Cruising Europe - What if anything do you read about before you travel?

[Macbeth09]

For Europe I think most Americans would at least glance at Rick Steves and some other travel books. In addition to that, I tend to read fiction to get a human perspective before we arrive at the various stops:

 

Our upcoming Mediterranean cruise on Serenade of the Seas in June:

 

Barcelona – Shadow of the Wind and Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz-Zafon a few years back. Excellent and atmospheric mysteries set in the first half of the 20th century. Thinking of picking up the 3rd book in the unfinished quartet, Prisoner of Heaven, before our trip.

 

Villefranche, Nice – Nothing identified yet for this stop. Open to suggestions.

 

Florence – Currently reading Romola by George Eliot, which is not light reading, but seems to be getting more engaging about 100 pages in. Thinking of Agony and the Ecstasy, about Michaelangelo, by Irving Stone next. I also have Room with a View by E.M. Forster set aside.

 

Rome – Recently finished Roma and Empire by Steven Saylor. Roma runs from 1000 BC to Julius and Augustus. Empire runs from Augustus to Hadrian. You get a good overview of key Roman events without having to trudge through a dry historical text. I went back and forth to Wikipedia to verify and expand my understanding, and the author seems to have done his homework. However, both books are a bit simplistic from a literary standpoint. I understand his Roman mystery series is supposed to be better.

 

Naples, Pompeii – Just finished Pompeii by Robert Harris. Standard disaster movie type book and quick reading. Had some good background on the aquaducts though. Still looking for something on Naples.

 

Venice – Read Death in Venice by Thomas Mann earlier this year. Not as fulfilling as his longer novels but with his trademark philosophical observances. Perhaps not a good travelogue though, with only a limited view of the city. I have Casanova’s complete memoirs (which are not nearly as salacious as you might think), but they are far too lengthy for me to plough through before we leave. Thinking of Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo, but even though I like the author my impression is that only a limited time is actually spent in Venice.

 

Ravenna – Nothing identified yet for this stop. Open to suggestions.

 

Kotor – Nothing identified yet for this stop. Open to suggestions.

 

Paris – (we travel here from Barcelona after our cruise) Read Les Miserables last year and loved it. Have Notre Dame queued up on my tablet. Also just for fun thinking of rereading The Three Musketeers and following it with a first time read of the rest of d’Artagnan’s Romances, which run about 3000 pages all told. However these may not really help with getting a view of Paris.

 

London – I’ve read about half of Dickens novels over the years, as well as the biography of that author by Peter Ackroyd, which I loved. As a result, I’m thinking of reading Ackroyd’s biography of the city, London. A few years back I read Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, which has me looking forward to riding the tube for the first time, having only flown through London and never stopped in the past. As an english speaking American, I’ve read a lot of books set in London, but without a real eye to what steps I might like to trace when there myself.

 

Anything you have read or that is on your list that you might recommend?

[hansolosmom]

I pretty much just soak in Rick Steve's travel books.

 

I also hit up the history channel a lot before we went to Italy this past summer.

 

I wanted to read the new Dan Brown book before we got to Florence, but never got to it.

[Cookiecookie]

Our 1st family cruise was the the med, and one of our stops was Villefranche. It is a tiny fishing village that all the ships have to tender at. When you get of the ship turn right and walk along the road for about 10 mins you will come to the local train station. One direction will take you to Nice, the other is Monte Carlo and Monaco. We really enjoyed walking around Monte Carlo watching all the Sports cars and Yachts in and around the port. And then you can watch the changing of the guard and look around the Palace.

 

-----------

Gaynor

 

Canadian Rockies/ Alaskan Cruise Tour August 2014

Oasis of the Seas August 2013

Independent of the Seas August 2008

[MavisMarie]

I would suggest you read the following books:

 

For Barcelona: Cathedral of the Sea by Ildefonso Falcones. This book is in my top 10 favorites of all time. If you have time to read it before your trip, you will want to visit Santa Maria del Mar cathedral, built by the dock workers in Barcelona around 1330 or so and is highly featured in the book. When Ken Follett wrote Pillars of the Earth, he used this cathedral as a "map" of the building plans in the book. By the way, Pillars of the Earth is another of my top 10 books.

 

For Paris: Paris, by Edward Rutherford. Very good research.

 

For practical information, I buy the Eyewitness Guides to each city. I also gather info from Rick Steves. I print out walking maps, etc.

 

Best wishes on your travel.

[summersigh]

I pretty much just soak in Rick Steve's travel books.

I also hit up the history channel a lot before we went to Italy this past summer.

 

I agree - I'd not think about going anywhere in Europe without having read Rick Steves' "stuff".

 

We did 3 weeks in Great Britain, Amsterdam, and Paris riding the trains with 22in suitcases. Rick Steves was invaluable!! Yes, we shipped a suitcase with "cruise clothes" to the QM2 for our TA home so it was waiting in the cabin when we boarded.

 

PS ... we don't lug the whole Rick Steves tour books with us. Right before we go I cut the necessary pages out and discard them after their use. :)

[hansolosmom]

I agree - I'd not think about going anywhere in Europe without having read Rick Steves' "stuff".

 

We did 3 weeks in Great Britain, Amsterdam, and Paris riding the trains with 22in suitcases. Rick Steves was invaluable!! Yes, we shipped a suitcase with "cruise clothes" to the QM2 for our TA home so it was waiting in the cabin when we boarded.

 

PS ... we don't lug the whole Rick Steves tour books with us. Right before we go I cut the necessary pages out and discard them after their use. :)

 

I love Rick, he is so helpful!

I carried the whole Rome pocket guide, but other than that I did tear out the sections for each port stop from his Med Cruise book. As a book lover and former library aide, I felt soooo guilty doing that - my kids were like 'mom' mostly to give me more a guilt trip.

 

We also used a few of his walking tours on iPod/iPhone in Venice. In Rome since I had the guide we walked, then we'd take turns reading at the stops. It was a lot of fun. The kids are still giving me a hard time because I accidentally said the 'obelisk was in its usual spot', so everytime we saw one they asked if it was in its usual spot :D

[OttoCal]

Great suggestions, I have Roma ready to read before I head to Rome this summer! Have been re-reading guide books first. I am also partial to Peter Mayle's assorted Provence books for general Southern France inspiration.

 

Movies are a good way to get a feel for a spot too.

 

I like 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona' for Barcelona.

[summersigh]

I love Rick, he is so helpful!

I carried the whole Rome pocket guide, but other than that I did tear out the sections for each port stop from his Med Cruise book. As a book lover and former library aide, I felt soooo guilty doing that - my kids were like 'mom' mostly to give me more a guilt trip.

:D

 

I was a teacher for 38 years ... I know exactly what you meant about the "guilt" of cutting up the tour books. The thing that saved me was a comment I read on one of Ricks Tip Boards was that if you were to go to Europe again you'd, of course, buy new more current tour books :D

[Carolla5501]

For Venice I recommend The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt. Not fiction but I found it very interesting (This is the author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil)

 

For Florence Brunelleshci's Dome by Ross King. About the building of the cathedral dome

 

For Rome The Agony and the Ectasy Really made me appreciate Michelangelo even more!

 

Even though Paris really isn't a cruise port just in case you are heading there before or after the Cara Black mysteries are good.

 

Another author who sets lots of "stories" in Europe is Steve Berry

Edited April 7, 2014 by Carolla5501

[Mary521]

I love Rick, he is so helpful!

 

I carried the whole Rome pocket guide, but other than that I did tear out the sections for each port stop from his Med Cruise book. As a book lover and former library aide, I felt soooo guilty doing that - my kids were like 'mom' mostly to give me more a guilt trip.

 

 

 

We also used a few of his walking tours on iPod/iPhone in Venice. In Rome since I had the guide we walked, then we'd take turns reading at the stops. It was a lot of fun. The kids are still giving me a hard time because I accidentally said the 'obelisk was in its usual spot', so everytime we saw one they asked if it was in its usual spot :D

 

 

We also downloaded and used Rick Steve's walking tour app. It was great!! We would listen and walk at the same time. I bought a headphone splitter so we would hear the same thing at the same time. Have to be a little careful walking as we were tethered together. But it was wonderful!!! Better than some live tour guides!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[TravelinGert]

I usually at least just browse over Rick Steve, Foder's, and tripadvisor whenever we travel anywhere new. I'll usually see if I can catch any travel documentaries as well. I read fiction extensively, but never thought of actually reading specifically for a visit. I did find I understood a few things better on our trip to London because of TV shows and books I had read in the past. I sort of think it was mostly the TV shows, though. I felt like I could understand the accents pretty well mostly because I'd at least heard people talking that way on BBC documentaries. I really love Time Team especially, and we planned some of our activities based on things I saw on there. This time when we are in England we will be visiting two places which were the subject of Time Team specials fairly recently. There is a castle in Dover which has been re-done in period style, and we hope there will still be things to see at the site where Shakespeare's house used to be.

[Luckynana]

We asked our travel agent to make copies of all of the tours offered by the cruise line for our ship several months before we cruised the Mediterranean. There were over 50 pages!! Rather than look at the tours online, which would have been tedious at best, we had all of the excursions offered right in front of us for every port we would travel to. Not only was it an enormous time-saver, but it was right in front of us. We looked at each port, immediately crossed off what did not interest us, and put question marks over others..some, we knew for sure what excursion we would go on. It was extremely helpful. While not really being that excited about going to Turkey, after reading about the offered tours, I was amazed to find that the Blessed Mother Mary lived out her last years there.

 

So...that is what we read months before we cruised, which helped us know where we would go at each port. Enjoy your cruise! I'm jealous!!

 

Maryann

[Macbeth09]

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. Some good advice to be found in all your notes. The challenge remains how to cram it all in before we leave in June. :D

[cruisegirl1]

Rick Steve's books and audio guides, Toms port guides, trip advisor, CC port of call threads.

 

Enjoy

M

[rubrrick]

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. Some good advice to be found in all your notes. The challenge remains how to cram it all in before we leave in June. :D

 

 

You don't have to cram it all in. We have a Samsung 10.1 tablet, that we download information on the cities we are planning for our travel, and then as we go along, we are able to retreive and use the info, city by city.

 

Just a thought.:) Way too convenient!!;)

 

Rick

[Sultan84]

These are just "entertainment" reading to put you in the mood:

 

Venice: all the Donna Leon books with commisario Brunetti.

 

For the south of France: as someone mentioned before Peter Mayle

 

For all parts in France but especially Paris: Stephen Clark if you want to laugh, Maurice Druon and Alexandre Dumas if you want to learn about the history in an entertaining way. Patrick Suesskind 'the Parfum' for Paris and the Provence.

 

And then there is Sally Hammond who writes very entertaining travel descriptions. She wrote two books about France and one about Italy, that I know of.

[artypharty]

These are just "entertainment" reading to put you in the mood:

 

Venice: all the Donna Leon books with commisario Brunetti.

 

.

 

Big Ditto on this one. I've been reading the series. They are relatively short, interesting and loaded with atmosphere... even mentioning great restaurants and bars! I've read 7 so far and feel like I know the city already!

[artypharty]

These are just "entertainment" reading to put you in the mood:

 

Venice: all the Donna Leon books with commisario Brunetti.

 

.

 

Big Ditto on this one. I've been reading the series. They are relatively short, interesting and loaded with atmosphere... even mentioning great restaurants and bars! I've read 7 already and feel like I know the city already!

[agabbymama]

WOW :eek: you have alot more free time than I do. It never entered my head to do all that reading before my 7 trips to Europe.

 

I usually check out the destinations on this website

http://europeforvisitors.com/europe/articles/index.htm

 

or this is another one

 

http://www.tomsportguides.com/portguides.html

 

or just google the port name & see if they have a visitor bureau.

 

I did one cruise of the Med, but I've done more land travel, so my time is usually spent researching hotels, cars, trains, buses, tours, things to see & do. But that's just me.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

I read about every port on CC ..

[cruisemom42]

I hardly know where to start. I am always finding more books to read, both fiction and nonfiction, about the Mediterranean and my favorite places there. Here are a few:

 

Rome: Colleen McCullough's "Masters of Rome" series -- each book is really long, but she is a good story teller (although sometimes not as good as I'd like at fleshing out the characters.)

 

Rome: Steven Saylor's "Roma sub Rosa" series -- centers on the exploits of a "detective" or finder, as he calls himself, in ancient Rome. Fun to read although the plot twists are usually well telegraphed.

 

Vatican/St. Peter's: "Basilica" by R.A. Scotti. Tells the story of the building of the "new" basilica in the Renaissance, similar to "Brunelleschi's Dome".

 

Florence: "The Stones of Florence" by Mary McCarthy

 

Tuscany: Frances Mayes' series of books (nothing like the silly movie...)

 

Istanbul: "Istanbul" by Orhan Pamuk (his other books are also good and mostly set in Istanbul)

 

Venice: "Paradise of Cities" by John Julius Norwich (any of Norwich's books on the Med are good background but are dense reading)

 

Sicily: "The Leopard" by Lampedusa -- an "end of the era" story covering period of Italy's unification.

 

I also read a lot of straight-up history like Norwich, mentioned above, or Everitt and Goldsworthy (good bios of Augustus and Julius Caesar, respectively).

 

I also obsessively research the sites I want to see and the logistics involved in getting there, as I prefer NOT to take ship tours in most cases.

Edited April 8, 2014 by cruisemom42

[Cretia]

I hardly know where to start. I am always finding more books to read, both fiction and nonfiction, about the Mediterranean and my favorite places there. Here are a few:

 

Rome: Colleen McCullough's "Masters of Rome" series -- each book is really long, but she is a good story teller (although sometimes not as good as I'd like at fleshing out the characters.)

 

...

 

Bah! You beat me to the suggestion. Adored the first two, but I feel like I'm slogging through the third. I loathe Caesar and Augustus so I'm thinking about just abandoning the series, but The First Man in Rome and The Grass Crown were just enthralling.

 

I just started (I couldn't take another moment of Caesar) I, Claudius by Robert Graves. It's interesting so far.

[cruisemom42]

Bah! You beat me to the suggestion. Adored the first two, but I feel like I'm slogging through the third. I loathe Caesar and Augustus so I'm thinking about just abandoning the series, but The First Man in Rome and The Grass Crown were just enthralling.

 

I just started (I couldn't take another moment of Caesar) I, Claudius by Robert Graves. It's interesting so far.

 

I love I, Claudius -- forgot about that one. Very entertaining and quite accurate info.

 

Re: the Masters of Rome -- it's obvious McCullough was more invested in Marius and Sulla than in later characters. Either that, or because there are so many more historical sources of information (some of it conflicting) on Caesar, it was harder for her to "draw" a living, breathing character out of it...

[whogo]

These are just "entertainment" reading to put you in the mood:

 

Venice: all the Donna Leon books with commisario Brunetti.

Donna Leon's most recent book, By its Cover, has characters irked by mammoth cruise ships.

[Sultan84]

Donna Leon's most recent book, By its Cover, has characters irked by mammoth cruise ships.

 

Have not read this one yet, will goto Amazon right now toorder it. Thanks