Europe may be small in comparison to Canada, but it is densely populated and difficult to map as a continent while providing detail. Eastern Europe used to be defined as everything behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War, but now it encompasses everything east of Germany and Switzerland, which means that this map covers Italy, Greece and the Balkan countries, the Central European countries of Romania and Hungary and most of Ukraine, Poland and the three Baltic states, and western Russia as far east as Volgograd, as well as much of Turkey. It is a combined road and rail map, showing motorways and major highways, fast-train routes in red and regular services in black. It also shows major cruise line routes, although many have been suspended due to Covid and political situations in Russia and Turkey.
Essentially, this is a map covering a very large area, as are our maps of Western and Central Europe, and our earlier map of Scandinavia. We have tried to make it politically correct, which is difficult considering the Russian occupation of Crimea and the Donetsk region of Ukraine and the on-going controversy over the ‘proper’ name for Macedonia, so we apologize for any errors. For simplicity’s sake, we have named most place names in English, so Roma is Rome and Moscva is Moscow etc. Fortunately, most English place names are the same in the local languages. However, being ITMB, Naples is Napoli, and Florence is Firenze, so don’t be too critical of us; we’re trying to reconcile differing perspectives.