It’s helpful to know in advance
that train timetables, rail tickets, and road signs, will refer to cities by the name familar to Europeans — and in a few cases, these might be quite different than the names American travelers are used to.
The list below is intended to highlight some of the variations that most commonly trip up American visitors.
|
American Spelling |
European |
| Athens, Greece = | Athénai |
| Brussels, Belgium = | Bruxelles |
|
Belgrade, Yugoslavia = |
Beograd |
| The Hague, Netherlands = | Den Haag |
| Florence, Italy = | Firenze |
| Genoa, Italy = | Genova |
| Copenhagen, Denmark = | Köbenhavn |
| Cologne, Germany = | Köln |
| Cracow, Poland = | Krakow |
| Kiev, Ukraine = | Kyév |
| Lucerne, Switzerland = | Luzern |
| Milan, Italy = | Milano |
| Moscow, Russia = | Moskva |
| Munich, Germany = | München |
| Naples, Italy = | Napoli |
| Nuremberg, Germany = | Nürnberg |
| Rome, Italy = | Roma |
| Venice, Italy = | Venezia |
| Warsaw, Poland = | Warszawa |
| Vienna, Austria = | Wien |
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Of course, you may see many other spelling variations in Europe, depending on where you are and what you are looking at. (For example, London is referred to as Londres in many countries.) And in multilingual areas such as Flanders — northern France, southern Belgium — nearly every city has at least two names. But for the most part rail schedules and railway station signs use consistent spelling conventions, at least in Western Europe. |
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