• Round trip scheduled air transportation
• 11 Meals (3 dinners, 1 lunch and 7 breakfasts)
• Round trip airport transfers in Italy
• Spend three nights in Rome
• Welcome reception
• Panoramic sightseeing tour of Rome including Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps
• Visit Villa d'Este and its beautiful gardens in Tivoli and enjoy an evening of food, wine and music
• Guided tour of medieval Siena and visit the Piazza del Campo
• Enjoy four nights in Italy's Tuscany region
• Private cooking class in a Tuscan villa with a Italian chef and lunch
• Visit medieval Lucca and see its white-marbled Duomo
• Pisa with its legendary Leaning Tower

Optional Excursions Available:

• Attend a Papal audience with Pope Benedict XVI and tour Vatican City
• Tour historic Florence and visit the Accademia

Day One
• Transatlantic flight to Italy

Day Two
• Arrive in Rome with included group transfer to your hotel
• Welcome reception
Your Italian adventure begins as you are greeted at the airport by an experienced Tour Manager who will make your tour both carefree and enlightening. Enjoy a panoramic tour of the Eternal City’s most famous sites from the 2,000-year-old Coliseum and marbled forums of conquering Caesars to the famous Trevi Fountain and the Church of St. Peter in Chains to see Michaleangelo’s statue of Moses. Pass ancient Roman walls, elegant Renaissance palaces, Baroque churches and trattorias with fashionably dressed outdoor diners. Everywhere you look you will see another fantastic fountain, each designed to catch the breath as past generations caught buckets of water from spouting fish and mythological creatures. After this trip through time, check into your hotel in a charming neighborhood close to Vatican City and just minutes away from Rome’s historic center.
Relax, unpack and plan your afternoon. Perhaps you will take the Metro to the Forum to see the world’s first Senate building and walk cobbled streets still marked with chariot tracks. Or maybe you will go to Piazza Navona, the heart of the Renaissance with three glorious fountains, or to Trastevere, the arty part of town where serpentine lanes lead to piazzas with large fountains and little shops. By the time the welcome party begins at your hotel, nearly everyone will have had a gelato, the world famous Italian ice cream. Comparing flavors can be as interesting as comparing the afternoon’s adventures.

Day Three
• Breakfast at your hotel
• Tour of the “Eternal City”
• Visit Tivoli and Villa d’Este
• Italian dinner with wine and music in the lovely village of Tivoli
The next morning, explore more of Rome on your own before boarding our motorcoach to the historic hill town of Tivoli where walls raised in 400 BC still aspire to protect the citizens and 200 BC temples remind us of forgotten pagan gods. We step into the Renaissance through the doors of Villa d’Este built in the 1550s for the son of Lucretia Borgia. Lavishly frescoed reception rooms are just a prelude to the garden of greenery and 500 fantastic fountains from a miniature reproduction of Rome to the gigantic Water Organ that cascades musically into shady pools. Our delicious dinner in Tivoli with wine and music is traditionally Italian with many courses leisurely served.

Day Four
• Breakfast at your hotel
• Rome on your own or join an optional Vatican City tour including the Sistine Chapel and public audience with Pope Benedict XVI
The next day is devoted to an optional Vatican City tour, where you are invited to a public audience with Pope Benedict XVI. Visit the Vatican Museum containing some of the world’s greatest sculpture, famous paintings from every era, rooms decorated by Raphael for a papal apartment and ending in the Sistine Chapel with Michelangelo’s breathtaking frescos on the ceiling. Together, we marvel at the treasures of St. Peter’s Basilica and the unique features of Christianity’s largest church and its colonnades reaching out to embrace the faithful.


Day Five
• Breakfast at your hotel
• Tour Siena and its Cathedral
• Visit Piazza del Campo, site of the world-famous Palio horse race
• Check into your hotel in Montecatini
• Dinner of Tuscan specialties with your traveling companions
We move on to Siena, passing ancient hill towns, olive groves and vineyards to one of Italy's best-preserved medieval towns filled with marble churches and Gothic architecture. Strolling through Piazza del Campo we may hear the echo of 900 years of pounding hooves as this is home to the Palio, the annual two-minute gallop that draws people from all over the world. Our hotel for the next four nights is in the popular resort town of Montecatini with 14th-century baths and timeless Tuscan vistas, including a funicular tram that swoops you up for a bird’s eye view.

Day Six
• Breakfast at your hotel
• Tuscan produce market
• Cooking lessons in Tuscan villa with lunch that we prepare
We take a break from sightseeing to learn the secrets of Tuscan cuisine by accompanying an accomplished chef to the market to select the freshest ingredients. In their villa kitchen, they will share secrets of Italian cooking and teach us how to prepare the memorable Tuscan meal we enjoy together before an afternoon at leisure.

Day Seven
• Breakfast at your hotel
• Tour medieval town of Lucca
• Tour Pisa and visit the Leaning Tower
Tucked into the hills we find the unspoiled medieval village of Lucca and enjoy its sprinkling of palaces, towers and splendid churches all within an easy walk. Then on to see Pisa’s 900-year-old cathedral and its incredible Leaning Tower. An optional tour of Florence takes us back to the Renaissance and its art and history studded with household names like Michelangelo, da Vinci and the Medicis.

Day Eight
• Breakfast at your hotel
• Optional excursion to Florence or day at leisure
• Farewell dinner in Tuscany
A Florentine delight is choosing what to do first while enjoying a cappuccino at an outdoor table. Purchase leather goods handcrafted by artisans, stroll the Ponte Vecchio that gleams with gold and has spanned the picturesque Arno River since the 1300s, find artistic treasures you have always wanted to see, explore marbled churches, or venture down the little lanes to the homes of Dante and Michelangelo and the studio of Leonardo da Vinci.

Day Nine
• Breakfast at your hotel
• Group transfer to Florence Airport for flights home
Departing this delightful country, you will understand why one Italian phrase is so often repeated: non basta una vita – one lifetime is not enough.

Hotel Accommodations
Days Two through Four - Grand Hotel Palazzo Carpegna, Rome, Italy
Days Five through Eight – Hotel Cristallino, Montecatini Terme, Italy

All rates are in US Dollars.

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