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Rick Steves’ Travel Blog

Here you can browse through my blog posts prior to February 2022. Currently I'm sharing my travel experiences, candid opinions, and what's on my mind solely on my Facebook page. — Rick

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Video: Good-bye Italy; Hello Switzerland

After a glorious free day on the beaches of the Italian Riviera, my tour group is heading north for the Swiss Alps. Because we sleep deep in the characteristic nooks and offbeat crannies of Europe, we often can’t get our bus to our hotel. In this case, we need to hop a train for a five-minute ride from Monterosso to Levanto, the nearby bigger town. In this clip, our hearty gang of tour members is packing light, and walking (past the stretch of beach where we had our happy hour last night) to the train station as the sun rises over the Cinque Terre.

(Thanks for following along here on my blog and on Facebook as I guide our Best of Europe in 21 Days tour.)

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Video: Italian Experiences and the Joy of Guiding

On a Best of Europe in 21 Days tour, we are admittedly getting just a quick introduction to the greatest sights in Europe. But this route (with eight days in Italy) is clearly the best of the best, and we get the most travel thrills out of every mile and minute.

Here’s a montage of the types of experiences we wrangle for our groups as we enjoy Venice, Florence, and Rome. As you watch, imagine the joy of being a guide who is connecting a wonderful gang of travelers with all this travel fun.

You’ll see: me dutifully holding up the Venice map as our local guide Elisabetta tells us the story of her city; an artisan sharing the Venetian tradition of mask making; how we cap our day with a convoy of gondolas gathering on the Grand Canal for a serenade at the Rialto Bridge; our Florence guide bringing meaning to Renaissance art in the Museum of the Cathedral; images of our night walk through Rome and an unforgettable dinner in Trastevere; a rare chance to actually enter the Colosseum through the “gladiators’ gate”; and finally, orienting our group to the quintessential Italian hill town, Orvieto. This montage shows how going on a Rick Steves’ Europe tour is as much fun for the guides as it is for our tour members. Italy!

Video: thetravelphile.com / facebook.com/thetravelphile

(Thanks for following along here on my blog and on Facebook as I guide our Best of Europe in 21 Days tour.)

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Video: Autostrada Rest Stop Is the Full-Meal Deal

When leading a busload of merry travelers around Europe, our practical challenge is to keep things on time and everyone safe, happy, and well fed. Europe’s freeway rest stops are generally excellent — and getting better all the time. Europeans insist on decent food — even at these fast cafeteria-line eateries. In Italy, we pulled into this rest stop on the autostrada (midway between Venice and Florence) for an hour, which was plenty of time for lunch, coffee, a rest stop, and a bit of shopping. Sixty minutes later, it was wheels up — next stop, Florence! In this video clip I’ll take you on a quick rest-stop tour.

(Thanks for following along here on my blog and on Facebook as I guide our Best of Europe in 21 Days Tour.)

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The Joy of Guiding: Making Memories

Rick Steves with guides and drivers

For me —  and my amazing team of guides at Rick Steves Europe Tours — the great joy of guiding is to take tour members’ lifelong imaginings, transform them into actual experiences, and then into lifelong memories.

On a recent evening in Venice, my merry gang of Best of Europe tour members and I did just that. We shared a family-style feast at Trattoria da Bepi as Loris served us the seafood bounty of the lagoon with deliciously grilled local vegetables and polenta. Then, twinkling from our sprightly Venetian white wine, we wandered through back lanes musty with history, paused on lonely bridges to watch gondolas glide silently by, and then, just a few blocks farther on…

This all brought back vivid memories from when, as a very young tour guide, I would bring my groups out of the tangle of back lanes and suddenly onto Piazza San Marco, perhaps the most beloved square in all of Europe, where the age-old glories of Venice still swirl. I watched the wonder sweep over my travelers’ faces…years ago…and again tonight. The sun was down and the lights were on. The crowds were gone and, at the last corner before St. Mark’s, I blitzed ahead so I could turn around and watch every one of my travelers’ expressions as they arrived on the piazza. A “wow” moment, amplified two dozen times.

As my re-energized group dispersed to enjoy the dueling orchestras on the piazza and to make their own after-dark discoveries in this magical city, I popped into Gran Caffè Lavena, which our guides use as a rendezvous point on the square. Tonight there happened to be six Rick Steves tours staying in Venice, and I joined a group of our guides and bus drivers as we compared notes and stoked our collective guiding skills over drinks together.

Other companies have tour managers. We have guides who both manage our tours and teach our travelers. They create lifelong memories with talent and passion unmatched by other tour companies. Our team of guides makes me proud and thankful. (And I believe that Judy, one of our current tour members — who’s been on 17 of our tours and enjoyed 17 of our guides — would agree.)

(Thanks for following along here on my blog and on Facebook as I guide our Best of Europe in 21 Days Tour.)

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Video: Dining Fine in Venice

We include half the dinners on Rick Steves Europe Tours, and for the other dinners, we set people free to enjoy meals on their own. That means we can dine in smaller places where larger groups can’t fit. One of my Venice favorites is Luca’s Osteria alle Testiere. Luca is a classic quality restaurateur — look at the joy on his face as he describes the vintners who produce his carefully chosen wines as friends, and then how he cuddles up with his beloved wine drawers. The challenge of dining in Venice is finding a quality, personality-driven restaurant. It can be done, but you need a good tour guide or a good guidebook. Buon appetito!

(Thanks for following along here on my blog and on Facebook as I guide our Best of Europe in 21 Days Tour.)