In less serene regions, the scarcity of Coca-Cola was sometimes so acute that upon receiving a trickling shipment a military unit would have the chaplain dole it out, in the hope of avoiding mayhem.
As far afield as the normally serene mountainous region of Gilgit in the north-east, passengers have been pulled off buses, identified as Shias and then shot.
Anything that focuses on Iran is off-limits, as it's only a ploy to divert the world's attention from the root cause of all evil and instability, Israel, in an otherwise serene and sedate region.
Dutch settlement of the Hudson valley began in 1629, and the serene beauty of the region near Tarrytown formed a background for the stories of Washington Irving and inspired the Hudson River school of landscape painting and architecture.
After being independent for centuries as part of the Most Serene Republic of Venice, the region was annexed by the Austrian Empire and eventually ceded to the Kingdom of Italy in 1866.
The magical feel of the region was continued in the serene environs of the Silks Place hotel, high in the Taroko gorge, a haven of inimitable calm, soft carpets, luxurious massage, hushed dining and elegantly minimalist Japanese-style rooms.
It's a tale of two cities that couldn't be more different: the serene metropolis of El Paso and the more dangerous region of Ciudad Juárez in Chihuahua, Mexico, where large drug cartels wreak havoc and murderous mayhem.
