Our Guides
Download a city guide of some of Europe's most beautiful cities onto your iPod, mp3 player or phone. As we guide you through the streets, along the route we've planned for you, our city guides will tell you what you're looking at and how to make the most of your city break.
Florence
We only had a long weekend to do the city and so your tour really helped us get our bearings. There's just so much to see there! I know we only scraped the surface but it worked really well for us.
Tanya Ellison - (27/08/06)
Venice
This was a great tour that took you everywhere you needed to go. Particularly liked the walk through of the mosaic frescoes on the front of the Basilica.
We had a great time in Venice, made all the more special by this evocative guide.
Like the speaker's voice too - one of the best I've listened to.
Andrea How - (19/02/06)
PARIS - Eiffel tower is worlds most famous monument, survey finds
It beat the Taj Mahal, the Statue of Liberty and the Golden Gate Bridge, in the survey which was commissioned by poll by hotels.com, the accommodation website.
The iconic Parisian tower was named the greatest structure by nearly one-in-six (16 per cent) travellers from five continents included in the survey, well-ahead of its nearest rivals, St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican and India's Taj Mahal, which came a distant second and third place with just nine% and eight% of the vote respectively.
As the mp3cityguides guide to Paris Grand Monuments explains, the writer Guy de Maupassant had lunch up the Eiffel tower every day because, he said, it was the one place in Paris where you didn't have to look at it. You can do something similar - at the second stage is the Jules Verne restaurant, one of the best in Paris - take the special lift from the north tower.
It was not just Maupassant who hated the Tour Eiffel - it divided opinion in Paris when it was built in 1889 for the World's Fair and to celebrate the centenary of the revolution. What is most surprising about it is that it was supposed to be temporary and it's really only remained to this day because during the early part of the last century when radio was invented, it proved to be perfect as a base for aerials and antennae. It was the tallest building in the world until the completion of the Empire State Building in 1931.
Just to give you some statistics: it's 320 metres or over 1,000 feet high, except on hot days when the expansion of the metal can increase its height by as much as 15 cm. It weighs 10,000 tonnes and the top sways up to 12 cm in the wind. It contains over two and a half million rivets and needs 50 tonnes of paint every seven years.
Various people have jumped off it with and without parachutes. During the early twentieth century, a tailor sewed his own set of wings which he hoped would help him glide gently earthwards. In fact he dropped like a stone in front of a horrified crowd.
Your best bet to avoid the queues is to come first thing in the morning - it opens at 9am from mid June to the end of August and from 9.30am the rest of the year. Otherwise try late evening – from mid June to the end of August the lifts operate until 11pm and, during the rest of the year, until 10.30pm.
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Archive
- ›› FLORENCE - Florence and the Americans
- ›› VIENNA - 150th anniversary of the birth of Klimt
- ›› LONDON - Hockney at the Royal Academy
- ›› EDINBURGH - Hogmanay and our iPhone Edinburgh guide
- ›› DUBLIN - Temple Bar Trad
- ›› BARCELONA - Xavier Le Roy at Fundacio Antoni Tapies
- ›› ROME - New exhibition devoted to Caravaggio
- ›› VENICE - Exploring Venice and Egypt
- ›› EDINBURGH - 26 writers at National Museum
- ›› AMSTERDAM - more art than just Rembrandt
- ›› MADRID - New lunch destination in Madrid
- ›› PARIS - New look for the Musee dOrsay
- ›› LONDON - New history of the Tower of London
- ›› PARIS - New exhibition of pillars of modern art
- ›› VIENNA - Egon Schiele museum is 10 years old
- ›› LONDON - Degas at the Royal Academy
- ›› BERLIN - Renaissance portraits
- ›› FLORENCE - Special opening of the Uffizi and the Accademia
- ›› EDINBURGH - National Museum of Scotland Reopens
- ›› BARCELONA - the Gaudi Battlo building is now open to the public
- ›› PRAGUE - Folklore festival
- ›› AMSTERDAM - a tribute to the hospitable past
- ›› LONDON - The National Gallery Sainsbury Wing is 20 years old
- ›› ROME - Last chance to Caravaggio
- ›› NICE - south of France celebrates the arts
- ›› VENICE - celebrating the 150 annivesary
- ›› PARIS - Contemporary art at the Grand Palais
- ›› LONDON - New photography exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery
- ›› BERLIN - Theatre festival starts next weekend
- ›› VENICE - new miniguide launched
- ›› mp3cityguides - new affiliate page launched
- ›› YORK - Win a luxury break in York
- ›› FLORENCE - Picasso, Miro, Dali at the Palazzo Strozzi
- ›› BARCELONA - Best tapas bar in the world opens
- ›› ROME - our revised Rome Spanish Steps tour is launched
- ›› Edinburgh, London and York freeguides
- ›› BARCELONA - half marathon starts soon
- ›› VisitBritain – our guides go live
- ›› DUBLIN - striking new photographic exhibition opens
- ›› AMSTERDAM - Party like its 2011
- ›› VENICE - The Vorticists
- ›› NEW DISTRIBUTOR FOR mp3cityguides
- ›› PRAGUE - Major modern art on show
- ›› VIENNA - Muehl exhitition extended
- ›› BUDAPEST - The Art Fair Starts
- ›› BERLIN - New exhibition of degenerate art
- ›› LONDON - New tours of the Tower of London
- ›› YORK - The Festival Begins
- ›› ROME - OUR NEW GUIDE IS OUT NOW
- ›› MADRID - Renoir respective opens
- ›› PARIS - Contemporary Art Exhibition
- ›› BARCELONA - New Picasso exhibition
- ›› PARIS - New Henry Moore exhibition
- ›› VIENNA - MIchelangelo at the Albertina
- ›› LONDON - Treasures of Budapest at Royal Academy
- ›› ROME - New exhibition celebrates unification of Italy
- ›› PARIS - Monet blockbuster opens
- ›› BARCELONA - Our new Eixample tour
- ›› EDINBURGH - The whacky fringe
- ›› LONDON - get lost in Trafalgar Square
- ›› ROME - Sponsorship needed for ancient sites
- ›› VENICE - visit the city for its wonderful regatta
- ›› AMSTERDAM - Alexander the Great on display
- ›› mp3cityguides looking for smartphone developers
- ›› NICE - Jazz Festival Starts in July
- ›› ROME - New Discovery at the Catacombs
- ›› FLORENCE - Bronzino exhibtion in the Autumn
- ›› LONDON - Lambeth Palace Exhibition
- ›› LONDON - mp3cityguides Nokia London Shopping Guide
- ›› LONDON - Biography of Whitehall
- ›› EDINBURGH - Six Lewis Chessman Go on Display
- ›› BARCELONA - St Georges Day
- ›› DUBLIN - Palladio comes to Dublin
- ›› BUDAPEST - From Degas to Picasso
- ›› PARIS - James Bond Invited to Versailles
- ›› mp3cityguides looking for Augmented Reality partners
- ›› BERLIN - The Oldest Church Reopens
- ›› PARIS - Gruesome show at the Musee DOrsay
- ›› LISBON - the Fish and Flavours Festival starts next month
- ›› LONDON - NEW ANTONY GORMLEY SCULPTURE AT ST PAULS
- ›› BARCELONA - New guide to the Ramblas, Barri Gotic and El Born
- ›› PARIS - Parisians are rude, according to Parisians
- ›› BERLIN - Holocaust Memorial showing cracks
- ›› PRAGUE - Top dark tourism site revealed
- ›› VIENNA - Klimt and the nudes
- ›› ROME - Hopper and Papal Medals
- ›› BARCELONA - The marathon starts
- ›› LONDON - Jewish museum opens following renovation
- ›› VENICE - Its carnival time again
- ›› EDINBURGH - The other festival
- ›› VIENNA - The Opera Ball and our new guide to Vienna
- ›› BUDAPEST - Spring festival dates announced
- ›› FLORENCE - See the normally never seen at the Uffizi
- ›› YORK - The Viking Festival
- ›› PARIS - Eiffel tower is worlds most famous monument, survey finds
- ›› MADRID - Brilliant at Christmas
- ›› VENICE - Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci on display again
- ›› PARIS - Renoir revisited
- ›› AMSTERDAM - Obamas favourite artist decorates Centraal Station
- ›› BERLIN - Twenty years after the wall came tumbling down
- ›› ROME - Caravaggio and Bacon compared
- ›› BARCELONA - The extention explored
- ›› mp3cityguides introduce first free guide
- ›› LONDON - Anish Kapoor at the Royal Academy
- ›› DUBLIN - The other fringe festival
- ›› BERLIN - The currywurst is honoured at last
- ›› EDINBURGH - Spanish art to lead festival
- ›› PARIS - Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese
- ›› MADRID – Matisse retrospective
- ›› VENICE - Biennale 2009
- ›› AMSTERDAM - New Hermitage opens
- ›› ROME - Fra Angelico and his exquisite art
- ›› LONDON - Picasso and the Masters
- ›› BERLIN - Annie Leibovitz: public and private
- ›› PARIS - World of Warhol
- ›› LISBON - our Guide to Lisbon is out today
- ›› BARCELONA - Gaudi cathedral prepares for first service
- ›› AMSTERDAM - New Richard Avedon retrospecitve
- ›› VENICE: Masterpiece of Futurism at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection
- ›› mp3cityguides.com adds new cities
- ›› Walk hand in hand on a Valentine weekend away
- ›› iPhone named 2008 Gadget of the Year
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