Europe by Train: Paris and the Van Gogh Trail

From Zurich, our TGV—Train Grande Vitesse—is smooth and speedy, and by mid-afternoon we have arrived at the Gare de Lyon in Paris. Soon we are standing on rue Chateau d’Eau, outside the courtyard of what will be our home for three weeks. Three flights up the polished oak stairway and we enter what was once probably … Read more

Europe by Train: Over the Alps to Zurich

We’d gone to Italy for the soul and were now heading to Zurich for friendship—to visit one of my very oldest friends, married to a Swiss. After leaving Bologna, we connected through Milano, the station just as you would expect for this fashionable city, grand and elegant. I haven’t mentioned yet the Man in Seat … Read more

Europe by Train: Bologna: Through the Arcades

Leaving Arezzo’s cozy train station, we passed through lush Tuscan hill country,       descending to Bologna, an artistic and culture center of North Italy, home of the world’s oldest university, founded 1088.  Most of Old Town is a pedestrian zone and our taxi took a circuitous route to our Art Hotel Orologia, next to the sprawling main … Read more

Europe by Train: Arezzo: Hilltop Queen of Tuscany

It was hard to leave Rome, but time to move on. Bidding the great city arrivederci, we boarded our train at the mammoth Termini and two hours later reached the Tuscan hill town of Arezzo.  A fellow traveler, a journalist, told us he lives here and commutes to Firenze, about thirty minutes north. Quelle vie, as … Read more