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ACROSS THE POND: From Italy to Ireland, a look at what's opening, closing and worth seeing this year

BY RICK STEVES | Tribune Media Services

April 6, 2008

IRELAND

There's a new visitors center at the Cliffs of Moher. After years of easy access to the cliffs, numerous fatal accidents (and suicides) prompted the hiring of "rangers," whose main purpose is to keep people from getting too close to the cliff edge. The upside: They lead guided tours several times a day in the summer.

In Galway, the Siamsa folk theater, which featured Irish music, singing, and dancing - including the step dancing popularized by Riverdance - will be closed in 2008 (and may not reopen after that). Sadly, in Kilronan on Inishmore Island, the Ragus Irish song-and-dance group is also no longer performing.

The British Army has finally pulled out of Northern Ireland, after 38 years mired in the "troubles," which is a healthy sign that the region's worst days are in the past and tourism will no longer be such a tough sell in Ulster. As if to celebrate, Belfast has opened a 196-foot-high Ferris wheel, similar to the London Eye. It will spin crowds of tourists (paying $12 for the 15-minute trip) throughout 2008.

LONDON

For longer visits to London, you'll save time and money getting around on the Tube (London's underground) and city buses with an Oyster Card. You buy this plastic transit card for a small fee and then enjoy discounted rides - reloading for more credit as necessary.

The Heathrow Express train connecting London's Paddington Station with Heathrow Airport is now the most expensive rail journey per mile in Britain. Save money by riding the Tube or using the regular train.

The British Library will undergo an extensive reorganization in 2008. One of the original Magna Carta documents and the only existing medieval manuscript of "Beowulf" will be off display for much of the year.

There will be no organ recitals at St. Paul's Cathedral in 2008 or 2009 as its organ will be under restoration.

Public places in England and the rest of Great Britain are now smoke-free, including hotels, B&Bs, restaurants, and even pubs. Expect places that sell food to be nonsmoking indoors, with smokers occupying outdoor patios and doorways.

FRANCE

Travelers will encounter some construction headaches at Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport, as it continues major renovations. While getting into Paris may be a little bumpy, getting out is slicker than ever with the opening of new bullet-train lines. The big news in northeast France is the TGV Est bullet train, serving Reims, Verdun, Colmar, Strasbourg, and beyond. It has cut travel times in half, bringing Reims within 45 minutes of Paris, and Colmar within 2.5 hours of the capital. And you can now book and print rail tickets and reservations online at sncf.com - click on the British flag for English - in some cases, you may even get deals.

As for trends in French restaurants, famous chefs are opening cheap signature bistros, where hungry visitors can dine on less elaborate, yet still top-name cuisine at more affordable prices in simple surroundings (in Lyon, look for Paul Bocuse's Le Nord, Le Sud, L'Est, and L'Ouest restaurants). Another trend is to offer two-course fixed-price lunch and dinner menus for less money and weight gain than the traditional three- or four-course menus. The cheese course has suffered partly because of this, and partly because of the French desire to eat more healthfully.

The healthy trend is hitting smokers, too. The French have followed the Irish and Italians in making all bars, restaurants, and cafes smoke-free (those sitting outside can still light up). This could be a challenge in a culture so wrapped up in cafe sitting, where people have a decades-old ritual of stopping at the corner cafe for a drink and a smoke. But the movement against secondhand smoke is strong throughout Europe and, as country after country adopts bans, smokers adjust.

At Versailles, the Royal Opera House will likely be closed in 2008. The rest of the palace and grounds should be open throughout the complex's continued renovation. Le Passeport, the one-day pass, has emerged as the best way to fund a Versailles visit (particularly if you buy it in Paris, as it covers your round-trip train ride).

Near Paris, Chartres Cathedral, home of perhaps the greatest Gothic church experience in Europe, is now even more interesting. The venerated 2,000- year-old "veil" of Mary - said to be the gown she wore when she gave birth to Jesus - is once again on display, behind bulletproof glass.

ITALY

Italy is gung-ho for restricted traffic zones in its city centers. This is great for pedestrians, but not for drivers who are finding $100 fines in their mail when they arrive home. If you drive in Rome, Florence, Milan, Lucca, Siena, San Gimignano, Orvieto or Verona - in restricted areas marked by a Zona Traffico Limitato sign - your car's license plate will be photographed and you can be fined without ever being stopped by a cop. Pay attention to signs, get parking advice from your hotelier, and park outside restricted areas.

MILAN

Reservations to see Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper still book up long in advance. It's better to book by phone than online: If you call, you'll have a greater selection of days and time slots to choose from, since their Web site doesn't reflect cancellations (from the United States, dial 011-39-02-8942- 1146; www.cenacolovinciano .org).

Milan's new Museum of Art and Science offers a hands-on look at Leonardo's work - paintings, models of inventions - during the 20 years he spent in Milan. The cathedral's Duomo Museum is still under renovation and may be closed for the first part of 2008, as is the train station (expect chaos until the dust settles, and even after that).

GERMANY

Munich celebrates its 850th anniversary this year with a series of cultural events (theater, cabaret, concerts, exhibitions, tours, and so on), mostly on weekends in June and July. Munich's new Jewish Museum features a small but well-done exhibit on Jewish life, and its City Museum will reopen with shiny new exhibits after an extensive renovation. The charming new Beer and Oktoberfest Museum is located in a brightly lit but creaky house with low ceilings (the oldest in the city center) and covers the history of Munich's breweries and the origins of Oktoberfest, its famous annual keg fest. The renovated and now futuristic - rather than frumpy - BMW Museum has reopened.

In Berlin, a crisp mini-museum called "The Kennedys" has just opened on Pariser Platz; it's a cross between an archive of documents related to JFK and Jackie's visit to Berlin during the Cold War, and a photographic shrine to the good-looking couple.