Europe By Train #12: Monumental Rome

Do I really have to go to Rome? Already planning how to return to Tuscany, I watch the Mediterranean fall away. Too soon, we reach Orbetello for our final European train journey.  Wound down almost to a stop, I don’t quite feel ready for the “big city.” And Rome’s Termini is big…mid-twentieth-century modern set against ancient … Read more

Europe By Train #11: Tuscany: Paradise

We had come to Europe for my youngest brother’s big birthday bash in Maremma, a remote coastal area of Tuscany. After three weeks of train travel, we are ready to unwind – little knowing how dynamic the week will be!  Following my online booking with Italia Rail, I receive only an unfamiliar PNR code, to … Read more

Europe By Train #10: Florence: City of Seduction

Masculine. Stark. This is my first impression as we arrive at Firenze’s Santa Maria Novello railway station. One thing I’ve noticed as we travel Europe by train is I always prefer the place we’ve just left. It takes about a day to get into real time. Venice is so ethereal, so pastel, that I am especially … Read more

Europe By Train #9: Venice: Through Her Back Door

We all have our public and private faces. So does that very grande dame Venice. Venezia. Everyone knows her canals, bridges, and palazzi. San Marco… And the gondolieri with their blue-and-white striped T-shirts… Her grand churches… But we have been lucky enough to spend time in her “backwaters” of Castello, a former ship-building center nearer … Read more

Europe By Train #8: Vienna: Moving On

Imagine you lived in a 600-year-old kingdom, Austria-Hungary, which ruled a vast swath of central Europe, its own world of high culture, literature, art, and music. And then one day at the end of the Great War, you awoke to see your grand imperial city, Vienna, reduced to the capital of a small, powerless state. … Read more

Europe By Train #7: Budapest: Finding the Past

Merre va Margit Hid? Where is Margaret Bridge? No offense, only affection for both: Prague is the cool, chic, with-it sister while Budapest is the wry intellectual in arty vintage clothing.  During our six-hour train ride to Budapest, we chatted with an Aussie couple bound for a Danube cruise and two young Scots sampling the local … Read more