Our Favorite/Must-See Sights

I think the Rick Steve’s guidebooks do a great job of listing the major “must see” sites in countries or cities.

Here’s a few favorite experiences that aren’t necessarily listed in guidebooks:

1. Walking through an English garden in full bloom early in the morning - Bodnant or Hidcote as examples.

2. Sitting in an Italian piazza at the end of a wonderful day, enjoying a beverage and everyday life around me.

3. Attending a classical music festival or event- Verona’s Roman Arena venue, Vienna’s Opera House, La Fenice in Venice.

4. The serene moments from staying overnight on Isola Bella near Stresa.

5. That first bite of any pastry or excellent croissant in France.

6. Wandering crooked, steep lanes of historic centers, such as Le Mans or Menton, France; Frigiliana, Spain; Montepulciano, Italy….and many more.

7. Chartres Cathedral stained glass.

8. Beautiful frescoes in cathedrals, such as Parma’s or Cremona’s.

9. Cowbells or church bells echoing in mountain villages- Austria, Switzerland or Italy.

10. Uncrowded art museums in smaller cities.

    1. Any classes - art, cooking, etc. - Paris, Rome, Bergamo, Florence, Sevilla, Verona, Lucca.

Fountains Abbey
Crete
Assisi
Ostia Antica
Whitby
St. Paul's Church, London
Acropolis
San Miniato al Monte
Ronda, Spain
Canterbury Cathedral
Westminster Abbey
Cologne Cathedral
Leiden, Netherlands
Cáceres‎, Spain
Çavuşin, Turkey
Ephesus
Salisbury Cathedral
Gengenbach, Germany
Aachen Cathedral
Tobermory
Isle of Raasay, Scotland
Tivoli Gardens
Roskilde Cathedral
Cruden Bay, Scotland
Elgin Cathedral
Þingvellir, Iceland
Cesky Krumlov castle
Albaicin, Granada
Durnstein, Austria
And many more...

• Admont Abbey Library, Austria
• Olomouc, Czech Republic
• Northern Lights in Iceland (or anywhere!)
• Parma Cathedral, Italy
• Strolling through Borghese Gardens, Rome
• Lidice, Czech Republic
• Budapest Christmas market
• Driving the "back roads" in southern Germany
• Attending a concert in a "classic" venue (Mirabell Palace, Mirror Chapel at the Klementinum)
• Cimabue's "Crucifix" at Santa Croce, Florence
• Gardens anywhere!

I have been to 81 foreign countries and my list would be way to long for here, but I list a few great ones:

1) Sistine Chapel, in my opinion the greatest collection of art in one place in the World.
2) Parthenon, still impressive after damage done over 300 years ago. They do keep rebuilding it.
3) Grand Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
4) Hagia Sofia in Istanbul
5) The Great Wall of China, also the Teracotta warriors at Xian.
6) Kyoto, Japan, the Golden Pavilion was amazing.
7) The Panama Canal
8) Machu Picchu
9) Seeing Swan Lake at the Marinsky Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia.
10) Glacier Bay, Alaska
11) The Grand Canyon in Arizona
12) Safari in Kenya and Tanzania
13) Westminister Abbey
14) The Fjords of Norway
15) The Louvre Museum and The Hermitage in St. Petersburg (tie)
16) The York Minster (Cathedral) and St. Peter's Basilica
17) Douro River Valley, Portugal
18) Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC

This is a hard topic - I don't know exactly how to think about it.

I suppose it is an if you could only see x amount of sights in Europe which would they be?

But I don't know if I'm doing this for myself, or for other people. If for myself, I can't remove myself from the fact that I've already seen all the major "must see" sights. Most of them I don't particularly want to go back. But if I'd never seen them I probably would go see them.

If for other people, then it's tough to know their tastes. I could send someone to the Vatican, but maybe they would prefer leafing through Italian jazz records in a back alley shop.

And it's hard for me to take out cities. I think it's more important to see Venice - just walk around and experience the place, grab something to eat or sit down with a coffee - than see Michelangelo David or tour Westminster Abbey. Same with Amsterdam, many others. I'm less of a sightseeing traveler, more of a place-experiencer.

St. Peter's Basilica is hard to argue against, as is the interior of the Paris Opera House ....

Hank, my list is of places is composed of ones that if I went back to a particular country or city again, I would visit them again.

Thanks Mardee, that's a workable way to think about it :)