I wanted to visit the DDay sites, so we stayed in Caen. It has a superb peace museum that I’m sure you would find interesting. There are also many organized tours of the invasion sites, generally organized by where the invading soldiers were most involved, so there is one for Americans, one for Canadians, one for British, etc. Presuming you speak French, it might be best for you to scan the web sites of the various tours, pick out the places you want to see, and rent a car and a map. All that would be missing would be the guide, many of whom are quite knowledgeable, but at the same time you could go at your own pace, wherever you want to go, and not have to stick with a group.

I suggest you look into Cinque Terre, rather than Pisa. It is a group of five small towns on the cliffs and beaches, and is extremely scenic, but also crowded often. You can hike from town to town. I would also consider Florence for the great art and history there; it is considered the birthplace of the renaissance, and would be convenient for catching a train to Rome. I would not use a car in Florence or Rome; their traffic is insane, and you can see all you want walking.

Rome is large and busy, but there is much to see there. If you have time, you might consider spending a couple of days in Naples and seeing Herculeum, Pompeii, and the lovely town of Sorrento. You can do all three of those in one day taking a commuter train. Some people say you can do Naples and Pompeii as a day trip from Rome, but I think that is pushing it.

Thx for the reply Cleveland!You are not the first one to suggest not spending so much time in Pisa,but you are also not the first one to tell me Florence could be a great place to go…
The reason i didnt plan going to Florence is that for me its just another big city.I am sure theres alot of nice thing to see and do there but it wont be for this trip.
I always wanted to go to Cinque Terre since the first time I heard about it, im just not sure how I could have fun spending more then 3 days there…Depending on how many days left I have i supose I could go down to Naples area and find some nice beach to relaxe before returning to Rome for my return flight.

I didnt plan renting a car at any point of my trip, ive never realy been a big fan of cars in general…
I am not in a rush for anything in my trip, thats why I have a couple of day unscedule and I can just take and train and walk to all destination (bus and taxi will appear in my trip aswell)
I never realy wanted a guide for anything ( unless it was inside a museum) do you think this is a wrong way to approch my trip?

It sounds good. I make it a point to leave a couple of days unplanned, because sometimes you find something you want to see that you didn’t know was there. I also make a list of everything we might find interesting in each place we will be. I intentionally make my list too long, because you may find something you wanted to see is under repair or otherwise closed, and then you have an alternative available.

I have had mixed experiences with guides. On the one hand, many of them are very knowledgeable and all know how to get from here to there. On the other hand, with a guide you have to stay with the group, so if you want to look at something a little longer, you can’t unless you go back the next day.

For the Normandy invasion sights, I did a lot of research and picked what we wanted to see, then hired a taxi for the day, figuring that he would know how to get from place to place better than I. In Amsterdam, we took a group tour of some of the nearby places. It was a bit rushed for me, and included some things I would have skipped (I already knew how to make cheese) but I would not have been able to find some of the interesting sites on my own. In Berlin, we took two walking tours, in part because I didn’t have enough time to properly plan my own tour. Each was led by someone who had majored in history, and they did an excellent job of explaining things from the war years, and pointing out interesting sights I would likely have missed.

I think the choice depends on your own feelings, and whether you have the time and resources to properly plan your own tour.

Other then Nantes,what city in northern France you guys like that is not Paris?

Loved Lille. It was walkable, had a friendly vibe, incredible public art, and the cathedral was not your every day cathedral.

I sure did love Nantes too. We liked it so much we stayed another day.

Thx Cil! Lille looks lovely, I didnt think at all to stop there on my way to paris…I could even take a train from there to normandie (passing in paris) and keep paris for my last french town since i dont want to do big city one after the other…(Spending a week in Amsterdam then going to Paris just after might be too much for me)
Seriously im just looking into things to see or do if i dont find other travelers that i want to follow, the main objective of my trip is to go have fun in Amsterdam and finish with some Rome history.What I will do from one point to the other i will just wing it.

Any one have opinion on how to do Nantes to Cinque-terre or Paris to Cinque-terre by train? I do have couple of days to do it and wouldnt like to take more then 6-8 hours train in a single day…
-I was thinking Nanted to Lyon but from lyon it still looks like cinque-terre is far.
-Some people suggested me to go to Nice from Paris or Lyon but im not so sure…
-maybe a overnight train from paris to Milan, but i dont realy want to spend time in Milan, for me its just another big city…

Any once have suggestion?It would realy help

I fully agree about Milan, but I’d still do a direct overnight train from Paris to Milan. Have breakfast and a leisurely espresso in Milan (dozens of decent places in the huge train station) and Then take the 1 and 3/4 hour train to Florence and spend the remainder of the day and the entire next day there. Pisa can be a 1/2 or 3/4 day stopover between Florence and Cinque Terre (La Spezia) — it’s half way between the two, roughly 1 hour from each.

Stopovers in Lyon or Nice (or elsewhere on the Riviera) still leave you with a lengthy train ride to Cinque Terre, so little time for anything but a stopover.

Florence is simply stunning, Venice unbelievable, Rome is incredible, the St. Peters is unimaginable, Paris simply beautiful.