• 4 Dinner (D)
• 9 Breakfast (B)
• 1 Lunch (L)

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

• Rome: Food and family go hand-in-hand in Italy and are pillars of the Italian way of life. Experience it for yourself with an invitation from your local host to join them for a truly Italian, home-cooked meal.
• Florence: Savor authentic Tuscan delights as you relax over a leisurely dinner paired with local wine in the heart of the city.
• Tuscany: Visit Il Poggio to learn about organic olive and grape farming. Then enjoy a tasting and sit down to a fabulous dinner of Tuscan specialties, complemented by stunning views.
• Venice: Savor flavors of the region over a delicious lunch with wine. 
• Venice: Enjoy a delicious, typically Venetian dining experience.

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

• Florence: Stand beside Michelangelo’s monumental statue, ‘David’, in the Accademia Gallery, and admire the exquisite technique and absorbing history behind the world’s most famous sculpture.
• Florence: Join your Travel Director on a short walk to a local spot loved by residents. Sample a classic Italian treat and hear how it became a staple of the area. It’s a chance to experience the flavors locals grow up with and return to time and again.

Embrace countryside living as you visit organic farm Il Poggio, walking between vines and olive trees to learn sustainable methods. Sample estate wines and olive oil before a Tuscan dinner with views over rolling hills, where seasonal ingredients shine alongside local hospitality.

Discover the flavors of terroir in Chianti country, where traditional techniques and modern stewardship produce vibrant oils and expressive wines. Conversation flows as twilight softens the landscape and farm-to-table principles come to life.

See Venice from the water as you cruise the Giudecca Canal by private boat. Glide past Gothic and Renaissance palazzi toward the pink-marble Doge’s Palace, the storied Bridge of Sighs, and the mosaicked grandeur of St Mark’s Square, introduced by your Travel Director.

Understand how power, commerce, and spectacle shaped a city built on timber piles and maritime ambition. Facades shimmer on the lagoon as domes and campanili rise in elegant silhouette.

Witness alchemy in motion as artisans watch master glassblowers gather molten glass from the flame and furnace, shaping vessels with breath and precision. Discover the Murano heritage behind delicate forms, filigrana patterns, and the intense colors that define Venetian glass.

Learn how, from the late 13th century, relocating furnaces to Murano safeguarded secrets and reduced fire risk in Venice. Centuries-old skills and modern imagination combine to create luminous works of art.

Glide through Venice’s back canals on a classic gondola ride, drifting beneath stone bridges and quiet backwaters as melodies from a serenade on the canals echo between palazzi. Water laps at ancient steps while lanterns and balconies frame the scene.

Experience the city at water level, where craftsmanship from traditional squeri boatyards and centuries of urban life unfold around every bend. This intimate vantage reveals Venice’s reflective light, textures, and timeless rhythm.

Taste the lagoon’s bounty during a lunch with wine, discovering bite-sized Venetian cicchetti and market-fresh Adriatic seafood prepared simply to honor the ingredients. A relaxed table setting invites conversation and conviviality.

Learn how tides, seasons, and trade shaped Venetian cuisine—from briny capers and olives to fragrant herbs and polenta. Regional wines highlight crisp, saline notes that pair naturally with the day’s catch and garden produce.

Savor a typically Venetian dining experience where seasonal lagoon flavors meet time-honored recipes. Enjoy plates like risotto enriched with local broth or tender seafood, complemented by local wines that reflect Veneto’s varied terroir.

Explore culinary traditions shaped by merchants and fishermen—think sweet-and-sour sarde in saor, garden vegetables, and fragrant herbs. The meal captures Venice’s balance of elegance, restraint, and respect for simple, exceptional ingredients.

Stand in awe as you see Michelangelo’s David at the Accademia Gallery, contemplating the marble tension and poised anatomy that define Renaissance mastery. View companion works to appreciate the artist’s evolving technique and vision.

This is one of two included Choice Highlights in Florence, selected instead of the tasting walk. Your visit illuminates the city’s humanist ideals—where classical form, faith, and civic pride found perfect balance in stone.

Join your Travel Director to join your Travel Director on a short stroll to a neighborhood favorite and sample a classic Italian treat. Savor the simple pleasure locals cherish, discovering a neighborhood favorite that reflects daily Florentine life.

This is one of two included Choice Highlights in Florence, selected instead of the Accademia visit. Learn how tradition, quality ingredients, and community pride keep timeless flavors at the heart of the city.

Explore a city frozen in time on a guided tour of Pompeii’s excavations, tracing rutted streets, frescoed villas, and evocative forums beneath brooding Vesuvius. Conclude with a tasting of local specialties that speak to Campania’s fertile volcanic soils.

This Optional Experience is offered at additional cost and bookable on tour. Insightful commentary reveals daily Roman routines, ingenious urban planning, and the 79 CE eruption that preserved it all in ash and memory.

Wander the medieval lanes of San Gimignano, where rival families once built soaring towers above terracotta rooftops. Explore stone archways, quiet piazzas, and panoramic viewpoints that frame Tuscan vineyards and cypress-lined ridges.

This Optional Experience is offered at additional cost and bookable on tour. Your visit uncovers a vivid portrait of wealth, defense, and civic pride in a compact hilltop republic shaped by trade and tradition.

Step inside on a guided visit of the Colosseum, gazing into the exposed hypogeum where lifts and trapdoors once animated the gladiatorial arena. Continue to view the triumphal Arch of Constantine and the storied slopes of Palatine Hill, birthplace of Rome’s imperial legends.

Trace Rome’s layers as you take in the sweeping Circus Maximus, forums, and monumental stones that defined empire and spectacle. Your Local Specialist illuminates engineering feats, political theater, and the daily life that once pulsed through these enduring ruins.

Experience Roman hospitality at its warmest as you meet your local host for a convivial evening around the family table. Savor a home-cooked Roman meal paired with local wine while sharing stories of family and food that reveal everyday life beyond the monuments.

Discover how seasonal produce, treasured recipes, and lively conversation sustain Italy’s culinary traditions. This intimate encounter highlights Rome’s heart—where recipes are heirlooms, friendships form easily, and generosity flavors every course.

Explore the cradle of the Renaissance on a guided stroll to walk Renaissance Florence, standing before the polychrome facade of Florence Cathedral (Duomo), Giotto’s bell tower, and the octagonal baptistery with Ghiberti’s gleaming Gates of Paradise. Continue into the open-air museum of Piazza della Signoria.

Hear how Medici patronage, guild wealth, and artistic rivalry transformed a medieval city into an artistic powerhouse. Marble, fresco, and sculpture surround you as civic pride and sacred art share the same storied squares.

Witness time-honored artistry as specialists witness Florentine leatherwork techniques and display the finesse of gold craftsmanship that made the city famous. In the traditional Santa Croce neighborhood, feel premium hides and examine delicate filigree as artisans explain tools, patterns, and finishes.

Gain insight into guild legacies that fueled Renaissance creativity, where workshops once supplied courts and cathedrals. The scent of tanned leather and the gleam of hand-worked gold reveal Florence’s enduring dedication to beautiful, functional design.

Explore Pisa’s UNESCO-listed heart with a Local Specialist in the Piazza dei Miracoli. Admire the striped marble of the Cathedral, the round majesty of the Baptistery, and the famously tilted Leaning Tower rising in graceful arcades against the Tuscan sky.

Hear how maritime wealth built this Pisan Romanesque ensemble of white stone and carved columns. From sculpted portals to harmonious proportions, the square’s serene lawns and luminous facades celebrate a city that once commanded the seas.

Discover the epicenter of Catholic art and power as you visit the Vatican Museums with a Local Specialist, passing classical statuary and the vivid Sistine Chapel where Michelangelo’s frescoes crown the ceiling. Continue into St. Peter’s Basilica to admire the serenity of Michelangelo’s Pietà beneath the church’s vast dome.

Gain a deeper sense of Rome’s Renaissance as papal patronage, grand architecture, and masterworks converge in one extraordinary complex. Marble, mosaic, and gilded stucco surround you while Bernini’s artistry anchors the basilica, offering a powerful encounter with faith, history, and craftsmanship.

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