Smart Travels With Rudy Maxa

While Athens sprawls, its historic core survives. After climbing the majestic Acropolis, rowing the Plaka, and cheering Greece's best folk dancers, we take some easy trips outside the city.

On the Greek Islands we get familiar with the ferries as we island-hop the Aegean. Sun-drenched, upscale and exotic, Santorini sits on the rim of an ancient, but still active, volcano. At one end of the island, the archeological site at Akrotiri uncovers a city frozen in time by the volcano's eruption 3,600 years ago.

From Nice to St. Tropez, we drop in on the hot spots along the Mediterranean's famous Cote d'Azur. Based in lively Nice, we visit the local beaches and superb modern art museums featuring works by Matisse, Picasso and Signac.

The Burgundy region boasts top French wines, romantic canals, Romanesque churches and some of France's most renowned cuisine. We base in the small town of Beaune and learn about its history of winemaking.

With world-class cultural sites, dynamic new architecture and unstoppable energy, Berlin is a city on the move. We visit the museums - the ancient treasures of the Pergamon and the Egyptian museum, German Expressionism at the Neue Nationalgalerie and the newly designed Jewish Museum.

Munich's lively Marienplatz pulses with outdoor cafes, shoppers, street musicians and happy tourists. At the famous Hofbrauhaus, we sample Bavarian beer and kick up our heels with Schuhplattler dancers clad in lederhosen. Next stop is the Residenz, the family palace built by the Wittlesbachs, who ruled Bavaria for more than 700 years.

In musical Salzburg, we focus on Austria's easy approach to life. We visit the city's grand cathedral, take a funicular up to Europe's greatest medieval fortress, and shop along fine Baroque streets reminiscent of Mozart's time. We visit the house where the young Amadeus was born and where he composed his first masterpiece.

Habsburg palaces, coffee houses, Strauss waltzes...all are symbolic of Vienna. Visiting elegant Schoenbrunn Palace, riding in carriages, sampling luscious apple strudel and listening to Mozart concerts, we see that Austria's capital still lives its elegant, proud past.

We wend our way across this largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Once the hub of the ancient world, Sicily offers up a vibrant, sun-soaked brew of history, tradition and intense cultural pride.

Here's where we pull together some of Europe's most rewarding sites from the classical world. Ancient Greek and Roman remnants are more than cold stone. They hold centuries of stories. So we revisit some favorite classical sites around the Mediterranean, pick up some new stories and see what kinds of connections we can make.

Travelers adore Italy, and Italy adores the Renaissance. In this half-hour, we follow Western Europe's transition from medieval to modern times by exploring the arts and ambiance of that vibrant period.

A key attraction of travel in Europe is that 30 minutes outside of any city there lurks a getaway, a quiet spot to catch one's breath. In this program, we explore a few such magic places.