|
The World's Quietest Placest
Where to find the solace of silence
By E. Readicker-Henderson
The Troll Ladder, Norway
David Robertson - Alamy
Spend a day walking the downtown streets of almost any city, and odds are, you’ve just gone over the government’s safety recommendations for exposure to noise. We are everywhere blasted by sound: traffic, construction, passing radios, the blare of TVs, and the constant ring of cell phones not quite drowning out the sound of airplanes passing overhead.
The problem is, noise has been proven to raise stress levels, can potentially cause heart and immune system problems, and raise blood pressure. Some studies even show noise can alter brain chemistry in less than fun ways.
So what can you do about it? Escape into the quiet. Around the world remain places that are surprisingly accessible where the constant din of civilization simply drops away.
Asolo, Italy
An hour outside Venice (another carless place that could have made this list), Asolo is a perfect medieval hill town of walls and cobbled streets and afternoons of nothing to do but sip a drink in an open-air café. Once home to Robert and Elizabeth Browning, in Asolo, the only alarm clock you’ll ever need here are the songbirds. According to Dr. Cheryl Fraser, “On a circular hike through the hillside farms and vineyards, over the top of the old castle and down the ancient winding stone path, the predominant sounds are the buzz of various insects (I wonder, do they buzz in dialect?) and the beating of my own heart.”
The Troll Ladder, Norway
Roads tend to be noisy places. Engines and wheels are not at all kind to the soundscape. But the Troll Ladder has something very few roads do: a soundtrack. Famed Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg wrote his piece “Hall of the Mountain King” with exactly this place in mind: Hairpin turns so close to a towering waterfall that it’s a good idea to check your brakes and windshield wipers before starting the drive. Norway’s mountains block the horizons in scenery that looks like you thought The Lord of the Rings should have looked like, if the producers hadn’t been from New Zealand.
Yap
Once you get pa [1] [2] [3] 下一页 【已有很多网友发表了看法，点击参与讨论】【对英语不懂，点击提问】【英语论坛】【返回首页】
|