Venezia, Firenze, Roma!
8 DAYS
Venice Lido 2 • Florence 2 • Rome 2
Basic Inclusions
Accommodations
Accommodations in centrally-located three-star or four-star hotels. Rooming on a triple basis. Double rooms: $50 per night, per person.
Meals
All breakfasts. All dinners. Dinner with entertainment at Le Terme del Colosseo on Day 7.
Transportation
Round-trip transportation on scheduled airline. All public transportation tickets included where applicable.
Guide
Services of a specially-trained passports Tour Director throughout. All tips are included in the Program Cost. Whisper headsets included.
Travel Protection
Passports provides and pays for a Post Departure Travel Protection Plan that includes coverage for Trip Interruption, Trip Delay, Medical Expense and Evacuation and more.
Tour Summary
Itinerary Includes
Unlimited public transportation
Days 1-2: Arrival Venice Lido
Boatbus to/from the airport
Day 3: Venice - Venice Lido
Venice Guided Walking Tour: Round-trip water bus to St. Mark's Square, Local Guide, Glassblowing demonstration, Grand Canal boat ride
Day 4: Venice - Florence
Boatbus, High-speed train Venice-Florence, Arrival transfer
Guided walking tour in Florence: Local guide, Visit to the Accademia, Visit to the nave of Florence's Duomo (time permitting), Visit to the church of Santa Croce and its Pazzi Chapel, Stop at Leonardo's Leather Workshop (time permitting)
Day 5: Florence
Excursion to Pisa: Photo stop at the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Visit to Pisa's Duomo
Day 6: Florence - Rome
Departure transfer, High-speed train Florence-Rome, Arrival transfer
Visits to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum: 24-hour public transportation pass in Rome, Local guide, Headset receiver
Visit to the Pantheon
Stroll on Piazza Navona
Day 7: Rome
Visit to the Vatican Museums: Local guide, Headset receiver for the Vatican sites, Visit to the Sistine Chapel, Visit to St. Peter's Basilica, 24-hour public transportation pass in Rome
Dinner with entertainment at Le Terme del Colosseo
Day 8: Departure
Departure transfer
UNPARALLELED STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE
But, what’s it really like?
Detailed Itinerary
Days 1-2: Arrival
A dream comes true as your wide-bodied jet thunders off the airstrip, Europe-bound. Time for a meal, a movie and a nap. Then it gets light again, first off the left-hand side of the airplane, then everywhere. It's morning, and Italy!
Relax or start exploring the "Pearl of the Adriatic." Remember Marco Polo, who set out from this magnificent harbor in 1271, at the age of 18, on a fantastic journey to Asia.
Overnight: Venice Lido
Day 3: Venice Guided Walking Tour
After a water bus ride to the greatest square in the West, Piazza San Marco, enjoy a walking tour led by a local guide. You will see the Doges' Palace and St. Mark's Basilica.
Head to the Rialto area to visit the nooks and crannies of Old Venice and the lively Rialto Market.
A half-day local guide, well-educated and specially-trained on the history and culture of Venice, will accompany your group.
Visit a glass workshop, where a skilled glassblower will demonstrate the techniques and artistic sense required to produce the world-renowned Venetian glass.
Enjoy a water bus ride along the Canal Grande. You will pass by elegant palazzi built between the 13th and 18th centuries, and travel under the Rialto Bridge, which was once the only link between the two sides of the city's major waterway.
The afternoon is unscheduled.
Make plans with your tour director.
If the weather is favorable, you may want to arrange a gondola ride along the canals, past stately palaces. This is a uniquely Venetian experience, as extravagant and as unforgettable as the city itself.
Overnight: Venice Lido
Day 4: Train to Florence, Florence Guided Walking Tour
A water bus will take you to the train station.
Say arrivederci to Venice as you board a high-speed train that will take you across the rolling hills of Italy's hinterland to splendid Firenze, the "Jewel of the Renaissance."
Get acquainted with the Medici family and the art of politics!
A local guide, well-educated and specially-trained on the history and culture of Florence, will accompany your group.
View a wealth of artwork from the 15th and 16th centuries at the Galleria dell'Accademia, including the best known of all Florentine treasures, Michelangelo's monumental David.
In the nave of the Cattedrale Santa Maria del Fiore, better known as the Duomo, visitors marvel at a cathedral begun in 1296 and consecrated in 1436 that remains one of the largest in Christendom. It houses precious masterpieces, notably Domenico di Michelino's 1320 painting titled Dante holding the Divine Comedy.
Next on your program: the church that's the final resting place of luminaries such as Michelangelo, Machiavelli, and Galileo. Santa Croce is also famous for its art treasures, notably the Cappella dei Pazzi, a chapel attributed to Brunelleschi that's hailed as a masterpiece of Renaissance architecture.
Watch a craftsman demonstrate steps used in the manufacture of the world-renowned Florentine leather goods.
Overnight: Florence
Day 5: Excursion to Pisa, Florence
An excursion takes you to Pisa, the city whose navy once dominated the Western Mediterranean, before the Arno River silted up.
Just north of the city center, discover the Campo dei Miracoli and its trio of remarkable Moorish-style religious buildings. The most famous of the three is the Leaning Tower, now tilting nearly 13 feet from its vertical axis. Hear about the various solutions proposed to counteract the sinking of its foundation.
Enter the sumptuous Romanesque Duomo, a 900-year-old sanctuary consecrated in 1118 that remained Europe's largest cathedral for nearly 100 years. Inside, art treasures include notably 14th-century mosaics, the 17th-century wooden ceiling decorated with gold leaf, and Giovanni Pisano's outstanding 13th-century marble pulpit.
The remainder of the day is free to plan as you wish.
You may want to check out Florence's leather and jewelry shops, or the boutiques where you can acquire beautiful reproductions of Florentine artwork at reasonable prices.
Overnight: Florence
Day 6: Train to Rome, Colosseum and Roman Forum, Pantheon, Piazza Navona
Enjoy a scenic ride aboard a fast train headed to the Eternal City.
Proceed to your centrally-located hotel, settle in and get ready to explore your surroundings.
Walk through the best known monuments of Ancient Rome, the Colosseo and the Foro Romano. Once the heart of a vast empire, the Forum was filled with extravagant buildings and crowded with people from all over the known world.
A local guide, specially-trained on the history and culture of Rome and its surroundings, will accompany your group.
A headset receiver is included.
Your combination ticket to the Colosseum and Roman Forum also allows entrance to the Palatine Hill archaeological site and its museum: should time permits, you may want to make your way up the hill to visit the oldest and most prestigious residential area of Ancient Rome.
Inside the "Temple to All the Gods," you will understand why it has been called one of the better-preserved and most harmonious monuments of antiquity.
Walk through the plaza built on the site of Domitian's Stadium. Lined with grand buildings and trendy cafes, this oblong square is adorned with statues and fountains, notably Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers.
Overnight: Rome
Day 7: Vatican Museums, Le Terme del Colosseo Dinner with Music, Rome
Discover outstanding masterpieces collected for the Vatican Museums since the early 1500s. See exceptional statues from antiquity, such as Laocoön and His Son and the Apollo Belvedere, as well as stunning Renaissance paintings, notably the The School of Athens fresco in the Raphael Rooms.
A half-day local guide, well-educated and specially-trained on the history and culture of Vatican City, will accompany your group.
Marvel at Michelangelo's Last Judgment and brightly-colored ceiling frescoes in the Cappella Sistina.
Enter the sanctuary recognized as the world's largest church. The Basilica di San Pietro also houses priceless works of art, in particular Michelangelo's Pietà and Bernini's Dove of the Holy Spirit.
Tonight, enjoy dinner with entertainment at the restaurant Le Terme del Colosseo, which is located between the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, in halls with arched ceilings and exposed stone. It offers a variety of Italian dishes accompanied by musical entertainment titled "Roman Fantasy," with singers in costume.
You may have already seen Piazza Navona, the Spanish Steps, Via Veneto, and the Trevi Fountain. Return to Piazza di Trevi with a coin: throw it over your right shoulder and into the spray to ensure your return to this wonderful city!
Overnight: Rome
Day 8: Departure
Ciao, Europa! Statistics show that visitors do in fact return to Rome, although it may not have anything to do with coins in a fountain. Race the sun and arrive home later today, eager to share your discoveries with family and friends.
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