Graphic from Google
On the Trip Advisor site a 20 year old woman asked for suggestions on what to see in a four week tour of 10 countries in Europe. It was all I could do to keep from suggesting she either stay home or just choose two.At 20 she has plenty of time to go back and see other things. At my age I probably should join a Japanese tour bus and see all of the United States in ten days.
Let's put this in another way. She has 28 days in her four week trip. Deduct a day going and a day coming home and that leaves 26. Deduct one day for travel between countries (packing/unpacking get to the train etc.) and she has 16 days. Deduct one day for laundry - she cannot do a month without it - and she has 1.5 days in each country. Now, to be fair, she only wants to see one major city or geographical area in each country. Thus, she has 1.5 days in Rome, for example. That is a drive by.
I sat in an Roman café for three hours talking politics with an Italian who knew as much about the U.S. as I do. We had tea in Edinburgh which took two hours. We went for a four hour hike in Dingle Harbor instead of kissing the Blarney Stone. You have to make choices. I choose to focus on a few things. I just cannot imagine a tour that sees five churches in Florence in one morning. They would be a blur.
It is all a matter of style. She may have a great trip, but I don't think it would be for me. I'd rather spend two weeks in the Dolomites in Northern Italy and two weeks in Avignon in the South of France for my total of four weeks.
(Romanian viewers are now back in second place as visitors to this blog.)
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