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

• Rome: During an orientation with your Travel Director see the medieval buildings, Renaissance palaces and Baroque churches scattered throughout the city.
• Rome: Enjoy an after-hours visit to the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin. Get up close to the legendary Mouth of Truth, an ancient Roman marble mask said to bite any liar who places their hand in the mask’s mouth. Dare to test the legend yourself and take one of the city’s most coveted photos.
• Rome: In the Vatican City visit St. Peter’s Basilica. Witness the early genius of Michelangelo as you take in the Pietà.
• Rome: Experience Rome through the eyes of a local, as a passionate Roman guides you past the city’s most iconic sites.
• Rome: Be inspired by the magnificence of Michelangelo and Botticelli at the Vatican Museums.
• Lucca: Your sightseeing tour with a Local Specialist will show you the churches, squares and palaces within the medieval ramparts.
• Cinque Terre: Led by your Local Specialist, visit this unique UNESCO World Heritage Site, tucked away on the mountainous Italian Riviera coastline. Admire the charming fishing villages and perhaps snap some memorable pictures.
• Pisa: In the Piazza dei Miracoli, see the baptistery, cathedral and the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa.
• San Gimignano: Visit the medieval Manhattan of Italy as you explore the UNESCO-listed center of San Gimignano and admire the city’s distinctive towers. 
• Florence: Join a Local Specialist to view the multicolored marble cathedral, bell tower and baptistery, adorned by Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise. Visit the political heart of the city, Signoria Square.
• Florence: See the area around Santa Croce Basilica, famous for the quality of its luxury goods, and witness a gold and leatherwork demonstration.
• Verona: During an exploration of Verona, admire the remarkably preserved Roman Arena and the city’s beautiful Piazza Bra.
• Venice: Discover the ancient skill of Venetian glassblowing and play a part in preserving this traditional craft.
• Bologna: View Bologna’s famed Kissing Towers and enjoy some time at leisure in this historic university city. 
• Assisi: With a Local Specialist, find out why the Basilica of St. Francis is considered to be one of the crowning artistic achievements of 13th-century Europe.
• Tivoli: Join a Local Specialist on a sightseeing tour of Tivoli and the gardens of Villa d’Este. 

• Deluxe coach travel
• Selected hotel dinners plus a locally hosted meal
• 4-star stays

Trafalgar

Discover the Eternal City on an orientation drive with your Travel Director, taking in Rome’s layers of medieval buildings, Renaissance palaces and Baroque churches. It is an introduction to a capital shaped by more than two millennia of history.

Look out for the contrasts that define Rome, where ancient remains share busy streets with later monuments and everyday neighbourhood life. Your Travel Director provides context for the sights and the city’s enduring place in Italian culture.

Visit the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin after hours for a quieter encounter with the Mouth of Truth. This ancient marble mask is the subject of a Roman legend: it is said to bite the hand of anyone who tells a lie.

Explore the church and crypt, and see relics associated with St Valentine. The private visit offers time to appreciate a historic place of worship as well as the much-photographed face set into its portico.

Explore the Vatican Museums with a Local Specialist and look up at Michelangelo’s frescoed Sistine Chapel ceiling. Inside St Peter’s Basilica, see his Pietà, a marble sculpture of Mary holding Christ that reveals the artist’s skill at an early age.

The visit brings together centuries of papal collecting, Renaissance art and one of Christianity’s most significant churches. Access may be restricted on some departures; if Vatican Museums tickets are unavailable, the Capitoline Museums are visited instead.

Explore Ancient Rome with a local guide, seeing the site of the Circus Maximus before visiting the Colosseum. The surviving amphitheatre gives a sense of the scale of the public spectacles that once drew crowds from across the Roman world.

Hear how these spaces formed part of daily and ceremonial life in the imperial capital. The Circus Maximus recalls Rome’s chariot-racing tradition, while the Colosseum remains a striking feat of Roman engineering.

Walk through Lucca with a Local Specialist, discovering the churches, squares and palaces enclosed by its medieval ramparts. Admire San Martino Cathedral and step into Piazza dell’Anfiteatro, whose oval outline follows the footprint of a Roman arena.

Lucca’s streets reveal a city that has adapted older structures rather than erasing them. Its preserved walls and intimate piazzas make the layers of Roman and medieval history visible at a walking pace.

Take a scenic cruise along the Cinque Terre coast and explore its fishing villages with a Local Specialist. From the water, see pastel-coloured houses clustered against steep Ligurian hillsides; ashore, discover the narrow lanes and daily life of this coastal community.

This UNESCO World Heritage landscape reflects generations of work to cultivate difficult terrain above the sea. Its compact settlements, terraces and harbours offer a distinctive view of life on the Italian Riviera.

Visit Pisa’s Piazza dei Miracoli to view the Leaning Tower alongside the cathedral and baptistery. The three marble monuments stand within a broad, grassy square, making their forms and the tower’s unmistakable tilt easy to appreciate.

This UNESCO-listed ensemble grew from Pisa’s medieval wealth and maritime influence. Seeing the buildings together reveals an ambitious civic and religious complex, rather than a tower standing alone.

Explore the UNESCO-listed centre of San Gimignano, a Tuscan hill town known for the stone towers rising above its medieval streets. Walk among its historic buildings and admire a skyline that has earned it the nickname the ‘medieval Manhattan’.

Wealthy families built the towers as expressions of status and power. Their survival gives the town an unusually vivid medieval character, set against the gentle hills of the surrounding Tuscan countryside.

Meet the Lenzi family at their wine farm overlooking the Chianti Hills for a hosted lunch with wine and olive oil tasting. The family-owned property lies along an ancient route between Siena and Florence.

Hear about the farm while tasting products rooted in this Tuscan landscape. Sharing a meal with your hosts adds a personal dimension to the region’s food and wine traditions, beyond the familiar views of vineyards and rolling hills.

Walk through Florence with a Local Specialist to view the marble-clad Duomo, its bell tower and baptistery. In Piazza della Signoria, see a replica of Michelangelo’s David; admire the Ponte Vecchio and take in the city panorama from Piazzale Michelangelo.

Hear how the Medici helped shape Florence’s artistic legacy. Around the Santa Croce area, watch a gold and leatherwork demonstration that connects the city’s celebrated craftsmanship with skills still practised today.

Explore Verona’s cobbled streets and Piazza Bra, viewing the remarkably preserved Roman Arena. Built in the first century, the amphitheatre remains an active performance venue, including for the opera productions closely associated with the city.

Verona’s Roman heritage sits alongside the romance of the city linked to Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers. The arena’s enduring use makes this more than a glimpse of an ancient monument: it is part of the city’s living cultural life.

Watch Venetian glassblowers at work in a workshop, seeing skilled craftspeople shape heated glass using techniques passed down through generations. The demonstration offers a close view of the precision needed to turn molten material into delicate decorative pieces.

Glassmaking is one of Venice’s defining craft traditions, prized for its colour and intricacy. Observing the process gives meaning to the finished objects seen throughout the city and helps explain why preserving these skills matters.

Cruise by private launch through Venice to see the floating city from the water and reach St Mark’s Square. View the ornate exterior of St Mark’s Basilica, the Doge’s Palace and the Bridge of Sighs among the city’s best-known landmarks.

The waterways reveal how Venice’s buildings and public spaces relate to its lagoon setting. The Bridge of Sighs recalls the route once taken by prisoners from the palace to its prisons, adding a darker note to the splendour of the former republic.

Stop in Bologna to view its Kissing Towers, the leaning medieval towers that appear to incline towards one another. They offer an introduction to the distinctive skyline of this historic university city.

In medieval Bologna, prominent families raised towers as symbols of wealth and influence. Seeing these surviving landmarks brings that competitive past into focus amid the streets and porticoes for which the city is known.

Visit the Basilica of St Francis with a Local Specialist in Assisi, the Umbrian hill town associated with the saint’s life. See frescoes depicting his story and learn why the basilica is regarded as a major achievement of 13th-century European art.

The church’s painted narratives helped communicate Francis’s teachings to generations of pilgrims. Its setting on the slopes of Mount Subasio adds a strong sense of place to an encounter with Assisi’s spiritual and artistic heritage.

Explore Tivoli with a Local Specialist and visit the UNESCO-listed gardens of Villa d’Este. Walk through terraced grounds past bubbling fountains, clipped hedges and statues, with views that make the most of the hillside setting.

Created in the Renaissance, the gardens are celebrated for their elaborate use of water as a feature of landscape design. Their fountains and formal paths express the period’s taste for engineering, artistry and carefully composed outdoor spaces.