Great Continental Railway Journeys: Season 4

Michael Portillo tours Bulgaria and then travels east through the Balkans along the most exotic section of the Orient Express, headed for Istanbul.

Michael takes the first railroad build I the huge Austro-Hungarian empire, from imperial capital Vienna to Adriatic main port Trieste. In Vienna he indulges in grandeur and spy (hi)story, then passes the greatest Alpine tunnel of its age to Graz, rural Styria's capital and Austria proper's second city then, now remarkably modern in harmony with its Baroque heritage. Then to Lublijana, capital of Slovenia (Catholic ex-Yugoslavia) and finally Trieste, then Italian jewel in the crown of Habsburg's Veneto-provinces.

Michael does part of the Italian Grand Tour, the precursor of Victorian 'mass' tourism, along Italian art cities. He starts in port city Pisa, discussing the leaning campanile. With a side-trip to Carrara, where unsurpassed marble for statues is cut, he heads for the highlight, Tuscan capital Firenze (Florence), with particular attention for the effects of its short-lived status as Italian royal capital between the Piemontese dynasty's Turin and eternal, imperial and papal Rome. Finally off to the ultimate holiday region of the grand lakes, at Lake Garda.

Michael makes a Greek odyssey from Athens's port of Piraeus to the city of Thessaloniki visiting the Acropolis, the Corinth Canal, Delphi and the little train of Pelion one of the world's narrowest gauge railways.

Armed with his 1913 Continental Railway Guide, Michael Portillo ventures deep into the Black Forest on a quest to discover the essence of Germany and discovers how Hansel and Gretel helped to unify the nation. A humbling masterclass in carving cuckoo clocks shows.

Tracing the early 20th century roots of the Spanish Civil War, Mallorca, paella and the Palace of Music in Barcelona.