Rick Steves' Europe

Fine living in Burgundy, France; canal barge; medieval hospice; modern monastery.

A canoe ride through the Dordogne River Valley; goose farm; lamp-lit castle; country market; Albi, home of Toulouse Lautrec; Carcassonne.

The festivity of Barcelona; Montserrat; pilgrimage along the Costa Brava; Salvador Dali's home and mausoleum/museum.

Vatican City, the world's smallest country; Monaco; San Marino, Italy; Liechtenstein; Andorra.

Luzern, Bern, Zurich and Lausanne; art created by inmates of an asylum; Swiss innovations such as drug policies and underground arsenals

Vienna's gardens, art and fine music; a trip along the Danube River; hiking through the Baroque Melk Abbey.

Art Nouveau; peat bathing in Olomouc, Moravský Krumlov, Trebon and Konopiste; Holocaust memorial in Terezen.

The Parthenon, Agora and National Archaeological Museum in Athens; the ruins of the oracle at Delphi; traffic-free Isle of Hydra.

Old port town of Nafplio; the ruins of Olympia; preserved theater at Epidauros; ancient capital of Mycenae; Mani Peninsula.

Copenhagen's Viking history; Europe's first pedestrian boulevard; palace treasury; bike ride through a hippie squatter community; Tivoli Gardens.

The open-air museum in Aarhus; royal burial church and Viking ship museum in Roskilde.

The Grand Bazaar and spice market in Istanbul; the fall of the ancient capital of Byzantium; Hagia Sophia; Blue Mosque; Topkapi Palace.

As he's done with previous programs on Israel, Egypt, and Eastern Turkey, Rick takes us beyond Europe to a place that's rich with history...and mystery. Visiting Tehran, Esfahan, Shiraz, Persepolis, and Abyaneh (a small village), we'll get a rare present-day look at of some of civilization's most important historical sites, and a sense of Iran's 21st-century culture. From architecture and art to faith and everyday living, "Iran, Yesterday and Today" offers a rare, candid, and humanizing look at a great if perplexing nation.

As he's done with previous programs on Israel, Egypt, and eastern Turkey, Rick takes us beyond Europe to a place that's rich with history…and mystery. In this first of two half-hour shows on Iran, Rick dodges traffic in Tehran, enjoys the tranquility of a nearby village (Abyaneh), and encounters both anti-American propaganda and a warm welcome from everyday Iranians. This episode of Rick Steves' Europe was created with footage from the first half of the one-hour television special, "Rick Steves' Iran: Yesterday and Today."

Iran's rich history goes back millennia, to the days when Persepolis was home to the "king of kings." In this episode, we explore three historic capitals of Iran: Persepolis, with its splendid monuments; Shiraz, with the tombs of Iran's most beloved poets; and Esfahan, with its extraordinary mosques and endearing people. This episode of Rick Steves' Europe was created with footage from the second half of the one-hour television special, "Rick Steves' Iran: Yesterday and Today."