None of these places is a bad visit if you have a reason you want to go there, but…

Why Marseille? The food and wine are great, but mostly it’s one of the world’s largest and busiest freight ports.

Why Milan? There’s maybe a day worth of “tourist stuff.” Otherwise it’s a big. bustling. expensive, business center — lots of expensive business suits, cell phones and very expensive shops. It’s a major transportation hub, so maybe worth a day on your way to Florence or Venice.

Is there a reason for 2 days in Naples? Visit it as a day trip from Rome or take a day trip to Pompeii and catch a pizza in Naples on the way back to Rome. Cut the total for Rome and Naples to 4 or 5 days, which gives you 3 or 4 days to see Rome and 1 or 2 for day trips..

I actually like Brussels (most here do not) but much of it is an ultra-modern city dedicated to the monstrous EU bureaucracy. I would have been bored to death in 4 days. 1/2 to 1 day (include an evening for the lighted view of central square) is enough time to catch a waffle, some chocolate, a few sights and all the marvelous ethnic and cultural diversity (African, Caribbean, Middle Eastern) that is modern Brussels. Add another day for a day trip to Bastogne (if you’re a WWII history buff) and spend the remainder of the time in Bruges.

That’s some really solid advice thank you! Well my friend and I were planning on a two month Eurorail pass So we were kinda just planning on checking out all of the bigger cities on our way through Europe. What do you suggest we do with our remaining days say if we cut out Bologna and only spend a day in Marseille and only a couple in Brussels and Such. What are some of your favorite cities?

At some point a big city is a big city is a big city…..

Yes but then what do you suggest?

You do not need 4 days in Brussels IMHO. Those days could be placed elsewhere.

Milan: skip it and see some of Tuscany instead.

Naples: Either do what Oldlady says, or instead, spend a night in Sorrento and visit Pompeii on the way back to Rome

Split: think about taking the ferry for a day or two on the island of Hvar, it’s easy to get to

If you really want to make more stops, Bruges and Antwerp are both close to Brussels and are nice 1 or maybe 2 night stops, and Salzburg is a fairly quick trip from Munich (also a 1-2 day visit imo).

Some good suggestions on replacing Brussels with Brugge. I can see you’re working your way along the coast for a good chunk of this, so you may also want to consider exploring some of the “smaller” cities as well. As oldlady mentioned, Marseille is fantastic and well worth a visit, but you may want to look into other destinations on la Côte d’Azur (anything from Eze to Nice to Toulon)…or even consider a brief stint inland to check out Provence (Avignon, Aix-en-Provence, or any of the towns in the Luberon or Vaucluse. Or spend a few gloriously delirious days inundating yourselves with wine in Chateauneuf-du-Pape!).

The only thing on your list that I see not working is Split —> Munich. Split was a long bus ride from Zadar, which was a long train ride from Zagreb, which was a long train ride from Innsbruck, which is still a couple-hour jaunt from Munich. I highly recommend Croatia, and you’d do well to take Cil’s advice and ferry over to an island or two while you’re there, but to go from that far down the Adriatic all the way back up to Munich is a seriously long series of buses and trains. It may be 100% worth it to you (after all, I spent 3 days hitchhiking through Serbia toward Bucharest just so I could make my way down to Dubrovnik, and it was very worth it), but just be prepared for the extra time in transit, and the fact that those bus trips will not be covered on your Eurail Pass.

Still worth visiting the Adriatic though, no matter what it takes