Rick Steves' Europe Supplemental
This article appears in our Online Edition, April 2022
Sleek lifts transport locals and visitors alike. Photo by Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli.

Suddenly, a bright modern cable car swooshes by with 30 tourists gawking out the windows. I’m watching the Schilthornbahn mountain lift from the terrace of a hotel in the tiny traffic-free hamlet of Gimmelwald, high in the Swiss Alps just south of Interlaken.

My friend Walter, who runs the hotel, joins me with a drink and tells me a local tale illustrating how the Schilthornbahn is good for more than tourism. In Gimmelwald, the modern world began in 1965 with the arrival of the...

CONTINUE READING »
Rick Steves' Europe Supplemental
This article appears in our Online Edition, April 2022
Succumb to nature in England’s Lake District. Photo by Rick Steves.

In England’s Lake District, nature rules and humanity keeps a wide-eyed but low profile. At just about 30 miles long and 30 miles wide, the region is a lush, green playground for hikers and poets alike. William Wordsworth’s poems still shiver in its trees and ripple on its ponds. There’s a walking-stick charm about the way nature and culture mix here. Walking along a windblown ridge or climbing over a rock fence to look into the eyes of a ragamuffin sheep, even tenderfeet...

CONTINUE READING »
Rick Steves' Europe Supplemental
This article appears in our Online Edition, April 2022
Prosciutto, produced on a small family farm. Photo by Addie Mannan Photography.

I checked into the farmhouse inn on the Gori family estate. This is Tuscany in the rough: a working farm, not a resort — no TV, no swimming pool, lots of real culture. My host, Signora Gori, is both old-money elegant and farmhouse tough. After I settle in, she takes me on a welcome stroll.

Our first stop is a sty dominated by a giant pig. “We call him Pastanetto — the little pastry,” Signora Gori says. As the pigs stir up the hay dust, sunbeams shine through,...

CONTINUE READING »
Rick Steves' Europe Supplemental
This article appears in our Online Edition, April 2022
Visiting the island church by boat. Photo by Rick Steves.

Leaving Mostar, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, I drive south to yet another nation that emerged newly independent from the ashes of Yugoslavia: Montenegro. During my travels through this region, my punch-drunk passport has been stamped, stamped, and stamped again. While the unification of Europe has made most border crossings feel archaic, here the breakup of Yugoslavia has kept them in vogue. Every time the country splintered, another border was drawn. The poorer the country, it seems, the more...

CONTINUE READING »
Rick Steves' Europe
This article appears in our Print Edition, April 2022 -- Page 19
Sample an assortment of Venetian munchies at a cicchetti bar. Photo by Rick Steves

While locals celebrate their cuisine in every country, Italy is perhaps the most exuberant about their food culture. Here’s an example of how going for a simple walk with a friend from Venice can become a lesson in expert eating.

At sunset I meet my Venetian hotelier friend, Piero, and we head for his friend’s restaurant. “Such a long line just to enter St. Mark’s Basilica today,” I tell him. “Even the back...

CONTINUE READING »
Rick Steves' Europe Supplemental
This article appears in our Online Edition, March 2022
In the Netherlands, windmills helped reclaim land from the sea. Photo by Cameron Hewitt.

Today my longtime Dutch friends Hans and Marjet are driving me through polder country. In these vast fields reclaimed from the sea, cows graze, narrow canals function as fences, and only church spires and windmills interrupt the horizon.

Hans is behind the wheel. He injects personality-plus into all he does, whether running a B&B or guiding Americans around Holland. Bouncy Marjet has a head of wispy strawberry-blonde hair, red tennis shoes, and a talent for assembling a Salvation...

CONTINUE READING »
Rick Steves' Europe Supplemental
This article appears in our Online Edition, March 2022
A few of Turkey's friendly faces. Photo by Rick Steves.

I’m in Kastamonu, five hours northeast of the Turkish capital of Ankara. It’s a town that has yet to figure out the business of tourism. The business hotel where I’m staying is cheap and comfortable, but not slick. I hand a postcard to the boy at the desk, hoping he can mail it for me. He looks it over a couple of times on both sides, compliments me, and politely hands it back. As I leave, he raises his right hand and says, “Hello.”

While changing money,...

CONTINUE READING »
Rick Steves' Europe Supplemental
This article appears in our Online Edition, March 2022
David, Michelangelo. "Yes, we can,” say the eyes of Renaissance Man. Photo by Cameron Hewitt.

Entering Florence’s Accademia Gallery is like entering the Church of David — a temple of humanism. At the high altar stands the perfect man, Michelangelo’s colossal statue of David. Like a Renaissance Statue of Liberty, David declares, “Yes, I can.”

This 500-year-old slingshot-toting giant-slayer is the symbol of Florence. The city’s other treasures are largely ignored by the tourist hordes that roam the streets with one statue at the top of their...

CONTINUE READING »