Jewels of Europe with Italian Serenade

Amsterdam: A good time! That’s what you’ll have in this beautiful capital of the Netherlands, which feels at once like a 17-century city and a bustling modern metropolis. Famous for its canals and extraordinary museums, Amsterdam is also an intimate city with strangely alluring streets and squares.

Founded in 902, Bamberg remains a medieval-looking city known for its symphony orchestra and specialty “smoke” beer. Bamberg was also the first site in Germany of lithographic printing featuring movable type.

The city’s winding streets are filled with baroque patrician houses as well as the breathtaking 11th century cathedral of Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich II, which houses his tomb as well as that of Pope Clement II. Tour the 16th century Alt Residenz (Old Residence) and the 17th century Neue Residenz (New Residence), both of which were bishop’s houses.

Located on both sides of the Rhine river, Cologne (German: Köln) is the fourth most populous city in Germany. Cologne’s great Gothic Cathedral is a magnificent reminder of man’s ability to create exquisite art from stone. Its lacy twin spires and wonderful stained glass never fail to impress. Miraculously, the Cathedral escaped wartime destruction, unlike most of the city. The Old Town attracts visitors with excellent restaurants, lively taverns, bars and boutiques. The pedestrian-only Hohe-Strasse is a shopper’s paradise, and Eau de Cologne toilet water, trademarked 4711 (the former address), is world famous.

You’ve heard, perhaps, of the Renaissance? Well, this is the region it started. And without the Renaissance, our art would be poorer, our food and wine would be poorer, and our culture would be poorer plus, the term “Renaissance man” would be meaningless and confusing.

Some interesting sites to visit are the castle where Michealangelo is supposedly tombed, the Arno River, which divides the city in half, with the historical district in the northern part, and the Oltrarno neighborhood to the south. The Piazza del Duomo is usually found with hundreds of tourists, and the Piazza Santa Maria Novella is a regular hangout for immigrants and tourists waiting for the train. Most of the streets are open only to pedestrians, so walking is a welcome reward for getting around, rather than by car or bus. Be sure to get a map with all of the interesting landmarks and entertainment to be found in this great city, available at the tourist office and most hotels. Take your time, there are many Renaissance palaces and Gothic churches to be experienced.

Human settlements have existed here at the confluence of the Danube, Inn and Ilz rivers ever since prehistoric times. In this millennium the city was considerably enlarged by the prince bishops of Passau, who made it their royal residence and capital of the largest Danube diocese. The wonderful Baroque buildings that dominate the city today were built after the great fire of 1662. One of the most striking is cathedral of St. Stephan, which boasts the world’s biggest church organ. One of the best ways to enjoy the magic of Passau is with a sightseeing tour by ship.

A perfect combination: an inviting skyline, impressive historic monuments, and legendary hospitality. Regensburg, Germany’s best preserved large medieval city, offers a harmonious scenario in every respect. Here, the heritage of major past eras is the spice in the soup of lively urban life.

Get a feeling for life in the days of old – by walking over the Stone Bridge, built over 850 years ago and the oldest of its kind in Germany. Or stroll through the Old Town lanes with their tall patricians’ towers; pass through the Roman Porta Praetoria at the Northern perimeter; and visit the Old Town Hall with historic imperial hall and the palace of the princes of Thurn & Taxis. Or take the time to listen to an uplifting choir concert in St. Peter’s Cathedral – Bavaria’s most outstanding Gothic structure.

Ride the boat across the Danube rapids, enjoy some of the many festivals, experience art and culture at historic sites, and treat yourself to Regensburg fried sausage at the historic Salzstadel.

Rome wasn’t built in a day…but you can tour it in just over 10 hours. A teeming anthill of humanity and antiquity intermingled with awful traffic jams, Rome grew up on the Tiber (“Fiume Tevere”) among seven low hills that rise from the river’s soggy eastern banks. It’s a city of many peeling layers of history, of which the bottom layer–that of the earliest Roman centuries–is the most interesting and still astonishingly whole. The hub of this layer is the Palatine Hill, the Forum, the Colosseum and the Circus Maximus.

On the western bank is the Citta Vaticana, the independent papal city where the Pope blesses pilgrims from all over the world. Neighboring Trastevere (“Across the Tiber”) is a mix of Roman, Greek and Jewish subcultures, great for little restaurants and nightlife. Further north on the other bank is “vecchia Roma,” medieval Rome of the Pantheon and Piazza Navona; Renaissance Rome is centered south of the Corso Vittorio Emanuele. Commercial Rome is the city of the Via del Corso, the Piazza del Popolo, the controversial Victor Emmanuel monument and finally the Stazione Termini, the nexus for all trains and roads from Rome.

Rüdesheim is a small, very quaint “Bavarian” village in Germany on the Rhine River. Points of interest include the Asbach Brandy Distillery, Cable-car to Niederwald Monument, Medieval Museum of Torture, a Falconry and many wine festivals throughout the year.

A resort town in northern Italy.

As you approach the city over the bridge from the Italian mainland, you leave behind terra firma and, with it, earthbound notions of how to see and experience a city. Venice is not solely the spill of churches and palazzi on either side of the Grand Canal, but rather a city of islands, 118 in all, some of which are little more than the weedy, humps you see in the Lagoon of Venice. And yet these mud flats provided haven for the people who fled here (without benefit of a bridge) from Huns, Visigoths, and other marauders in the fifth century. And those refugees gave birth to a culture that ripened into a thousand years of greatness.

As you near the end of the bridge, you see at first only the back side of the city itself. But in the time it takes to walk through the train station, you begin to hear sounds peculiarly Venetian–the low rumble of boat motors, a humid incubation of voices, water lapping insistently against wood and stone. And then Venice confers her greatest gift: No matter how many times you’ve been here, it always seems, in that first glimse, like the first time.

If you are smart, you will immediately start a tour down the Grand Canal by hopping on a vaporetto (water bus) or gondola or water taxi. If you are lucky, it will be during those few hours before sunset when the light shines most kindly on the venerable facades that line this liquid boulevard. If you are particularly observant, you might even notice that neither the light nor the colors are quite Italian, not like the tawny earth tones of Florence or Rome.

The canal is a murkey green, the palazzi a mix of faded, grimy sherbets–watermarked mint and sun-blanched apricot and deep overripe peach. Sunlight shatters into spangles on the water, gondolas knife bach and forth, the Rialto Bridge looms overhead, and then, beyond one final curve, the Palladian church of Santa Maria della Salute and the Campanile (bell tower) of San Marco come into view.

Piazza san Marco is Venice’s grand salon–expansive, familiar, picturesque, pigeonesque. It is anchored at its eastern extreme by the Basilica di San Marco, which is not only the spiritual seat of Venice’s patron saint but also one of the most glittering monuments of Christendom.

Intersecting trade routes, a favorable climate, fertile soil and a primary waterway brought wealth to Würzburg from the early Middle Ages. Symbols of this wealth-and the artistry it bought-are what still attract visitors: the massive, medieval Fortress Marienberg that towers over the city; the Residenz, arguably the most ornate Baroque palace in Germany; St. Kilian’s Cathedral, with its Romanesque exterior and splendidly Rococo interior; and Neumünster Church.

Today, Würzburg, the northern terminus of the Romantic Road, is a surprisingly cosmopolitan Bavarian city filled with architectural and artistic treasures-and exquisite Franconian wine.

Those who make the trip to Würzburg are generally surprised by its warmth, charm and extensive variety of art, architecture and culture. Würzburg’s prime location on the Main makes for delightful strolls along the promenade, and riverfront cafes overflow in good weather. Sightseeing boats offer sightseeing excursions and trips to neighboring villages, and passenger ships plying the Rhine, Main and Danube make the city a prime stop.

Würzburg lies in the heart of Franconian Wine Region, and wine and wine-making are central to life in Würzburg. In autumn, the hills surrounding Würzburg and throughout Franconia are dotted with grape pickers, who fill baskets and dump them into waiting trailers.