FROM THE COLOSSEUM TO THE EIFFEL TOWER - 2010

11 days incl. travel, or 10 days from Rome to Paris (HFF)

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Vacation Overview

Discover Europe with your family on this fun-filled vacation! Begin in Rome with guided sightseeing that visits the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s, and the Colosseum, where you get a family picture with a gladiator (if available). On to Pisa’s Leaning Tower, then the spa resort of Montecatini for an overnight. In Florence, see Michelangelo’s David, the cathedral, the Baptistry’s “Gate of Paradise,” and sculpture-filled Signoria Square. Enjoy a pizza party lunch at a local pizzeria and learn how they are made! Enter Venice by private boat, create your own Venetian mask, take a vaporetto ride, and enjoy guided sightseeing that includes St. Mark’s Square, Doges’ Palace, and the Bridge of Sighs. Continue to charming Lake Maggiore, cross Simplon Pass, and ride a cogwheel mountain train to Zermatt at the base of the Matterhorn. Spend a night in Montreux on Lake Geneva, then travel to Lausanne and ride the high-speed TGV train to Paris. Guided sightseeing includes Notre Dame Cathedral and a bird’s-eye view of the city from the top floor of the Eiffel Tower—an unforgettable vacation!

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Extend Your Vacation in London by Eurostar Train (HFFT)

Things to see on your vacation: View Vacation Photo Slideshow

A Vacation Story Notre Dame Cathedral

Europe’s most famous cathedral, whose twin Gothic towers loom above France’s most beloved river, the Seine, actually owes a lot of its international success to the author Victor Hugo. Back in 1831, when Hugo wrote his classic novel about a hunchbacked bell-ringer at Notre Dame who falls in love with a beautiful gypsy, the medieval cathedral had fallen on hard times. During the Revolution in 1789, it had been seized, looted of its treasures and converted into an atheistic “Temple of Reason.” Even worse, after the monarchy was restored in 1815, Notre Dame was used as riverside warehouse – its once-splendid glass windows now dimmed and its facades decaying pathetically above the Île de la Cité. But Parisian’s indifference to their landmark ended suddenly in 1831, when Victor Hugo published his romantic novel the “Hunchback of Notre Dame,” (called “Notre-Dame de Paris” in French). The book was an international bestseller and lured armies of tourists to Paris in search of its Gothic cathedral setting. Hugo used this groundswell of public interest to lobby the French government for renovations of his beloved Notre Dame. From 1845 to 1864, repairs were indeed carried out – the clogged medieval streets nearby were cleared, revealing the marvelous edifice we see today.