i've been to europe 3 times and have friends scattered around in a couple different countries. i agree with all italy comments. milan is boring. however, i HAVE been to venice, its pretty amazing. i have also seen the duomo in florence and st peters basilica in rome (climbed to the very top peak of that-amazing view of all of rome) however, i have to say that st. marks cathedral is absolutley beautiful as well. the really cool thing about venice is that its made up of thousands of tiny little islands which are bound together by bridges of all sizes, some bridges would be about the size of a coffee table. it's pretty awesome. obviously theres no such thing as motorized traffic, however, they still have "traffic rules" for walkers. its pretty much the same as driving. also, some of their streets are no wider than your shoulders. everywhere you look there are signs pointing to either piazza san marco (st marks square) or rialto bridge. a map in venice is pretty much a waste of time. you will get lost. but thats why theres signs pointing to st marks and rialto bridge. it's pretty awesome.
as for rome, I LOVE ROME. i had 3 of my family members live in rome for long periods of time and visited all of them when they were there in their different time frames...i still have not seen it all. it's an amazing city. the more time you can spend there the better.
also, i have climbed mount vesuvius. i gotta say, pompeii and mt vesuvius were the PERFECT day trip. you only need one day and it's not even a whole day. it was amazing. you can get guided tours as well if you want, and they will show you around pompeii and tell you what everything is and what it all means. and climbing that volcano that killed pompeii was so cool. you can look right into the crater and see hot spots etc.. still. it's pretty awesome and the view from the top of that volcano is absolutely gorgeous.
and i agree about naples. dirty, waste of time, armpit of italy. however, naples IS the place where i had the best pizza out of everywhere i've been in italy.
paris-gorgeous. i love that city as well. the hop on hop off buses in italy and paris might be useful to you if you're only there for a few days. someone said earlier, you could be there for 2 weeks and still not see everything. they're not lying.
also, barcelona is gorgeous. i was only there for a day when i was catching my cruise out of there, so, i unfortunatley didnt' get to see alot of it, but what i did see was awesome. the pickpocketers are brutal tho.
versailles is cool but as a day thing. not much to do there besides look around for a while. it is very beautiful tho.
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