Choose your preferred restaurant from a selection offered for Lucerne’s Dine-Around Evening. Pick the setting and cuisine that appeal to you for a more personal dining experience in this Swiss lakeside city.

Rather than gathering around a single set menu, the evening lets you shape the atmosphere of your meal. It is a chance to enjoy conversation over dinner while experiencing Lucerne’s varied restaurant scene.

• 3 Dinner (D)
• 10 Breakfast (B)
• 2 Lunch (L)

• Tuscany: Be welcomed like an honored guest at historic Fattoria di Bagnolo as a member of the noble Bartolini Baldelli family opens the doors to their Tuscan home. Discover a legacy stretching back nearly a thousand years, from Machiavelli’s era to today, as you explore the villa, vineyards and atmospheric cellars, up close and personal with those who call it home.
• Vatican City: Visit the Vatican Museums and witness the genius of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel.

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

Insight Vacations

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

Share a welcome dinner with your Travel Director and fellow travellers at a local restaurant in Venice. Taste Venetian fare in the city where seafood, lagoon produce and centuries of trading connections have shaped the cuisine.

The evening offers a chance to settle into Venice’s after-dark atmosphere, when the canals grow quieter and illuminated facades reflect on the water. It is an introduction to both the city and the people travelling with you.

Travel by boat along the Giudecca Canal as your Travel Director introduces Venice from the water. Look towards the Doge’s Palace and St. Mark’s Square while passing palazzi built across several centuries of the Venetian Republic.

Arriving by boat reveals the relationship between the city’s architecture and its lagoon setting. Waterfront entrances, stone facades and busy waterways offer a perspective that Venice’s narrow streets cannot provide.

Explore St. Mark’s Square, Venice’s ceremonial centre, and view the ornate exterior of St. Mark’s Basilica. See the Clock Tower, the towering Campanile and the Doge’s Palace, once the seat of government of the Venetian Republic.

Look for the nearby Bridge of Sighs, which connects the palace to the former prisons. Together, these landmarks tell the story of a maritime power whose political life and public pageantry centred on the square.

Watch Venetian glass artisans at work in a traditional workshop. See how molten glass is shaped into delicate forms using practiced movements and tools, and learn about the skills required to control this demanding material.

Venice’s glassmaking heritage stretches back centuries and is closely associated with the lagoon island of Murano. A workshop visit brings that history into focus through the heat of the furnace and the precision of the craftsperson’s hands.

Meet a member of the Bartolini Baldelli family at Fattoria di Bagnolo, their historic estate in the Chianti hills. Explore the villa, vineyards and cellars while hearing how the property evolved through generations, including its revival as a summer residence in 1852.

Taste estate wines paired with the family’s olive oil amid views of the Tuscan countryside. The personal welcome connects the flavours in your glass to the land and the people who tend it.

Explore the Vatican Museums with a Local Expert using fast-track entry. View art collected by successive popes, including classical sculpture and works by Raphael, before entering the Sistine Chapel to see Michelangelo’s ceiling frescoes.

Continue to St. Peter’s Basilica to admire Michelangelo’s Pietà and the great dome he designed. Access can be restricted on some departures; if Vatican Museums tickets are unavailable, the visit instead features the Capitoline Museums. Basilica access is also subject to availability.

Stand before the Colosseum and walk around the exterior of ancient Rome’s vast amphitheatre. Hear about its construction, history and legends while studying the tiers of arches that have become an enduring symbol of the city.

Built in the first century CE, the arena once held enormous crowds for public spectacles. Seeing its surviving stonework at close range offers a sense of the scale and engineering of imperial Rome; this experience does not include entry inside.

Meet Chef Lorenzo at his family farm in Umbria for an entertaining demonstration of Italian pasta-making. Watch the techniques behind a familiar staple and enjoy a prepared lunch accompanied by Orvieto Classico wine.

Umbria’s cooking is rooted in seasonal ingredients and rural traditions. The farm setting makes this more than a meal: it is a chance to connect the food on the table with the people and countryside that produce it.

Explore Florence with a Local Expert and view the marble-clad cathedral, its bell tower and the Baptistery, whose doors include Ghiberti’s celebrated Gates of Paradise. Visit Piazza della Signoria, the city’s historic political centre and an open-air setting for Renaissance sculpture.

The buildings and square reveal how civic power, religious patronage and artistic ambition shaped Florence. This guided visit focuses on the landmarks’ exteriors and the stories visible in the city’s public spaces.

Discover the Santa Croce neighbourhood in Florence and see local craftspeople demonstrate gold and leatherwork. Observe the care and dexterity behind goods for which the city has long been known.

Near the historic Basilica of Santa Croce, workshops remain part of Florence’s living artisan culture. Watching materials worked by hand offers a perspective on the city beyond its Renaissance monuments: a tradition of skilled making that continues in its streets today.

See Lucerne’s Lion Monument, carved into a rock face in memory of Swiss Guards killed during the French Revolution. Stroll across the covered Chapel Bridge and view the baroque Jesuit Church beside the River Reuss.

These landmarks bring different chapters of Lucerne’s past into a compact lakeside setting. The timber bridge evokes the medieval town, while the Lion Monument’s quiet setting gives its story of loss particular weight.

Ride the open-top CabriO cable car towards Mount Stanserhorn’s summit, feeling the Alpine air as peaks and valleys open below. Walk scenic summit paths and take in wide views that, in clear conditions, can reach towards Alsace and Germany’s Black Forest.

Keep watch for marmots and other native wildlife. There may also be an opportunity to hear a Swiss ranger discuss local plants and animals. The visit supports a conservation-focused approach to experiencing the mountain.

Discover Paris on a panoramic sightseeing tour with a Local Expert. See the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Élysées, and take in Place de la Concorde, the Louvre’s facades, Notre-Dame Cathedral and the bridges of the Seine.

Hear how the city’s grand avenues and riverside landmarks reflect centuries of monarchy, revolution and artistic life. Place de la Concorde, once a site of executions during the French Revolution, lends historical depth to its elegant surroundings.

Enjoy dinner at L’Alsace in Paris with your fellow travellers. Sit down to French cuisine in a restaurant on the Champs-Élysées, one of the capital’s best-known avenues.

The meal offers time to share stories around the table while experiencing the city’s lively dining culture. With Parisian streets close at hand, the setting gives this included dinner a distinct sense of place rather than making it simply an end-of-day meal.

Cruise across the Venetian lagoon to Burano for a possible visit to the island’s brightly painted streets and a meal featuring local specialities and wine. The boat journey offers a view of the lagoon beyond Venice’s central waterways.

Burano is known for its colourful fishing-island character and lacemaking heritage. This is a suggested optional experience, at additional cost and bookable on tour; your Travel Director can advise on available arrangements.

Visit Pisa to see the Leaning Tower during your time in Florence, subject to an optional excursion being available. Admire the tower’s distinctive tilt and the surrounding cathedral complex in Piazza dei Miracoli.

The marble bell tower began to lean during construction because of unstable ground, giving a medieval architectural project its world-famous profile. This suggested visit is at additional cost and bookable on tour; tower entry is not specified as part of the experience.

Ride through the countryside by horse-drawn carriage on a suggested outing from Lucerne. Enjoy a slower view of the rural landscape and the possibility of meeting local farmers along the way.

The experience offers a contrast to Lucerne’s lakeside streets, bringing you closer to the agricultural traditions of central Switzerland. It is an optional activity at additional cost and bookable on tour, subject to the arrangements available during your stay.

Experience a Paris cabaret show during a free evening, subject to availability. Settle in for an evening of staged entertainment in a city with a longstanding tradition of music, dance and theatrical nightlife.

Parisian cabaret grew from the city’s lively late-19th-century entertainment scene and remains a distinctive way to spend an evening in the capital. This suggested experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; the venue and programme are not specified.