Help/Advice needed o how to pivot a cancelled trip please!

How about the Netherlands? Or northern France?

For what your interests are I would say Germany and Austria. But England and Ireland would be fantastic too. But the other would give you a WW2 fix and it’s absolutely beautiful that time of year but not too hot.

Take a time out. Do not panic. Things are different. You will find clarity when your grief over the loss of Italy has played out in your process for handling loss.

You have until December. Learn the rules for your tickets and use the rules to your advantage.

Northern France and/or Belgium. Gives you Brittany for its archaeological sites and Normandy and Belgium for its WW sites. Denmark is interesting also and covers a lot of your interest areas.

Since it’s August, how about Scotland? You could include some time in London going or coming back.

I'd go to Bavaria and Austria--and on over to Vienna.

You could also mix in a cruise to Scandanavia flying on a budget airline up to Copenhagen.

We tried to go to Scotland last Summer, but I had no idea the place was packed with tourists in the Summer. Hotels were priced out of sight.

Sweden, Norway & Denmark? Our family picked up a Volvo in Sweden & loved it. We loved Stockholm & Copenhagen. We did not have time to go to Norway & Finland but I would enjoy it.

My wife & I just got back from Ireland & Scotland & loved it. Lots & lots of castles in both countries

My suggestions are northern France, eastern and North Germany, numerous lovely places there. Don't concern yourself with the crowds, I don't.

I would suggest Ireland. England was warm last July but Ireland was wonderful. I don’t do well with heat either. Take a look at RS BO Ireland itinerary for suggested sites.

We too are from the PNW and are heat averse;) We are heading to Norway in August. Part of that decision was to avoid anything around France with the Olympics, and to find somewhere that is not hot.

The only caution with RS videos is that some of them are pretty old. The one for my city for instance is 16 years old. A lot has changed.

Watch this video and see if it calls you: https://youtu.be/1nd5AtZIrTk?feature=shared

dripping with WWII and Cold War History. Heck, some of the buildings still have bullet holes in them.

Lots of great places for August.
The weather in the British Isles is moderate in Summer.

Consider Great Britain or Ireland.

Gate 1 Travel has some great tours that are inexpensive. Check them out, even if you don't take a tour, you can see where they go and do it yourself if you like that way to tour.

London is worth some days as well as places like Canterbury, Cambridge, Oxford, Winchester, Bath, Stratford Upon Avon, York (!), Durham, Edinburgh and more in Scotland.

Shetland Islands and further north.

I vote for Northern England in case it's "hot" in the Southern part of England in August, lol.

This doesn't meet ANY of your criteria but I am going to suggest it anyway. I went to Orkney and Shetland last August and the weather was wonderful. It was cool, sometimes chilly, sometimes very rainy and a day or two we had sunshine and I was in a SS tee shirt.

There is WWII history on both islands. For Orkney there is Scapa Flow which is where the British Navy was anchored. A Germanu-boat sneaked thru and blew up the HMS Royal Oak in 1939. At that point Winston Churchill ordered barriers between the small islands to block entry - these are known as Churchill Barriers. The barriers were built by Italian POWs who also built their own chapel which is gorgeous and demonstrates what can be done with tin cast offs for decoration and some inventive painting. Very cool.

For Shetland, there was an operation called The Shetland Bus in which Norwegian fishermen ferried covert operators, guns, ammo, etc back to Occupied Norway and brought refugees back out to Shetland. An amazing tale and one we don't learn about in school.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shetland_bus

There are lots of Neolithic sites on Orkney and lots of Viking related things on Shetland (plus Jimmy Perez' house from the series Shetland, lol).

This is completely different from Italy. You would need to rent a car on both islands and fly between the 2 if you did both.

Wow everyone. Thank you for all the ideas. I just love this forum and appreciate all the time everyone took to respond. We are very much inspired now!

Here is a little more thar touches on the War History in Budapest. https://europebetweeneastandwest.wordpress.com/2024/04/17/situational-awareness-bullet-holes-in-budapest-rendezvous-with-an-obscure-destiny-78/

Let's talk a bit about heat. Southern Europe in August is a no-go yes, but I've been in the Freiburg area and August when it was 102° F. 100 in Vienna area. 90 in Cologne.

If you want to be certain to avoid very hot weather, you need to stick to the mire northern Atlantic or North Sea Coasts (you can venture a bit inland), and or go farther north. Berlin and Copenhagen are good bets to not be excruciatingly hot.

I think you should go to Berlin. You're going to get all of your listed likes above, plus interesting surrounding areas. Combine it with Copenhagen maybe.

I hope your husband doesn't feel guilty for the bad breakup pain your family is feeling. If you get sick you get sick there's not much you can do about that!

The summer trip will be just as nice, don't worry about it too much.

I'm thinking maybe Germany, Ireland, England? Having a hard time putting an itinerary together because our hearts are still in Italy and it's like getting over a bad break up. :) I know this is a vague question, but maybe some advice on where to even start. I've been watching a lot of RS videos but nothing is calling to me.

Have you been to Germany, Ireland, or England already?

Out of the gate, I'd choose England simply because that has to be a direct flight on BA from SEA. If BA has other direct flight options, I'd look at those too. East Coast where I live has plenty of direct flight to Europe, but Seattle + BA probably means not many direct flights. I guess PNW could include Portland and Vancouver airports.

For me, England - any part really - can be a great place to visit and you can really choose from a wide range of options - staying mostly in London (lots to do - food & history & cultural & parks) or getting a car (or trains) and stretching your legs out in any direction. I really thought the "classic" Cotswolds and Bath and a dip in to Wales plus London was a nice mix, but there is so much more if you want something different.

I love Germany too, and it's a place with lots to see and do in the Summer as the whole north of the country opens up and the southern parts approaching/in the mountains are hiking heaven. It does get hot there, potentially, but that's sadly true everywhere in the summer now.

100 in Vienna area.

Absolutely it can happen in August. But it's not the norm in Central Europe. I would plan around a high of 85F. On average the hottest day of the year in Central Europe will be 1 August, after which temps start falling pretty quickly and by September 1 you night need a sweater in the evenings.