by Vas Mylko
In the early-post-covid world, small towns and villages will be appreciated much stronger than before. We performed special testing to ensure we have them all.
Les Plus Beaux Villages de France
For France, we got the most beautiful villages from the special list. “Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (meaning “the most beautiful villages of France”) is an independent association created in 1982 for the promotion of the tourist appeal of small rural villages with a rich cultural heritage. As of September 2016, it numbers 156 member villages (independent communes or part of a communauté de communes).” Wikipedia. Here is the official website. Molto buona.
For Italy, we got the most beautiful villages from the special list. It was inspired by its older French counterpart, Les Plus Beaux Villages de France, and is part of the international organization “Les Plus Beaux Villages de la Terre”. “I Borghi più belli d’Italia is an association of small Italian towns of historical interest, that was founded in March 2001 on the initiative of the Tourism Council of the Associazione Nazionale Comuni Italiani, with the aim of preserving and maintaining villages of quality heritage.” Wikipedia. Here is the official website. Très bien.
German Timber-Frame Routes
There are many beautiful small towns and villages in Germany but there is no association like in France and Italy. Hence took the points from German fairy tales and timber-frame routes to test the density and quality of Curiosio knowledge graph in Germany.
Germany has beautiful small towns with timber frame houses. Here is the official website. There is a whole German Timber-Frame Road featuring those points. Here is the official website.
“The German Timber-Frame Road (German: Deutsche Fachwerkstraße) is a German tourist route leading from the river Elbe in the north to the Black Forest and Lake Constance in the south. Numerous cities and towns each with examples of the vernacular timber-framed houses traditional to the German states are situated along the road. The total length of the route is nearly 3,000 km (1,864 mi).” Wikipedia.
The route is divided into seven sections, each of which follows the traditional areas of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Hesse, Bavaria, and Baden-Württemberg. We simplified those seven sections to three clusters: North, Central, South. All points from Northern Germany were put into the “soup”, and Curiosio created a brand new route in given requirements (the starting point, the finishing point, number of travelers, duration, budget).
Southern Germany was done similarly to Northern.
And Central Germany was a “big soup” of points, and we changed the start and finish. You can set any starting or finishing point that you want.
All timber frame points were present in our knowledge graph. Sehr gut.
German Fairy Tale Route
“The German Fairy Tale Route (German: Deutsche Märchenstraße) is a tourist attraction in Germany originally established in 1975. With a length of 600 kilometers (370 mi), the route runs from Hanau in central Germany to Bremen in the north. Tourist attractions along the route are focused around the brothers Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, including locations where they lived and worked at various stages in their life, as well as regions which are linked to the fairy tales found in the Grimm collection, such as The Town Musicians of Bremen.” Wikipedia.
Between Kassel and Fürstenberg, the Route offers two alternatives: Mother Hulda Route and Sleeping Beauty Route. We made both.
Also, we did the same exercise for Romantic Road in Germany, as a fairy tale for adults and lovers. Wikivoyage.
All fairy tale points were present in our knowledge graph. Sehr gut.
American Route 66
“Route 66 is one of the essential icons of America, for Americans and for people abroad. It represents a multitude of ideas: freedom, migration West, and the loneliness of the American heartland.” “Although Highway 66 is no longer commissioned as a US Highway, you can still ‘get your kicks’ on the path it took through the United States as more than four-fifths of it remain drivable (though not always well-marked) as a collection of state highways and local roads.” Wikivoyage.
This is a monster route. Because it has 100+ points. So we entered them all and even more — some cool detours to the national parks in the vicinity and other special places like Meteor Crater in Arizona. Here is what we got, and it looks good:
There is no feature to [Modify] this whole route because Curiosio limits the total number of points to 30. Maybe we will lift the bar in the future if you want this. So far, we ensured that Curiosio is capable of sequencing and rendering such “monstrosity”. It’s brutal testing of Curiosio.
