Rick Steves' Europe

The far southwest of England is a world unto itself, with a persistent Cornish culture. We'll explore a world of flowers springing from towering hedges, a tin-mining heritage going back to biblical times, salty pirates' towns and fishing villages, and the Land's End of England.

Arcing along the southeast coast of England, we’ll travel from Canterbury (with its famous cathedral) to Dover (stoutly fortified from Roman times to the Battle of Britain).

The quintessence of charming England is the “West Country”: quaint Cotswold villages with their fine churches, manor homes, and gastropubs; Wells, England’s smallest cathedral town; and the New Age capital of Glastonbury, with its legends of the Holy Grail and King Arthur. We'll finish by pondering the dramatic prehistoric stone circles of Stonehenge and Avebury.

Siena, once a proud and independent city-state, retains its confidence and unique traditions. We’ll enjoy a front-row seat at its wild horse race — the venerable Palio — and marvel at cultural treasures from the days when Siena rivaled Florence for leadership of Tuscany. Then we’ll head into wine country for a little dolce vita under the Tuscan sun.

In the Italian countryside, we'll connect with rustic, traditional culture: enjoying an agriturismo (farmhouse inn), seeing how prosciutto and pecorino cheese are made, and hiking down into deep and ancient wine cellars. We'll end in Assisi — the hometown of St. Francis — which retains its spiritual aura to this day.

We'll tour Romania's vibrant capital, Bucharest, with its Little Paris of the East architecture and lingering reminders of a brutal communist dictator. Then we'll head into Transylvania, where we’ll visit fortified churches, cobbled merchant towns like Sighișoara, and castles made famous by an imported German king and the real-life Dracula.

Bulgaria, so mysterious to most Americans, has a vivid identity as a crossroads of the Balkans. We’ll trace the country's complex history, from ancient Thracian tombs to medieval Orthodox Christian monasteries to Soviet monuments.

Skyscraper-studded Frankfurt — with so much commerce it’s nicknamed “Bankfurt” — has a delightful-to-explore old center. We'll also visit Nürnberg, a capital for both the First Reich (the Holy Roman Empire) and the Third. From its towering castle and playful fountains to its Nazi Documentation Center and maze of underground bomb shelters, Nürnberg is a fascinating study in contrasts.

Saxony, part of the former East Germany, remains a secret to most travelers. We’ll visit the two great cities of the region: the capital city of Dresden, with the opulent palaces and art treasures of the Wettin dynasty, and Leipzig, with its Bach heritage, a massive monument to the day Europe beat Napoleon, and museums remembering its communist heritage.

Hamburg, Germany’s mighty port city, has risen from the ashes of World War II with a gleaming new skyline and a brisk creative energy. From there, we'll visit the great historic sights of Martin Luther and the Reformation (Erfurt, Wittenberg, and Wartburg Castle) before finishing in the capital of Franconia: wine-loving Würzburg.