As an amateur photographer, I always have my camera on me. I never know when I'll see something that strikes my fancy, or where I'll be when such fancy is struck. Sometimes you see things worth capturing in the least likely place…such as from your passenger seat in a car during a fourteen hour 'no stops unless the car is out of gas' road trip…which means taking a picture while in motion. Some things are just too good to pass up, even at seventy miles an hour.

European travel is glorious in any form. The food, sights, arts, culture, languages, vistas, and new friends just make it such an enjoyable experience.

Why Travel Europe by Car?

Traveling by car, however, has its own advantages to rail or air travel. Let's look at some of the advantages of touring Europe by car (click here for our recommendations)

The best way to see Italy - and Europe, for that matter - is with your own set of wheels. I was once told by our friend Vicenzo in his deepest Italian accent speaking perfectly broken English, "Italians like the curve on their roads and their women," and from the voluptuous Sophia Loren to the hair pin turns of the Alpe di Siusi in the Dolomites, there has never been a more true statement.

It's almost a cliche, those photos of cemeteries and crosses in Ireland. I didn't know, until I  was there, how powerful these spaces are. And, it's like your camera has a mind of its own, and you end up with 500 photos from a single hour spent there, and still have time for quiet reflection and solitude.