This city was made for walking. Stroll grand boulevards with sweeping views of the city, pristine parks with trees planted in perfect rows, and narrow streets crowded with vendors selling flowers, pastries and cheese. Then head to the Île de la Cité, a small island in the Seine, to see Notre Dame Cathedral.

What's that huge white arch at the end of the Champs-Élysées? The Arc de Triomphe, commissioned by Napoleon in 1806 after his victory at Austerlitz. Your licensed local guide will elaborate on this, and other Parisian landmarks. See some of the most famous sites, including the ornate, 19th-century Opera, the Presidential residence, the ultra-chic shops of the Rue du Faubourg St-Honoré, and the gardens of the Tuileries. You'll pass the Place de la Concorde, where in the center you’ll find the Obelisk of Luxor, a gift from Egypt in 1836, and the Place Vendôme, a huge square surrounded by 17th-century buildings. Spot chic locals (and tons of tourists) strolling the Champs-Élysées. Look up at the iron girders of the Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 World's Fair to commemorate the centenary of the French Revolution. See Les Invalides (a refuge for war wounded), the École Militaire (Napoleon's alma mater), and the Conciergerie (the prison where Marie Antoinette was kept during the French Revolution).

See the D-Day beaches where on June 6, 1944, thousands of Allied troops landed in an effort to recapture the coast from Germany. All along the beaches, deserted German bunkers have been turned into memorials and the stark white crosses and stars that mark the cemeteries are grim reminders of the war.

Pouring onto the beaches of Normandy, Canada's 3rd Division and 2nd Armoured Brigade represented the entire nation, with regiments from Ontario, Manitoba, and Quebec. They secured the beachhead and held on against six days of counterattacks, when more troops were able to come ashore at the secured sight. The Beny-sur-mer Canadian War Cemetery contains more than 2,000 graves of the soldiers from the 3rd Division and the 15 airmen lost during these attacks.

Ingenious military engineering allowed the Allied forces to land at Arromanches on D-Day. Barges towed 600,000 tons of concrete across the English Channel, sinking them to create an artificial harbor, and then 33 jetties and 10 miles of floating roadways allowed the troops to land in France. Learn about this feat and other at the Arromanches Museum, where dioramas, interactive displays, and models detail the Allied landing.

The innovative Juno Beach Centre is one of the first museums dedicated solely to chronicling Canada's extensive role in World War II. The museum takes advantage of its setting near the D-Day Beaches to show visitors how the landings were accomplished, as well as detailing Canada's contributions to the entire war, both at home and abroad.

Please note overnight trains from Paris to Florence and Rome are no longer operating. Overnight trains from Paris will now terminate in Milan and a transfer by highspeed regional train to Rome will be organized as a replacement service.

Baroque-en hearted? Revive your spirits with a walk past Rome's most beautiful and unusual Baroque fountains. At the foot of the Spanish Steps, elegant cafes once favoured by visiting Brits and Americans surround the central fountain. The water pressure here was so low that the artist had to sink the fountain into the ground to get any water going through it, so he went ahead and designed the fountain to look like a sinking ship. There's no shortage of water pressure at the nearby Trevi Fountain, a Baroque extravagance designed by master sculptor Bernini. At the Pantheon, you'll see the largest concrete dome ever constructed. An oculus, or hole, in the dome lets sunlight into the beautiful temple, dedicated to all the gods.

Gods and gladiators, glory and gore. Ancient Rome lives on in its spectacular monuments, flavoring the frenetic present with tastes of the past. Don a space-age Whisper headset to get the inside scoop on the most spectacular, the Colosseum, a grisly battle arena that seated more than 45,000. An enormous retractable roof awning system kept spectators cool on sunny days. The nearby Forum provides a glimpse into everyday ancient life, with markets, meeting places, and temples all combined into one vast space. Move into Christian Rome at St. Peter’s Basilica, the triumphal Renaissance church flanked by rows of columns radiating outward like welcoming arms. Within the church Michelangelo’s masterpieces are on display, the “Pietà” in the main church and the recently restored ceiling frescoes and “Last Judgment” in the Sistine Chapel. Continue your trek through time at Piazza Venezia, site of the enormous monument to Victor Emmanuel II, Italy’s first king, and of the Palazzo Venezia, where Mussolini set up his headquarters and from whose porch his mother was said to eavesdrop on citizens below. (The Sistine Chapel is closed on most religious holidays and Sundays, except for the last Sunday in each month).

Monte Cassino saw some of the fiercest battles of the Italian Campaign during WWII. Visit the site of the Cassino Memorial that commemorates over 4,000 soldiers who lost their lives all over Italy and have no known grave and then learn more about the battle itself at the war museum.

The largest WWII museum in Europe, Piana delle Orme is a historical park intended to display one of the broadest collections in the world, covering aircraft, tanks and other military vehicles, locomotives, carts, radios, weapons, farming machinery, trams and buses, tools and thousands of other objects. Dedicated to the 20th Century, the museum complex represents a journey through 50 years of Italian history. Fourteen themed pavilions tell the traditions and culture of the countryside, the great reclamation works and the Second World War, and also show the vehicles at the beginning of industrialisation, and the toys which children enjoyed in the past. The armoured vehicles in its collection include a British Bren Carrier and a German SdKfz 251 half-track.

Pay your respects to the Canadian soldiers who gave their lives at the battle of Monte Cassino.