• 4 Dinner (D)
• 9 Breakfast (B)

• Milan: Join your small group and a local historian to explore Milan’s history, including the influence of Leonardo da Vinci. Walk to the facade of Milan Cathedral and the world-famous La Scala Theater as the city’s story takes shape around you.  
• Bolzano: Step inside the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology to see Otzi the Iceman, one of the world’s most remarkable archaeological discoveries. Preserved in ice for more than 5,000 years, this Copper Age mummy offers a rare glimpse into prehistoric life in the Alps, from the tools he carried to the clothing he wore.

Visit a winery near Conegliano to meet local winegrowers, learn about their production and taste regional Prosecco. Vineyards spread across the Veneto hills, where Alpine shelter and warmer air from the Adriatic help shape the growing conditions.

Discover how this sparkling wine developed its own identity alongside Champagne, including differences in production. The tasting connects its crisp, aromatic character with the people and landscape behind a long-established regional craft.

Travel by private boat through Venice as your Travel Director introduces the city from the water. Pass historic palazzi and churches, with views towards the Doge’s Palace and St Mark’s Square, before seeing the Basilica and Bridge of Sighs in the square’s monumental surroundings.

Venice grew through its relationship with the lagoon, so arriving by water reveals facades designed to face its canals. The boat perspective and time around St Mark’s bring the former maritime republic’s architecture into view without implying entry to its buildings.

Walk through Como to discover its graceful waterfront, narrow streets and defining landmarks, with views of Lake Como and the Alpine foothills. The orientation brings the town’s everyday rhythm into focus as you explore on foot.

Como has a longstanding association with silk production, a heritage that sits alongside its reputation as a lakeside retreat. Its historic centre and waterside setting show why the town has drawn visitors while remaining an active regional hub.

Stroll through Baveno’s cobbled lanes and see its historic square beside Lake Maggiore. Views across the water and towards the mountains give this small lakeside town a quieter character than the region’s larger resorts.

Baveno’s old streets and 16th-century square invite a closer look at life along the lake, beyond its celebrated villas and gardens. The experience is a gentle way to appreciate the town’s architecture and its relationship with the shore.

Choose a restaurant in Baveno from a hand-picked selection for a dine-around evening with your small group. Each setting offers its own atmosphere and an opportunity to enjoy regional flavours over unhurried conversation.

Rather than a single set dining room, this experience leaves room for personal taste while keeping the evening connected to the lakeside town. Local hospitality and a shared table make it a relaxed introduction to dining around Lake Maggiore.

Gather beside Lake Maggiore for a farm-to-table dinner paired with local wines. Share regional dishes and conversation with your small group in a setting shaped by the lake and surrounding mountains.

The meal puts local ingredients and hospitality at the centre of the evening, rather than treating dinner as a routine stop. A toast together provides a warm close to the journey through northern Italy’s cities, vineyards and lakes.

Explore the Dolomites on an optional excursion from Bolzano, taking in soaring peaks and dramatic mountain scenery. This experience offers a closer look at the Alpine landscape that forms South Tyrol’s striking backdrop.

The Dolomites are celebrated for their pale, steep-sided rock formations and changing light. Specific stops and the route are not detailed, but the focus is on the scale and character of this distinctive mountain region. This experience costs extra and is bookable on tour.

Enjoy dinner in an Alpine setting near Bolzano, with regional dishes served amid the atmosphere of South Tyrol’s mountains. It is a chance to experience the area through its food as well as its scenery.

South Tyrolean cooking reflects the region’s Italian and Austrian cultural influences, making a mountain meal a fitting way to encounter its shared traditions. The venue and menu are not specified. This optional dinner costs extra and is bookable on tour.

Cruise Lake Maggiore to the Borromean Islands on an optional excursion that includes Isola Bella, known for its palace and terraced gardens. See the islands from the water and encounter the ornate setting created by the Borromeo family.

Isola Bella’s formal terraces rise above the lake, giving the island its distinctive silhouette. The palace and gardens reflect centuries of aristocratic patronage, though the itinerary does not specify interior admission. This cruise costs extra and is bookable on tour.

• Hand sanitizer is freely available on board for you to use throughout the day.

Insight Vacations

Explore central Milan with a local historian, viewing the marble facade of the Duomo, the celebrated La Scala theatre and the glass-roofed Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. This is a walk through the city’s public spaces rather than an interior visit to these landmarks.

Hear how Milan’s artistic and commercial ambitions shaped its streets, including the influence of Leonardo da Vinci. The cathedral’s intricate Gothic exterior and the Galleria’s grand arcade reveal different chapters of a city known for both craftsmanship and innovation.

Share a welcome dinner with wine at a local Milan restaurant and meet the Travel Director and fellow travellers in your small group. Conversation around the table offers an easy introduction to the people you’ll travel with.

Milan’s dining culture draws on Lombard traditions as well as the energy of a contemporary Italian city. This hosted gathering makes the first evening a social experience, with time to settle in over food and a glass of wine.

Explore Verona’s elegant squares and see the Roman Arena, an ancient amphitheatre that remains a setting for opera. Your Travel Director leads a walk focused either on Dante’s statue and the Scala family tombs or on places associated with Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

The two routes offer different ways into Verona’s past: its medieval rulers and literary connections, or the story that made the city famous far beyond Italy. The Arena’s surviving stonework anchors both perspectives in a much older Roman history.

See Trento’s historic streets, where stone architecture and contemporary buildings reflect a northern Italian city with a distinct local character. Its streets and squares offer a close look at the setting between the Adige Valley and the surrounding mountains.

Trento’s urban fabric carries traces of its long position between Italian and Alpine cultures. Notice the contrast between older facades and modern additions while taking in the calm, lived-in atmosphere of a regional capital.

Wander Bolzano’s streets and squares beneath a mountain backdrop, noticing arcades and Tyrolean-style buildings alongside Italian influences. The compact centre makes the region’s blend of cultures visible in everyday shops, facades and public spaces.

Known as Bozen in German, Bolzano sits in South Tyrol, where both Italian and German are part of daily life. Exploring the town brings that cross-border identity into focus without losing sight of its distinctly Alpine setting.

Visit the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano to see Otzi the Iceman, the Copper Age mummy discovered in the Otztal Alps. Exhibits examine the body and the belongings that survived with him, including clothing and tools.

Preserved in ice for more than 5,000 years, Otzi offers unusually direct evidence of prehistoric life in the mountains. Seeing the discoveries together reveals how people travelled, dressed and equipped themselves in a demanding Alpine environment.

Watch expert Venetian glassmakers at work in a workshop, observing how molten glass is shaped into handcrafted pieces. Artisans explain techniques that demand careful timing, controlled heat and years of practice.

Venice’s glassmaking tradition became renowned across Europe, with the craft strongly associated with nearby Murano from the late 13th century onward. Watching a maker handle the glowing material gives a tangible sense of how this specialised skill survives today.

Glide through Venice’s canals by gondola, passing beneath old bridges and alongside palaces at the water’s edge. From the low seat of the boat, notice details of doors, stonework and daily life that are easy to miss from the streets.

Gondolas have long been part of the city’s transport tradition. The measured movement of the boat and the sound of water against its hull offer an intimate perspective on a place built around its waterways.

Pause in Sirmione on Lake Garda to see its waterside streets, pastel-coloured buildings and the stone walls of Scaliger Castle. The town’s narrow peninsula gives the lake a prominent place in almost every view.

The castle is a medieval landmark built by Verona’s ruling Scaliger family. This brief visit offers a scenic introduction to Lake Garda’s shoreline and historic setting; entry to the castle is not specified.

Explore Lake Como in greater depth with a Local Expert on an optional experience. Build on the town orientation with specialist insight into this celebrated lakeside region, where settlements sit between the water and steep Alpine foothills.

Lake Como has attracted visitors for generations, while its towns retain their own working histories and local character. The precise route and stops are not specified. This experience costs extra and is bookable on tour.