Europe Travel - best destinations in March

For cultural and sightseeing vacations choice is still limited in March, though spring is appearing in middle Europe and days are not too short. The Travel GoZone now extends north to include England and France, though the weather there can still vary greatly.
n.b. major tourist locations are likely to be overcrowded/overpriced/overbooked around Easter.

Europe Festivities: see European Festivals or Arts Festivals for more suggestions, information and some precise dates.
Italy: Sicily, Taranto have extravagant pre- Easter parades. And on Easter Sunday it's Florence's turn.
Spain: Seville. Holy Week [Semana Santa], hundreds of parades, singing.
Italy: Florence and Sicily for Semana Santa, pre-easter parades.
Portugal: Lisbon for pre-easter parades.
Hungary: Budapest Spring Music Festival [all sorts of arts/music/drama/poetry] 10 days, end of March.

For sightseeing/culture in reasonably comfortable weather conditions:
Spain: with the exception of Madrid [cold] and the North[wet], Spain is generally warm and pleasant in February. The best bet for a dry cultural experience is in the south, visiting the magical Moorish cities of Seville,[esp. for Semana Santa celebrations the week before Easter], Cordoba and Granada, where the days are warm and the nights coolish.
Barcelona too is a lively, interesting city, though it can be a little chilly/wet in March. Swimming in the Mediterranean in winter is no fun, nor is the sad, overbuilt coast that is now dedicated to sod-the-culture, we want sun, sea and sangria tour groups.

Portugal: Possibly a bit wet, but can be warm with blue skies in February; can be cold too, of course. Try the pleasant old-fashioned atmosphere of Lisbon, or further south to the Algarve for beaches, though this is a very 'maybe OK' season. Has a good Carnival Feb/March.

Italy: The southern part of Italy has generally mild winters with blue skies, so Rome, Naples, Pompeii, Herculaneum and Sicily are excellent cultural targets, while Amalfi takes good care of those who need a scenic uplift. Venice is chilly, damp and foggy, but has an interesting, spooky quality and a wacko Carnival, and Florence has an especially colourful Easter procession.

Greece: March is OK in Athens; it's warming up, crowds and pollution levels are down. Central Greece and the Peloponnese peninsula are loaded with sights, ruins and landscapes e.g. Meteora. The islands are gorgeous, though the it's still chilly, the Med's too cold for comfortable swimming and tourist/ferry services are limited.

Also, though rain is always an option:
France [Paris and the South of France]
England [London]
Austria [Vienna]
Belgium [esp. Brussels, Ghent, Antwerp, Bruges]

Skiing: All over Europe, the last month of widespread skiing.

Europe Travel March

Europe Travel
March