I am visiting my daughter who is studing in Athens over her Spring Break. Am flying in from US (east coast or Chicago) and can fly into anywhere. Some places that interest us are: Portugal, Sicily, Southern Italy (not Amalfi coastal area), Prague, Salzburg. We have 2 weeks and can travel between 3/30-4/14. Plan to spend 2 days in Athens, plus some time on Santorini and other island. Looking to be in Greece during latter part of trip and visit islands when it is warmer. Also hoping to observe Good Friday and celebrate Easter in a village somewhere.

Any suggestions for itnerary would be greatly appreciated!

Plan carefully, because Greece can almost seem "closed down" between Good Friday and Easter Monday -- so many people flock back to their hometowns to celebrate ... transport and highways will be jammed on the Friday and the Monday, then minimal service on weekend. If in Greece at this time, you would have to be sure your hotel or nearby restaurant offers an easter dinner, as many Greeks as possible celebrate this with their family, "in a village somewhere." From what I hear, it can be fun to be included, but how to insure this?? Myself, I would not want to "wing it" and hope it would work out. Perhaps y our daughter, having been in Athens can offer you some direction - but you need to get on it, since u have only 2 weeks before departure!.

Thanks, yes, she is working on it. Sounds like we would want to be where we're going to be by Thursday and depart on Tuesday?

Sicily is famous for its Easter rites and festivities. You might do a google search to learn about them.

Since yo only have two weeks, why not spend it all in Greece? The Peloponnesean Penisula is a wonderful area to explore or add Crete.

Not included in the list, but Turkey (Istanbul) sounds logical for me.

Thanks for the suggestions. She is planning on Istanbul with friends and wants to spend some time outside of Greece as she has been living there and wants to see some other parts of Europe. The cities/areas I mentioned are areas she/we have not been.

We are checking into Sicily, but we would have to have a car -wouldn't we? We were hoping to avoid that cost.

We love smaller cities - Florence, for example. Based on that, anyone have any suggestions as to where would be best?

I think you need to decide which country first, which next, then file separate threads in the separae country categories. in which you SHARE the exact dates ... explaining you want to be in italy from xxx to xxx, and in greece from xxx to xxx, and then ask for suggestions. By tagging a whole bunch of countries, you don't get hte best response.... because if I'm helping you about greece i am not as interested in your car rental inquiry about Sicily. All I'm saying, it "dilutes" your responder interest & thus u may get less info on specifics.