Rick Steves' Europe

- Season 2

(2001)

Sorting through the monuments of magical Venice, we trace its decline from Europe's most powerful city to its most hedonistic. We cruise its main street - the Grand Canal - then get lost in its back lanes. We drink-in the art of Titian, Bellini, Donatello, and the Doge's Palace. We luxuriate in a venerable café on St. Mark's Square, enjoy calamari with locals in a canal-side pub, then find our own private Venice: on a gondola, under the moonlight.

Pulling on hip boots, we settle into the muck of Venice, then take a speedboat tour of the lagoon. On the mainland, we head for Padova to tour a once-illegal anatomy theater and track the restoration of Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel. In Vicenza, we admire elegant Palladian-style streets and villas. In Verona, we climb the Roman arena, jostle with tourists to rub the brass breast of Juliet, and taste-test grappa before riding the train to Ravenna for its dazzling 1500-year-old mosaics.

We look into the eyes of Michelangelo's David and Botticelli's Venus, learn tricks for touring the Uffizi art gallery, and climb the amazing cathedral dome that kicked off the Renaissance. Then we immerse ourselves in the Florentine good life: visiting a fragrant 400-year-old perfumery, sipping Campari on a rooftop, chasing the sunset on a Vespa, and sleeping serenely in a converted monastery.

In this episode, we explore Italy's two greatest hill towns - Siena and Assisi - plus the countryside in between. If you fall in love with Italy, good chance it'll be right here.

Rick returns to his favorite stretch of the entire Mediterranean coastline -- Italy's Cinque Terre --to explore its five dreamy port towns.

This time we return to the Netherlands and captivating Amsterdam-- perhaps Europe's best-preserved 17th-century city while at the same time wild and modern.

Prague was always beautiful, now it's fun, too. And the streets are filled with young people who seem determined to make up for their parents' Stalin-gray childhoods.

From its ancient past to its struggles for independence, Dublin is the capital of a nation with a rich history, an irrepressible spirit and an always-lively pub scene.

Nicknamed "the island of saints and scholars," Ireland is also known as "the terrible beauty" for its bittersweet mix of political struggles, hunger, friendly people, and gorgeous landscapes.

We'll explore the far west of Ireland, home to remote islands, bustling Galway, dramatic cliffs, and the charming fishing town of Dingle, with its scenic peninsula.

We're back in Berlin -- the fastest-changing big city in Europe. If you haven't been here lately, you won't recognize the place. United Berlin has resumed its place as the capital of Germany and one of Europe's great cities.

We explore storybook Germany - setting aside its modern urbanity to enjoy the charms of its medieval walled towns, riverside villages, and evocative ruins.

We experience quintessential Germany - and that means southern Bavaria: fairy-tale castles, the exciting city of Munich, and fun in the breathtaking Alps.

Join Rick as he journeys high into the Swiss Alps. From the lush valley floors to the tops of these peaks, we'll share the story of the Swiss people and their breathtaking land.