• 7 Dinner (D)
• 12 Breakfast (B)

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

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

• 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.
• 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: Enjoy a traditional Bistecca alla Fiorentina steak dinner paired with delicious local wine, a specialty not to be missed.
• Lake Maggiore: For your Dine-Around evening, choose from a selection of hand-picked restaurants featuring regional delicacies.
• Lake Iseo: Learn about this historic winery, passed down through the generations, and taste its latest vintages.
• Rome: Enjoy a dinner of delicious Italian cuisine and wine, accompanied by the rich tremolo of some of Italy’s best-loved songs.

Walk Siena’s honey-colored lanes into Piazza del Campo, Europe’s great medieval stage. See the playful Fountain of Joy and admire the black-and-white striped cathedral dominating a skyline shaped by merchant wealth and civic pride.

Uncover stories of the Palio horse race, when contrade flags and drumbeats animate the brick-paved shell. Sienese Gothic architecture, devotional art, and a compact, walkable core reveal the city’s centuries-long rivalry with Florence—and its fiercely preserved identity.

Join a guided stroll through the city’s Renaissance heart, pausing at the Duomo and Baptistery to contemplate Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise and Giotto’s campanile. Continue into Piazza della Signoria, where palaces and statuary chart Florence’s turbulent civic story.

Hear how Medici patronage fueled breakthroughs in art, science, and architecture. Between artisan workshops and elegant piazzas, Florence’s streets become an open-air museum of proportion, perspective, and humanist ambition.

Elect to enter the Accademia Gallery and stand beside Michelangelo’s ‘David’, a marble colossus carved with anatomical precision and heroic poise. Study the unfinished ‘Prisoners’, figures struggling to emerge from stone.

Discover why David became a symbol of Florentine liberty and artistic genius in the early 1500s. This choice is included as part of your Florence experience; you may alternatively select the Local Treat Stroll.

Join your Travel Director on a relaxed neighborhood walk to a spot locals cherish. Sample a classic Italian treat—perhaps a flaky pastry or artigianal gelato—while hearing how such flavors anchor daily routines in Florence’s cafes and bakeries.

This included choice reveals the rhythm of Florentine life beyond the monuments, celebrating local spots loved by residents and the flavors locals grow up with. Alternatively, choose the Accademia Gallery visit.

Observe a live demonstration of traditional leatherwork and gold craftsmanship, techniques refined over centuries in Florence’s workshops. Watch tools crease, burnish, and emboss, as artisans explain materials and meticulous finishing.

Rooted in medieval guilds and the legacy of Ponte Vecchio goldsmiths, these skills remain hallmarks of Florentine quality. Gain practical insight into choosing fine pieces and supporting authentic craft traditions.

Visit the Piazza dei Miracoli to see the lurching Leaning Tower of Pisa beside the Romanesque cathedral and baptistery. Your orientation highlights the harmony of arcaded marble, blind arches, and inlaid stonework.

Hear how centuries of subsidence created the tower’s tilt and why Pisa’s heyday still resonates in the square’s serene geometry. Galileo’s experiments and Pisan seafaring lore add layers to this photogenic ensemble.

Join the Italian tradition of la passeggiata along Lake Maggiore’s promenade as evening light settles over the water. Stroll past Belle Époque facades and gardens, pausing to soak in the lakeside atmosphere with a gelato or glass of wine.

This gentle ritual invites unhurried conversation, people-watching, and lake views framed by Alpine foothills—a cultural snapshot as illuminating as any museum visit.

Savor a curated Dine-Around evening, choosing from hand-picked restaurants that showcase regional cooking. Settle in for courses paired with local wines as hosts share the origins of cherished recipes.

Expect lake-influenced fare and Piedmont-Lombardy flavors, from delicate freshwater fish to rich risotti. The focus is on regional delicacies and convivial hospitality, turning dinner into an immersion in northern Italian tastes.

Visit a family-run estate near Lake Iseo to explore vineyards and vaulted cellars before you taste Franciacorta wines made by the traditional metodo classico. Learn how time on lees shapes texture and delicate mousse.

Franciacorta’s glacial moraines and cool breezes favor refined sparkling wines with orchard fruit and brioche notes. Meeting the makers at a family-owned estate reveals generations of craft in a landscape of soft hills.

Travel by private boat along the Giudecca Canal to arrive at the heart of La Serenissima. Glide past waterside palazzi and landmarks including the Doge’s Palace and St Mark’s Square, and pause at the storied Bridge of Sighs.

Approaching Venice as Venetians do—by water—reveals the city’s maritime soul and theatrical skyline of domes, campanili, and stone filigree, setting the tone for deeper exploration.

Witness the ancient skill of glassblowing as masters coax incandescent glass into elegant forms. Hear about furnaces, pigments, and toolwork while observing techniques preserved for centuries.

Rooted in Murano’s guild traditions, this craft—using styles such as filigrana and sommerso—survives thanks to a handful of master craftsmen. Watching artistry take shape offers a rare window into Venice’s artisan heritage and centuries-old techniques.

Glide on a gondola as oar strokes echo along narrow rii and beneath arched bridges. A gentle serenade accompanies views of hidden courtyards and stone-moored palaces reflected in romantic canals.

This quintessential Venetian moment slows the city to the rhythm of water, revealing centuries of life lived at canal level and the artistry of the gondoliers’ craft.

Visit the serene Church of St. Mary of the Angels at the foot of Mount Subasio, then continue with a Local Specialist to the Basilica of St Francis, a layered complex of devotion and art.

See the tiny Porziuncola chapel beloved by Francis and study the luminous Giotto frescoes narrating the saint’s life. Medieval stone lanes, pilgrims’ footsteps, and Umbrian vistas complete the spiritual atmosphere.

Cruise by jetfoil to Capri across sapphire waters, then ride the funicular to Capri town for whitewashed lanes, boutiques, and cafe life. Ascend to Anacapri views for sweeping panoramas toward Mount Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples.

From Roman emperors to star-studded summers, Capri’s limestone cliffs and fragrant lemon groves have long lured travelers. Your Local Specialist shares island lore amid breezes scented with Mediterranean maquis.

Walk the cobbled streets of Pompeii with a Local Specialist to explore villas, shops, and baths halted by the AD 79 eruption. Read everyday life in paving-stone ruts and household shrines.

Admire colorful frescoes that survived beneath ash and learn how sudden catastrophe preserved a Roman city’s habits, hierarchy, and ingenuity around the Forum and baths.

Raise a glass at a convivial finale where dinner with wine is paired with a private performance of operetta. Musicians fill the room with Italian arias and Neapolitan songs as courses celebrate Roman flavors.

This cultured send-off captures the city’s theatrical spirit, blending cuisine, voice, and strings into a joyous close to your Italian journey.

Sit down in Florence for a classic feast featuring Bistecca alla Fiorentina, the city’s revered T-bone, seared over charcoal and shared in generous cuts. Expect thoughtful pairings with local wines and rustic sides.

Steak culture here reflects Tuscan simplicity—exceptional ingredients, fire, and timing. Stories of Chianina cattle and neighborhood trattorie round out this flavor-driven immersion.

Choose an afternoon excursion to San Gimignano, where stone lanes open onto vistas pricked by medieval towers. Explore artisan boutiques and sample a local delicacy that speaks to Tuscan tradition. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Hear how rival families once competed skyward and why the walled hill town earned UNESCO status. Its saffron, cured meats, and vernaccia wines shape a distinctive local palate.

Opt for a convivial evening featuring a traditional Tuscan dinner paired with local wines. Expect seasonal antipasti, handmade pasta, and slow-braised specialties served in a warm, rustic setting. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Hosts share recipes and provenance, highlighting farm-to-table traditions and the role of olive oil, herbs, and simplicity in Tuscan cooking.

Set out along the famed Amalfi Drive to the cliff-side village of Positano, where pastel houses cascade to a pebbly shore. Wander boutiques and viewpoints on one of Europe’s most scenic coastal routes. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Hear tales of seafaring republics and road engineering that clings to limestone cliffs, revealing hidden coves and brilliant sea light.

Choose a flavorful evening in Sorrento with a regional dining experience that celebrates Bay of Naples classics—think handmade pasta, local seafood, and bright citrus notes—paired with Campanian wines. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Menus often nod to limoncello and centuries of coastal agriculture, capturing Sorrento’s relaxed, cliff-top charm.

Insight Vacations

Discover the papal collections on a curated journey with a Local Specialist, pausing at galleries of antiquities and Renaissance masterworks before you visit the Vatican Museums. Conclude in the Sistine Chapel to admire Michelangelo’s ceiling and Last Judgment—an intimate encounter with the pinnacle of High Renaissance art.

Trace centuries of papal collections that shaped European taste, from classical sculpture to Raphael’s frescoes. On rare occasions, the visit may be re-routed to the Capitoline Museums, where iconic Roman art and archaeology deepen your sense of the ancient world.

Explore Rome’s storied heart on a guided panoramic orientation that frames the city’s imperial drama. See the sweep of the Circus Maximus, the triumphal Arch of Constantine, and the mighty Colosseum from evocative viewpoints beneath the Palatine Hill.

Hear how emperors staged spectacles for the masses, how victory was carved into stone, and how Rome’s topography still tells a 2,000-year story. It’s a vivid snapshot of the Eternal City’s grandeur, ideal for photos and historical context.