Choose a gondola ride in Venice to see the canal city from one of its traditional boats. Gliding at water level offers a quieter perspective on bridges, building facades and the waterways that connect the islands.

Gondolas remain one of Venice’s most recognisable expressions of its maritime heritage. This ride is at additional cost and bookable on tour; the itinerary does not specify a particular canal route or duration.

• 2 Dinner (D)
• 9 Breakfast (B)

• London: A modular trip means fellow travellers will join and leave at various locations. There’ll be some goodbyes, sure, but there’ll also be plenty of hellos with new like-minded travellers.
• Rome: If you require arrangements to be made for your accessibility needs, please inform your Trip Manager as soon as possible. We try our best to contact all accommodations and secure ground floor rooms for easy wheelchair access.Please remember that Italy can be physically challenging to get around. Coaches can’t access historical centers, and there will be lots of walking (on roads that are often uneven and cobbled). Travellers with accessibility needs will find this trip challenging.
• Madrid: Yep. Usually, we arrange a buffet for all your included meals. If you’d like a vegetarian option, please inform your Trip Manager beforehand, and they’ll sort it out for you.
• Rome: This would depend on the museums & attractions you’re planning to visit. If you’d like to know the exact timings, please contact our 24×7 Helpline to access your day-to-day itineraries to check when you’ll have free time in each city.
• Madrid: Of course! Just inform your Trip Manager if you need refrigeration on the coach. Please remember that the fridge is turned off overnight, so you’ll have to take your medication with you into your accommodation. We recommend that you bring a cooler bag with you as a backup. It’s your responsibility to store your medication with care. 

• Rome: Stroll around the Italian capital, ticking off some sights on your bucket list! 
• Rome:  Kick back with your Contiki crew and feast on some yummy Italian cuisine – served at a local restaurant working to train and provide jobs for members of the community with disabilities.  
• Siena: This medieval Tuscan city is packed with charming photo ops. From the Duomo to Piazza del Campo. 
• Florence: See the Duomo, Basilica Santa Croce, Giotto’s Bell Tower, the Baptistery & Piazza della Signoria on a locally guided walking tour of Florence.
• Pisa: Your ultimate chance to ‘hold the tower up’ as you pose for that classic Insta snap. 
• Lucca: Ramble around the cobbled streets of this Renaissance walled city in Tuscany. It’s an Insta post waiting to happen! 
• Cinque Terre National Park: We’ll take care of your rail pass, so you can just zip around the iconic clifftop villages and focus on the Insta stories. Wanna hike around too? You’re welcome to explore on foot along the way.
• Verona: This is the address behind the legendary love story. Visit Juliet’s House and see the spot that turned Verona into a global icon.
• Venice: Speed across the lagoon to the aqueous island of Venice.
• Rome: Wander through the ruins of the ancient Roman Empire’s political heart, while our Local Guide peels back the layers of history & reconstructs the past. From the assassinations at the Forum to the bloody battles in the Colosseum, learn how the roots of Western culture started here. 

Contiki

Explore the Italian capital on an orientation walk through Rome, getting your bearings among its lively streets and historic surroundings. Your Contiki crew helps introduce a city where ancient remains sit alongside neighbourhood cafés and everyday Roman life.

Rome rewards curiosity at street level: a turn into a piazza can reveal a fountain, a church facade or a glimpse of an earlier century. This walk offers a welcoming first look at the city without committing you to a particular museum or monument.

Share an Italian feast at La Trattoria de Gli Amici with your Contiki crew in Rome. This included dinner is a chance to gather around the table, enjoy local cooking and settle into the sociable rhythm of an Italian restaurant.

The meal is a MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® experience: the restaurant works to train and provide jobs for members of the community with disabilities. Your visit supports that mission while making the people behind the food part of the experience.

Use your included unlimited Cinque Terre train ticket to explore the five villages of this Ligurian coastal region at your own pace. Rail connections make it possible to choose the places that interest you, from waterfront lanes to viewpoints over the sea.

The pastel-coloured villages and terraced hillsides reflect generations of life on a steep coastline. You can also explore on foot where routes are open, but walking or hiking is your choice rather than a guided activity.

Experience an optional Tuscan evening built around a risotto demonstration, local wine, antipasto and something sweet to finish. Watch the cooking process and gather around the table for a closer look at the region’s food culture.

The combination of demonstration and shared flavours makes this more than a standard dinner. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; ask your Trip Manager for the available arrangements and price.

Opt for a wine experience at vineyards outside Lucca, leaving the walled city to sample a different side of the Tuscan landscape. Local wines provide a way to explore the area through what it grows and produces.

Tuscany’s wine traditions are closely tied to its varied hills, soils and family-run estates. This vineyard option is at additional cost and bookable on tour; the itinerary does not specify the estate, wines or exact tasting format.

Get out onto Lake Como by boat for a water-level view of its mountain-framed shores. The ride offers a different perspective from the included lakeside visit, with the lake itself becoming the centre of the experience.

Como’s scenery is shaped by the meeting of deep water, steep slopes and settlements along the shore. This boat ride is at additional cost and bookable on tour; the route and duration are not specified in the itinerary.

Leave central Venice on an optional cruise to Burano, an island in the Venetian lagoon known for its brightly coloured houses. The boat journey offers time on the water and a chance to experience a setting beyond Venice’s busiest streets.

Burano is also associated with a longstanding lace-making tradition, giving the island an identity of its own. This cruise is at additional cost and bookable on tour; check with your Trip Manager for its arrangements.

Explore Siena’s UNESCO-listed historic centre, a Tuscan city whose medieval street plan still shapes the experience of walking through it. Look out for the distinctive shell-shaped Piazza del Campo and the richly decorated exterior of Siena Cathedral.

The city’s brick lanes and steep passages preserve the character of a powerful medieval republic. Siena is also home to the Palio, the horse race closely tied to its neighbourhood identities, giving its famous central square a living civic significance.

Discover Florence on a locally guided walking tour linking its most recognisable public landmarks. See the Duomo, Baptistery and Giotto’s Bell Tower, as well as the Basilica of Santa Croce and sculpture-filled Piazza della Signoria.

Your guide places these streets and squares in the context of Florence’s artistic and civic history. From the cathedral’s marble-clad exterior to the former seat of republican government at Palazzo Vecchio, the city’s Renaissance legacy is visible in the spaces people still use today.

Visit Pisa for a look at the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the chance to take the classic perspective photograph. The tower stands in Piazza dei Miracoli, an open square where pale marble monuments contrast with the surrounding lawns.

Built as the cathedral’s bell tower, it began to tilt during construction because of the soft ground beneath its foundations. Its unmistakable lean makes this a memorable sightseeing and photography stop; a climb or ticketed entry is not specified as part of the visit.

Walk the cobbled streets of Lucca, taking in its piazzas, historic cafés and Renaissance-era character. This Tuscan city is especially known for the broad defensive walls that encircle its old centre and help define its compact, walkable feel.

Within the walls, the street pattern opens into intimate squares and passages that invite unhurried exploration. Lucca offers a different perspective on Tuscany from Florence or Siena: a lived-in city where centuries of architecture form the backdrop to daily life.

Pause at Lake Como to take in the water and the scenery that has long drawn visitors to northern Italy. The included visit gives you time to experience the lakeside setting; a boat ride is available separately as an optional activity.

Mountains rise beyond the shores, creating a striking contrast with the elegant towns and villas associated with the lake. Even from land, its broad views offer a change of pace from Italy’s dense historic city centres.

Visit Juliet’s House in Verona, the address closely associated with the city’s most famous love story. See the setting that has made Verona a destination for readers and theatregoers drawn to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

The tale is fictional, but its connection to Verona has become part of the city’s cultural identity. This stop focuses on seeing the landmark; interior admission is not specified. Beyond the story, Verona’s historic streets preserve the atmosphere of an important northern Italian city.

Board a private boat across the Venetian lagoon to reach Venice’s historic heart by water. Watch the city take shape as the crossing replaces roads with canals and delivers you into its distinctive island setting.

Venice grew around its waterways, so arriving by boat offers an immediate sense of how the city works. The crossing is included; a gondola ride and a cruise to Burano are separate optional experiences.

Explore Bologna’s centre and its UNESCO-listed porticoes, the covered walkways that give the city’s streets their distinctive rhythm. This stop offers a chance to look around and seek out local specialities independently; a hosted tasting is not specified.

Known as La Grassa, “the Fat One”, Bologna is celebrated for foods including mortadella and ragù. Its porticoes are more than a picturesque backdrop: they have sheltered public life, shops and pedestrians for centuries.

Explore the heart of ancient Rome with a Local Guide, uncovering the stories of the Roman Forum and Colosseum. Hear how public life, political power and gladiatorial spectacle shaped the capital of the Roman Empire.

Your guide brings context to the surviving ruins, from the Forum’s role as a civic centre to the Colosseum’s place in Roman entertainment. The itinerary describes a guided tour, but does not specify which monuments include interior admission.