One of the very awaited trips for me. Berlin - the city with so much history, so much of modern history and with so much of history in the making with EU and Euro. But I was there for the history of the world wars. The city is full of museums and modern buildings. It did not at all feel like European city, no old town, no cobble streets, victorian houses. The place was bombed to ground and rebuilt and it shows. There was so much to see and learn there, that 3 days were definitely not enough. The places we visited - Museum of German history - That was very interesting. Lot of it was repeat of what we had seen in Paris, but it was focused on German history. We learnt that Germany as ... read more

We only spent a passing day in Florence, should probably have spent 2. By now I thought we are done with seeing fountains and museums, so Florence should not hold a lot for us. Also its one of those places that are always crowded with tourists. So after lot of yes-no, we decided to not stay in Florence, but just spend the day. We walked around some of the famous streets. Highlight was seeing the Galeleo museum. It has a collection of scientific equipments and their development from crude to most refined. It was really interesting and worth the time. Then we headed to Leonardo Da Vincimuseum, its a collection of his many scientific experiments. Very interesting, though quite small place. We also went to some famous squares. Saw house of Dante from outside. Saw the ... read more

We took a night train out of Sicily and into Napoli or Naples as its called in English. Our main objective of coming here was to visit Pompei and Vesuvius. We were quite tired after the hikes and action packed Sicily trip. So today was a perfect day to chill out and take a break. Napoli does not really have much to see, but of course its still southern Italy, food is still good. We walked around the city, just taking in the Italian surroundings. Its a smallish city, not very different for an Indian city. The surprise was numerous antenas on the rooftops. The streets are narrow and messy just like galis of India. Walking to waterfront, I was surprised by a really nice view of Vesuvius and calm waters. We were quite excited about ... read more

Finally after hearing to much about Mt Etna, I had a chance to see it up close and climb it. We were a bit disappointed because top of Etna was closed due to high activity. Well, was also lucky since you actually have a chance to see a volcano in action. We took a bus from Catania and reached Nicolosi. We booked our trip with Etna Tourism (highly recommended). They provided us with a really nice and knowledgable guide. His car was car of a guy who lived his life on dusty volcano mountain. He was in love with Mt. Etna and it was very clear. We drove to starting point and then took a cable car. There was a short hike up since the top was closed. On the way the guide explained to us ... read more

We started our trip in Milan. It started with an overnight train from Milan to Rome. The first thing we found was that train was late for no reason. Welcome to Italy I suppose. Very different from the Swiss precision in train timetable. To be honest, it was kind of fun after always-on-time boring Swiss trains. The train compartment felt quite small, much smaller than Indian train. The width of train was less and compartment was smaller and enclosed. So it was a bit claustrophobic for sure. We took a 4-seat compartment. The other couple was German and were going to see Stromboli. Night passed ok, I was very cold as there was no blanket. Did mange to sleep a bit.... read more