I fly into London on the 21st of Dec, then will hop a flight to Rome a few days later. We plan to train up through varies parts of Italy and France. Any recommendations you guys have for must see or must do experiences?

What sort of timescales? No fly on December 25th, lot of stuff off on 26th too.

But........Swiss Alps by train in winter are lovely. St Moritz, Davos, Chur, Pontresina. Hard to beat. Not fast travel, take time to savour it.

If you like art Florence is a must see. Planning on being there myself next year.

So is going south of Rome to Pompeii and its not the busy time or too hot.

You can get good open train tickets with first class options if you buy from outside EU before you arrive here.

# Not Bad 92K Olaf

What you could do is visit Berlin and do a factory tour within BMW, than take a flight to Bologna (lovely city, stayed there for a week this spring) and do a factory within Ducati, very interesting.
Take the Train to the ocean, Ravenna. A lot of history and great food.

But as a America you could stay two weeks in a nice hotel, not going out and order hamburgers with a Budweiser :-) that's a joke, sorry! ;-)

If you need help for BMW OR Ducati tell me!
Triumph is in Hinckley GB and MotoGuzzi in Mandello del Lario, Italy.

In my link (signature) you see pictures from Bologna, Italy.

Cheers

I haven't been in Europe that deep into winter, but Olaf is spot on about the Swiss alps. Best was the Junngfraujoch train up the middle of the Jungfrau mountain. Also Wengen, town on a ledge half way up a sheer mountain. Gruyere pretty nice. I haven't been to most of the places Olaf mentions, but you can trust his recommendations. 

A good friend who is an ancient history teacher says that Herculaneum, near Pompeii is even better and less crowded, being not so well known. 

The stark mountainous scenery in Provence, France is beautiful. Not that far along from Florence. 
If you get that far along, the Pont du Gard, a Roman constructed stone aqueduct is amazing. Also the walled city of Carcassonne is pretty spectacular. Also over there the Camargue - the delta of the Rhône river is interesting with salt pans, flamingoes, French cowboys on white horses pushing around black bulls. 

We didn't like Berlin, mainly because our son-in-law's BMW was stolen from us there. If you don't have a BMW to steal, probably fine. 

Have a great trip, Mike. 

Bill

Indian036 is spot on about Herculaneum [we studied it in school] but at the time Pompeii should be a lot more peaceful than in summer.

Went paragliding in Davos in winter, 14,000 feet in the Alps is awesome. The lake in St Moritz freezes and its festival time. Hang gliders and paragliders abound too.

Provence is on my hit list and in winter its the time to see it. 40c and crowded in summer.

When you say we are there many of you...?

thanks for all the awesome suggestions gentleman. I'm googling them all as we speak. We is me and my GF who has never left the US.

 We aren't the typical Budweiser drinkin' watch American TV in the hotel kinda of "Merkans." We are very cultural and artistic types who love adventures and great food!

Two weeks feels like a decent amount of time to really see some spectacular culture, AND FREEZE OUR CALIFORNIAN ASSES OFF.

We've done very little train travel in Europe, almost all by car (about 40000km all up).

Some of the areas you are planning on visiting may be more easily accessed by car, with 'between areas' done by train. At least you won't have to change which side of the road and car you drive on as I did initially - no trouble now, though, after 40000km. (25000 miles to those still in old mode.)

My limited experience of driving in Italy was interesting. I'm sure the road signs and markings are just for employing people and for drivers to laugh at - certainly not to take notice of!

France is much easier to get around in, and Provence won't have snow unless you get into the alps nearby. 

If it works ok, short car hires may give you an element of flexibility that trains alone don't. 

Bill

MikeisonTV wrote:AND FREEZE OUR CALIFORNIAN ASSES OFF.

What you need to do is to head to the north of the state and then head maybe, say, halfway up Mt.Whitney for a few weeks. That should get you acclimatised for over here.

If you and your girl friend are over for Christmas to me the ultimate destination is Vienna especially if you can get tickets to the Vienna Philharmonic New Years Day concert. I should want New Years Even in Vienna and a trip to the Prater. Not to mention Schonnbrun and Stephansdom. There is a communications tower not far from Praterstern with a revolving restaurant and spectacular views down over the Danube..........When my brother worked in Switzerland as a chef we decided to meet one time for dinner so we both went there.

Now thats put cat among pigeons......


Edit:
My brother worked in Davos at the time, its up on those train rides I mentioned and they start from Zurich.....Zurich to Vienna by train is rather spectacular......

Hello Mike!

Your time window isn't big if you take the train and if you want daylight.
At 9 o'clock the sun comes and at 16 o'clock it's gone, you will have to book wisely, if you like to see something out the window.

Enjoy your trip :-) cheers

The itinerary for such a holiday is always made of all sorts of compromises. 

I'd love to read what fits in with your funds/time/interests. 

A brief travelogue would be most welcome if you can. 

Bill

Espresso is spot on with train rides, awesome but.....December 25th is full moon and an evening or even a night train ride on a clear moonlight night is something else.

Train travel in Europe is good but you would need to research it. My daughter travels around by train, my brother does it all the time and I have done a little. You must watch in cities some 'through' routes involve a change of station. Services are generally excellent and punctual and much more preferable to flying.

Wherever you go......be prepared for COLD.

Also, if flying around Europe, all airlines charge heavily for checked bags with a weight limit way below what you get for long haul flights so if you are leaving from a different place from where you arrived be careful on this as it could cost you. If you book through tickets with stopovers your baggage allowance will come with you to your end destination even if its on another airline/flight..

92KK 84WW Olaf wrote:Espresso ....December 25th is full moon and an evening or even a night train ride on a clear moonlight night is something else.

Hello Olaf, on full moon my teeth and claws grow, I don't know why :-)
If the sun shines, it's a great trip with the train.

Cheers

Espresso wrote:

92KK 84WW Olaf wrote:Espresso ....December 25th is full moon and an evening or even a night train ride on a clear moonlight night is something else.

Hello Olaf, on full moon my teeth and claws grow, I don't know why :-)
If the sun shines, it's a great trip with the train.

Cheers

Well you can then imagine what happens a Viking on full moon. Have you met Bjorn?

No, haven't met Bjorn.
Now il take my cork dry gin and relax.

Cheers

Mike,

From my travels in France you will find two different countries.  Paris and then there is rest of France.  It always helps if you attempt to speak and know a little of the language. 

In Paris the Metro/RER have announcements in three or four languages for every stop.  If you sit near the door you can see the map of all the stops above the doorway.  I think the Paris Metro is E1.80 for a ticket and the RER about E2?.  Very easy to use and the vending machines have about six language options. 

Go to Paris and see the tourist stuff, then get the hell out of there and see the rest of France.  The regional cuisine along with the scenery is what France is all about to me.  Don't forget that the country stops for two hours every day to have lunch!  Over the last couple of years, I never had a bad meal anywhere in France. 

As for Italy, it rains every day (just like Ireland). 

Enjoy, TacKleur.

So much great info! Thank you guys for your time and recommendations. We leave from CA Monday to London!

Have a good holiday and maybe an occasional post. For what its worth Macdonalds have free WiFi all over. You can access it outside too.....

Any loose thoughts on where you are headed?

So I'm back in Cali after a great Euro adventure. We flew into London, then to Rome. Rome to Florence, Florence to Solerno and the Amalfi Coast. From there we ventured to Venice, Venice to Paris.

There was a fumble with our EuroRail passes, (they delivered them 4 days late) so we had to do last minute hop flights...not cheap. We did discover Bla Bla Car though. (blablacar.com)
This is a really cheap way to travel through Europe and wish I'd heard about it earlier.

I saw only one K on the trip. It was parked near the Eiffel Tower. 

All in all, we had quite a blast. Always fun to see how others do this crazy life. If you guys are ever in LA, hit me up.