ItalyTourTravel

Deluxe Italy by Rail

Perfect for those who want flexibility in their dining options and time to leisurely explore each city. This deluxe escorted tour includes sightseeing tours of Venice, Florence and Rome and first class train transportation between cities

Hotels

• Private Baths
• American breakfast daily, including bacon and eggs
• All baggage handling, hotel taxes, hotel service charges
• All gratuities for hotel and restaurant personnel

Tour Perks

• One dinner with wine at the Deluxe Hotel Danieli in Venice
• Inter-city transportation via first class rail
• All sightseeing and excursions described featuring a visit to the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel
• Professional Tour Directors and licensed local guides
• Personalized, worry-free and fully escorted

Tour Itinerary

Day 1
You’re off to Italy for the adventure of a lifetime.

Day 2
Upon arrival at Venice airport your tour director is on hand to greet you. Soon you are comfortably settled down at your hotel. The rest of the day is to relax.

On his first view of Venice, Thomas Coryate wrote: "The most glorious and heavenly show upon the water that ever any mortal eye beheld."

There is no normal life in Venice. Here, everything and everyone floats. Not only the gondolas, launches, barges and vaporettos, but also the buildings and the people float. One floats luxuriously with such a sense of freedom, never tormented by traffic or even disturbed by the sound of a horn. It is this "floatingness" which is the essential quality of Venice.

Day 3
New York has 5th Avenue, Paris its Champs Elysees, but Venice tops them all with its Grand Canal - the great water road filled with gondolas, motorboats and peppermint stick boat moorings! Your guide will show you all the sights - St. Mark’s Square (the "drawing room" of Europe), the magnificent Basilica, and the Bridge of Sighs. Of compelling interest is our visit to the extraordinary Doge’s Palace - the remarkable seat of Venetian power, among the finest examples of Gothic Art anywhere in the world...

Dinner with wine at the famous dining room of the Hotel Danieli. Deep in the evening, stop for a Campari at the fashionable Florian Café - and sip while listening to a band concert in the moonlight.

Day 4
This morning we’re off to Florence by First Class train.
The Florentines are a unique lot! A Genovese could persuade Isabella to finance his expedition to the Americas but it took a Florentine by the name of Amerigo Vespucci to get the country named after himself!

In Florence, you’ll be staying at the Deluxe Villa Medici Hotel, among the best in all Florence. Your tour guide will be glad to suggest restaurants and activities for this evening.

Day 5
Florence - the fountainhead of the Renaissance - city of Dante, Boccaccio, Botticelli and Da Vinci. Enjoy a breathtaking panorama of the city atop Piazzale Michelangelo, followed by a tour of the Academy of Fine Arts where Michelangelo’s proud "David" stands. We’ll visit the majestic Cathedral built in 1296, Giotto’s Bell Tower and the Baptistery with its renowned "Gates of Paradise" doors. We follow the medieval streets to the most striking square in Florence, Piazza della Signoria and then to Santa Croce Church, Michelangelo’s final resting place

Day 6
A full day free in Florence is to be at the gates of two paradises.

A paradise for art lovers to explore the greatest treasury of art and culture of the Western World.

And a shopper’s paradise: countless little shops laden with jewelry of Florentine gold and silver, exquisite leather goods, chic fashion houses and everyone’s favorite - the straw market.

Day 7
Andiamo a Roma, the Eternal City... One of the greatest centers of Western Civilization and the first truly cosmopolitan city on earth! The rest of the day is to relax... Your tour guide will be glad to suggest restaurants and activities this evening.

Day 8
We are enthralled by our privately guided tour of the Vatican Museums - a group of impressive edifices with hundreds of rooms, halls, galleries, libraries and chapels overflowing with art treasures; the most beautiful of which is the overwhelming Sistine Chapel - Michelangelo’s masterpiece!

This afternoon we enter the largest church in hristendom - St. Peter’s Basilica. We marvel at Michelangelo’s Pietà and Bernini’s amazing bronze canopy.

Back on the coach, we enjoy a panoramic city tour viewing Castel St. Angelo and Largo Argentina - where Julius Caesar met his fate at the hands of Brutus. See the most important of the seven hills of Rome, the Capitoline - home of Jupiter, Marcello’s Theater and the Jewish Ghetto. We are awed by the view of the ancient Imperial Palaces atop the Palatine Hill overlooking the Circus Maximus, where the Rape of the Sabines occurred.

We’re back on foot to view the Arch of Titus and one of the best preserved Roman structures - the Arch of Constantine. You’ll almost hear the roar of the lions as we enter the Colosseum and imagine the brutal entertainment of the Romans. Next we view the Roman Forum, Trajan’s Column and the astounding "Wedding Cake" Monument to Victor Emmanuel in Piazza Venezia. What a day!

Day 9
A leisure day in Rome offers a gigantic cornucopia of possibilities. You can go back to sights you have already seen or explore new paths.

You can browse streets brimming with the latest in fashion and crafts, linger at outside cafes watching the world go by, visit museums, stroll the cobblestone streets, fountain by fountain by fountain!

Day 10

This morning we jet home laden with photographs, happy memories and new found friends. We do hope you return soon and kindly tell your friends about us. By the way, you must try our magnificent Hawaiian and new Spanish vacations. For now, a very warm Arrivederci!
 

  *Land only rates include everything but airfare and transfers. Triple rates are the same as double rates.