17 DAYS
Budapest / Vienna / Prague / Berlin
The capitals of Central Europe on a journey through the past, present and the future.
Bridges between the West and the East, between the past and the present, Budapest, Vienna, Prague and Berlin harmoniously combine a common culture. Centuries of political and religious confrontations have put its borders and population in perpetual movement. For this reason, Central Europe is not merely a geographical term to refer to the position of the places in the European continent but an imprecise space, a multilingual and multicultural mosaic that crosses different nations combining common elements.
Today the centre of Europe is once again one of the most integrated, suggestive and cosmopolitan regions of the continent. The trip begins in Budapest, the easternmost of the Central European capitals and one of the most impressive for that eclectic architecture. His inauguration in 1867 as the second capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire promoted a cultural flourishing only slowed by the world wars. Vienna evokes a number of references: baroque, avant-garde, cafes, Sissi, art collections, psychoanalysis, Blue Danube and classical music. Prague (“City of a Hundred Spires” ) is more magical and witchy, as indebted to its bohemian past as its Soviet heritage. Its fairytale beauty is unrivalled across the continent. Berlin during the 20th century underwent its greatest heyday and unprecedented cultural splendor before being literally razed to the ground. Defeated, humiliated and finally divided by the wall, two decades after its reunification, it is a modern and orderly city, exuberant in its cultural offerings and inexhaustible in its ability to rebuild itself by facing its
past.
