rice grows easily
here. Seafood and rice dishes, influenced by Caribbean and African cuisine, are
integral to traditional Low Country
cooking. Many of Charleston’s fine restaurants feature the favorites, such
as She Crab Soup, Hoppin’ John, Shrimp and Grits, Frogmore Stew (no frogs
involved), and upteen variations of rice pilaf.
Charleston won the CONDE NAST TRAVELER
2013 Readers’ Choice Award for “Top City in the U.S.” And it won the award for the two preceding
years as well. The Readers’ Choice Award is based on atmosphere and ambiance,
culture and sites, friendliness and
restaurants. Charleston has also received accolades from TRAVEL & LEISURE and SOUTHERN LIVING magazines.
Not far from downtown, on several barrier islands, ocean side resorts give
the grand ol’ lady a leisurely edge with luxurious places to relax and enjoy
the palm trees and sea gulls, or play
golf on manicured fairways and ride horses on the beach.
One such place is Isle of Palms, an affluent community on a barrier island 16 miles from
Charleston. It is joined to the mainland by a bridge spanning the Intracoastal Waterway.
Isle of Palms vacation-home owners and year-round residents offer some fabulous properties for exchange.
One such place is Isle of Palms, an affluent community on a barrier island 16 miles from
Charleston. It is joined to the mainland by a bridge spanning the Intracoastal Waterway.
|
Property #0626: Isle of Palms -- Five bedroom house with two master suites, elevator, and salt water pool. |
The closest beach island to Charleston
is Folly Island ,
12 miles away. The IVHE home here -- Property #0049 -- is located on 18 acres
of private land and offers seclusion, nature, and stunning sunrises. The three-bedroom house has the Folly River on one side and beaches of the Atlantic on the other
For more information on these Charleston-area beach homes, click the property number link. If you are not a member of the International Vacation Home Exchange and find the idea intriguing, visit us at www.ivhe.com and check out WHO WE ARE, ABOUT US, and HOW IT WORKS.
As they say in Charleston, "Ya'll come back."
As they say in Charleston, "Ya'll come back."
Blogsmith: Mike DiPrima
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