Themed vacation recommendations?

We were frequent visitors to Rome, until ill health put a stop to it.
One year we decided to base our itinery on Dan Brown's Angels and Demons and made a video, where we delightedly pointed out all the inaccuracies in the novel.
The highlight was me holding onto DH's legs, while he was hanging out of our hotel window, filming a helicopter flying over the Vatican.
While wandering around the Vatican, looking for clues, we looked at each other and said, We are mad!

We had so much fun!

@Marydoll wrote:
"The highlight was me holding onto DH's legs, while he was hanging out of our hotel window ... We are mad!

Yes you were. And are. Please invite me to your next party. (Regrets -- can't handle the airfare.)

We took a trip back to Alderley Edge many years ago with our children to show them the area of "The Wierdstone of Brisingamen". I'd taken my husband there years before that when we we were both students so it was especially nice for us to see our children enjoy the fantasy novel that we had enjoyed before they wete even thought of.

I love to visit London for my holiday and always give myself a theme, otherwise I'd just fritter my time away.

It started years ago when I was doing historical research based on a faces in a painting in my church.
I've since done The Novels of Jane Austen, Egyptian London, Railway London and my favourite of all Sanitary London, because I was fascinated by Bazalgette.

The best bit of that was a booked Toilet Tour - my favourite bit of information was that the British Museum was originally built without public toilets for women: so they should not be tempted to stay away from their domestic duties too long..... Social control by sanitation, fascinating!

As to how, I spend long hours on Google, and then on public transport sites - I love the planning!

We had many holidays based on 'All Creatures Great and Small'. We had a riverboat holiday on the Nile based on 'Death on the Nile' they showed the film and we all dressed up in things we had bought from traders who threw things onto the boat. The boat was almost exactly the same as the one in the film - not the height of luxury as it was so old but so evocative of times gone by.

Oh I'm on a role now we also did an 'Out of Africa' holiday to Kenya absolute magic.

What wonderful responses. How very interesting and fun. Thanks for sharing!

My husband and I spent time in Italy following the story of Beatrice Cenci.
We went to Santa Croce a Montecitorio, the house in Rome, the churches associated with the family, lots of other connections including the ruined castle "La Rocca" in Petrella Salto. We went to Sant'Angelo Bridge, looked at paintings and sculptures associated with the Cenci story including a trip to see Caravaggio's painting Judith Beheading Holofernes - allegedly painted after witnessing Beatrice's public execution.

Through the Caravaggio and touched by the similar/parallel themes of oppression and abuse we came upon Artemisia Gentileschi - before she became well known.
Just wish we had plenty of time - and enough spare cash to "follow our noses!
How lovely it is to follow a story in your own way.

I ought to have said, our introduction to The Cenci was Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Surely there are more out there?
This thread has made me think of more things I'd like to do!

NotSpaghetti

Surely there are more out there?
This thread has made me think of more things I'd like to do!

I thought the same as you, NotSpaghetti, it could be a very enjoyable thread.

Maybe people just thought it was a post looking for (say) Art or Archaeology holidays Marydoll rather than a vacation based on a novel.

I don't suppose I answered the How did you go about it? though.

With Alderly Edge I knew the area as a child so just went there on a short trip each time.

For a trip in America I was tagging along with my husband on a fascinating research trip and spent days in an archive and looking at places previously "earmarked" - and then plenty more just thrown up by the archive.

For the Cenci trip it involved some reading first, booking accommodation in areas to travel out from near places already earmarked- and lots of walking over rough terrain, taking photos and imagination. It was quite freestyle once there as there were 100s of interesting avenues.

All involved following leads from locals.

Also went to look at the terrain around Eboli because of Christ Stopped at Eboli by Carlo Levi and spent two holidays on Carlo Levi!
The Badlands of Basilicata are now one of my favourite places. Not Eboli - but south of there - it just makes my heart sing.

Would do something like this again in a heartbeat.

I'd have a think about where else you can find vampires grNadpa ...

theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/articles/how-do-vampires-differ-around-the-world/

Planning a holiday to Sicily, we decided to visit various places from Inspector Montalbano books and TV series. Although names of towns were changed, it was easy enough to find some of the main locations. It's obviously a popular enough activity as there are websites which list filming locations. Nice area for a holiday anyway!

I have plans for Sicily.
Weaving Connections: Sicilian Silk in the Medieval Mediterranean

Islamic silk weaving heritage..

Farmor15

Planning a holiday to Sicily, we decided to visit various places from Inspector Montalbano books and TV series. Although names of towns were changed, it was easy enough to find some of the main locations. It's obviously a popular enough activity as there are websites which list filming locations. Nice area for a holiday anyway!

I am so envious, Farmor. 💚💚💚💚💚
That was on our bucket list!

You can do a London tour of "Jack the Ripper" haunts.

Alternately you could do a trip to Hampton Count by boat and see some of the places which might have been there in Tudor times. Hampton Court is a wonderful day out.

I planned a few stops on a John Steinbeck theme during a road trip in California. Not exactly a novel, but the author and his oeuvre. It included Salinas and Monterey. With a little research, you can find museums and sites to visit. On an earlier trip in another part of the State, we visited a Robert Louis Stevenson museum. The staff were lovely and we had a long chat. It helps to re-read the books before going, of course.

I would like to do the Jane Austen tour of Bath next time I'm in the area.

Not a tour but on both my visits to Damascus I walked right down the modern equivalent of "Straight Street" which is mentioned in the bible. One half is a regular market while the other end is tourist shops and restaurants. Of course I have not been back to Syria since the war began.

We did the Jack the Ripper tour, two days after the London bombings.It was so eerie, because the streets were deserted.
We had flown in from Paris, en route to Glasgow. All I wanted to do was get home.

Biglouis I would have loved to visit Syria - how fabulous.

I have just noticed that I mentioned places in the UK and the US although the OP was asking about Europe. Goethe's Italian trip is a wonderful tour guide through Italy. There is a lovely film made just after the Berlin Wall came down about an East German couple who set off to recreate it in their tiny Trabant with their teenage daughter. Much of the humour is based on their dialect and misconstruing of all things Western but it is a heart-warming story. Probably not available in English.

To go back to RL Stevenson, there would be the "Travels with a donkey in the Cévennes " which is a wonderful read and the places along the way are no doubt still all there. For something more urban, many detectives are based in lovely cities like Montalbano mentioned above. Brunetti in Venice, Rebus in Edinburgh.

Three Men in a Boat would be fun to reproduce, if you fancy rowing.

grNadpa
It’s as safe to go to Romania as anywhere else.
I’ve been the Halloween events in Transylvania 5 times. We were able to drive there as we lived in Bulgaria.
The weather at the end of October is still lovely and it’s stunningly beautiful.

What about Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's "The Leopard"?
I think that might be interesting.

Lampedusa is small, interesting and cross-cultural having Eastern and western heritage, also strongly linked with Malta, Spain and Greece.

Aside from the actual story you may like to look at the filming locations of the adaptation of the novel in the 1963 film.
I think I might like to do this myself actually