You’re standing in a piazza in Naples, and someone asks you where you’re from. You say “Italy.” They…

You arrive in Venice by train and immediately understand you’re somewhere impossible. There are no cars. There are…

There’s a moment you’ll have in Florence—probably in front of the Duomo, probably when you’re tired and hot…

You’re standing in the Roman Forum, sweating in the afternoon heat, looking at a collection of columns that…

The city that gave democracy to the world woke up on April 21, 1967, to discover it had…

Every four years, billions of people around the world watch the Olympic Games. Athletes from 200 countries compete.

The day World War II ended in Europe, May 8, 1945, Greeks danced in the streets of Athens.

When Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453, many Greeks thought it was the end of the…

Most people have heard of the Roman Empire and think it ended around 500 CE, when the Western…

Imagine a nation that had been under foreign rule for nearly 400 years.

Imagine being a young man of twenty who’s just inherited a kingdom. Your father was a brilliant general…

When you stand atop the Acropolis and gaze at the Parthenon, you’re looking at one of the most…

Germany confronts its darkest chapter in a way that most nations never do.

Before Germany was unified by Prussian iron and blood, before the Age of Nationalism, there was another kind…

In 1919, Germany tried something it had never tried before: democracy.

In 1886, the citizens of Bavaria witnessed something extraordinary: their king, Ludwig II, was declared insane and removed…

Martin Luther was having a crisis. It was around 1505, and the 21-year-old law student had just survived…

The wall came down on November 9, 1989, and by October 3, 1990—less than a year later—Germany was…

Voltaire, the 18th-century French philosopher, made a joke that perfectly captures the bewilderment of the Holy Roman Empire:…

The Berlin Wall stands as one of history’s most powerful symbols of division, yet today it’s also a…

When you stand in front of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, or walk the ramparts of Carcassonne, or climb…

Walk through the streets of Paris today, and you’ll encounter neighborhoods and museums that document a history most…

Most travelers visiting Paris don’t think about the Paris Commune of 1871.

France in 1940 was the world’s most powerful military force—or so everyone thought.

If you’ve ever wondered why the Loire Valley looks like someone spilled a bottle of fairy-tale kingdoms across…