Explore the Vatican Museums with a Local Expert, discovering works collected by generations of popes. Enter the Sistine Chapel to admire Michelangelo’s painted ceiling, and see the exterior of St. Peter’s Basilica.

The chapel remains the setting for papal elections, giving its art a living ceremonial context. If Vatican Museums tickets are unavailable, the visit is replaced by an exploration of the Capitoline Museums and their Roman art and archaeology.

• 5 Dinner (D)
• 10 Breakfast (B)
• 1 Lunch (L)

• Vatican City: Visit the Vatican Museums and witness the genius of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel.

Insight Vacations

• Business class coach with extended leg room
• 4 & 5-star stays
• Top-rated dining, from farm-to-table to local restaurants

Meet your Travel Director and fellow travellers over dinner at a local restaurant in Rome. Taste Roman specialities in a setting that offers an introduction to the food and conversation of the capital.

Rome’s cooking draws on the ingredients and traditions of Lazio, with dishes shaped by generations of neighbourhood kitchens. This shared welcome dinner is included as a hosted experience, rather than simply an evening meal.

Walk through ancient Rome with a Local Expert, seeing the vast Circus Maximus, the Arch of Constantine and Palatine Hill. On a guided visit to the Colosseum, examine the arena where gladiators once fought before Roman crowds.

These landmarks reveal different sides of imperial life: chariot racing, triumphal commemoration and public spectacle. Your expert brings the Colosseum’s construction and legends into focus while you explore one of Rome’s most recognisable surviving monuments.

Savour Florentine cuisine over a leisurely dinner at a local restaurant in the heart of Florence. Local wine accompanies the meal, offering a chance to taste the regional flavours that are part of the city’s everyday culture.

Tuscan food is closely associated with seasonal produce and preparations that let ingredients speak for themselves. This hosted dinner makes those traditions tangible through the dishes served and the pleasure of lingering together at the table.

Walk through Renaissance Florence to admire the cathedral’s patterned marble exterior, its bell tower and baptistery. In Piazza della Signoria, see the statues and imposing Palazzo Vecchio that frame the city’s historic political centre.

Explore the area around Santa Croce and watch leatherwork and goldsmithing demonstrations by local craftspersons. Florence’s public art and skilled workshops offer complementary views of a city whose artistic reputation was built both in grand commissions and at the workbench.

Visit the Accademia Gallery and stand before Michelangelo’s David, the monumental marble sculpture that has become an emblem of Florence. Look closely at its poised stance and finely observed anatomy.

Carved in the early 16th century, David embodies the Renaissance fascination with the human form and classical ideals. This gallery visit is one of two included Insight Choice activities in Florence; travellers choose it instead of the local treat experience.

Join your Travel Director for a short walk to a Florence spot loved by residents. Sample a classic Italian treat and hear how it became a familiar part of local life.

Rather than viewing the city only through its monuments, this experience offers a taste of the flavours Florentines grow up with and return to. It is one of two included Insight Choice activities in Florence, offered as an alternative to the Accademia Gallery visit.

Explore Pisa’s Square of Miracles on an orientation with your Travel Director. See the cathedral, the marble-clad baptistery and the unmistakable Leaning Tower of Pisa, built as the cathedral’s bell tower.

Set across the square’s open lawns, these religious buildings form a striking ensemble of Pisan Romanesque architecture. The tower’s famous tilt draws the eye, while the wider setting reveals the wealth and ambition of medieval Pisa.

Cruise Venice by private boat along the Giudecca Canal, passing palaces and churches that trace centuries of Venetian architecture. Near St. Mark’s Square, walk the waterfront past the Doge’s Palace and Bridge of Sighs.

Your Travel Director’s orientation introduces a city shaped by maritime trade and life on the lagoon. From the water, the palazzi reveal the facades Venice presented to arriving visitors; on foot, its civic and religious heart comes into view.

Glide through Venice’s canals by gondola, passing beneath historic bridges and alongside palace walls at water level. A gondolier steers the traditional boat through waterways that offer a more intimate perspective than the city’s broad canals.

The gondola is closely tied to Venice’s history as a city built around waterborne movement. This included ride lets you experience the shifting light, close-set buildings and quieter stretches of canal from the vessel most associated with the lagoon.

Watch Venetian artisans demonstrate glassblowing in a workshop, shaping molten glass into delicate pieces using traditional techniques. See the precision and timing required to work with a material that changes rapidly as it cools.

Venetian glassmaking has a centuries-long history, particularly on the island of Murano, where furnaces and specialist skills became central to the craft. The demonstration offers a close view of how that heritage survives through the knowledge of working makers.

Explore Assisi with a Local Expert, walking its preserved medieval lanes on the slopes of Mount Subasio. Step inside the Basilica of St. Francis to discover the frescoes that make it a landmark of European art.

In the valley, see the Church of St. Mary of the Angels, associated with the final days of St. Francis. Assisi’s stone streets, religious sites and painted interiors convey the enduring influence of the saint born in this Umbrian town.

Cross the Bay of Naples by boat to Capri, approaching the island’s steep coastline through blue Mediterranean waters. From Marina Grande, ascend to Capri town and explore its narrow lanes with a Local Expert, passing whitewashed houses, cafés and artisan studios.

Capri has drawn visitors since Roman times, including Emperor Tiberius. The guided walk offers a closer look beyond its coastal silhouette, while the included funicular descent provides another view of the island’s dramatic terrain.

Walk Pompeii’s excavated streets with a Local Expert, visiting the Forum and looking into shops and villas decorated with wall paintings. The surviving layout makes it possible to picture commerce, homes and public life in a Roman town.

Buried by Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79, Pompeii was preserved beneath volcanic material for centuries. Its cobbled streets and domestic details offer an unusually direct encounter with the daily lives of people who lived nearly two thousand years ago.

Visit Casa Barone, a family-run farm on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, and enjoy a farm-to-table lunch featuring its Piennolo tomatoes. Learn how the family grows this rare local variety using low-impact methods.

The tomatoes are part of the traditional food heritage of the Vesuvian countryside, where volcanic soils support distinctive produce. By cultivating an endangered local variety, the farm helps protect regional biodiversity while sharing its flavours directly with visitors.

Dine at a Roman restaurant over Italian cuisine and local wine while enjoying a private performance of popular songs and opera arias. The music brings a live cultural dimension to the evening’s meal.

Opera and song have long been part of Italy’s performing traditions, and familiar melodies take on a different character when heard close to the performers. This included experience combines a hosted dinner with a performance rather than treating the meal as a routine dining stop.