You arrive in Venice by water taxi, crossing the lagoon from the airport as the engine hums and salt air slips through the open windows. At your canal-side hotel, you settle into a peaceful Venetian neighborhood, with narrow lanes nearby and the low hum of boats moving along the canal. Join your Travel Director for dinner at a local restaurant, then raise a cocktail in St. Mark’s Square as musicians play into the evening. As the square grows quieter, you have space to admire the basilica, listen to the notes drift through the air and return to your hotel through a peaceful Venetian neighborhood.
Beneath the Clock Tower in St. Mark’s Square, you pause close to the Basilica’s marble columns, the Campanile and the carved facade of Doge’s Palace. You trace the route from the palace to the old prisons across the Bridge of Sighs, one of Venice’s most famous crossings, before stepping inside a traditional Venetian glassblowing workshop. Here, expert artisans twist flashes of molten glass in the furnace, using centuries-old skill. The rest of the day is yours. You might browse the small arcades or join today’s Optional Experience across the lagoon to Burano, where bright-painted houses line the water and dinner comes with local specialties and wine.
Climbing into the Apennines, you arrive at Fattoria di Bagnolo, a historic Tuscan estate watched over by the Bartolini Baldelli family for generations. A family member welcomes you personally, sharing how the estate moved from Machiavelli’s era to its revival in 1852 as the Marquis’ summer residence. Inside the villa and atmospheric cellars, cool stone, oak barrels and the scent of olive oil anchor you in Tuscan country life before you walk among the vines with the Chianti hills stretching in folds beyond. You taste the estate wines with the family’s own olive oil, then follow the Tiber towards Rome, where the Eternal City waits at the end of the road.
With fast-track entry, your Local Specialist guides you into the Vatican Museums, where long galleries lead you past Raphael’s works and classical sculptures collected by the Popes. In the Sistine Chapel, its sweep of biblical scenes from Genesis to David and Goliath spreads out above you in intricate colors and immense detail. Continuing to St. Peter’s Basilica, the world’s largest church, you may pause before Michelangelo’s Pietà to notice the detail carved into marble, from the folds of Mary’s robe to the stillness of her face. Across the Tiber, ancient Rome lies in all its ruined glory. You might trace the Colosseum's tiers of arches and weathered stone before enjoying free time to follow your own curiosity through Rome. On some departures, access to St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Museums may be restricted. You'll still enjoy the atmosphere of St. Peter's Square during your visit to the Vatican City, and if tickets are unavailable to the Vatican Museums, you'll instead explore the Capitoline Museums, home to iconic Roman art and archaeology.
At Lorenzo’s family farm in Umbria, you join the chef in the kitchen, where flour dusts the table and pasta dough is pressed, folded and cut by hand. His demonstration leads straight into lunch. You sit down to pasta served with Orvieto Classico, the wine cool in the glass and warm steam rising from the plate. Afterwards, you’ll continue to your hotel in Florence, the taste of Umbria still lingering on your tongue.
In Florence, your Local Specialist guides you through the city’s Renaissance heart, where the Cathedral rises in white, green and rose marble beside the bell tower and baptistery. You take in Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise, their bronze panels filled with intricate biblical scenes, before continuing to Piazza della Signoria, the city’s political center and an open-air gallery of Renaissance sculpture. Later, Florence is yours to explore, from polished leather and goldsmiths’ windows to quiet corners scented with espresso. Or join today’s Optional Experience to Pisa, where you can see the Leaning Tower and its pale marble tilt against the sky.
Traveling north, you’ll leave Florence for the Italian Lake District, passing Lake Lugano before the road carries you into the Swiss Alps. Inside the Saint Gotthard Tunnel, one of the longest road tunnels in the world, the light narrows before the landscape opens out again to mountain slopes, rushing torrents and the wide blue of Lake Lucerne. In Lucerne, you visit the Lion Monument, where a wounded lion is carved into a limestone cliff in memory of the Swiss Guards who died defending King Louis XVI during the French Revolution. Later, you cross the covered Chapel Bridge, its old timber beams sheltering painted panels as the Reuss ripples below. Then you'll stand by the baroque Jesuit Church, with its pale towers, curved domes and ornate facade reflected in the shimmering river below.
On your MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience, you ride the solar-powered open-top cable car towards Mount Stanserhorn’s summit, open to the alpine air as cowbells sound from the slopes and the mountains spread wide around you. If the skies are clear, you may look as far as Alsace and the Black Forest in Germany before following the summit pathways in search of marmots and native wildlife. Back in Lucerne, you wander the traffic-free Old Town, passing chocolate shop windows stacked with pralines, truffles and gold-wrapped bars. You could also join today’s Optional Experience into the countryside, traveling by horse-drawn carriage before meeting local farmers. For your Dine-Around Evening, choose from a selection of restaurants and settle in for dinner.
Crossing rural Burgundy, you watch vine rows comb the countryside on the way to Paris, one of France’s great wine regions slipping past the window. During your time in Paris, you look up through the Eiffel Tower’s ironwork, pass Notre-Dame on the Île de la Cité and follow the Louvre’s long stone façades along the river. Beside the Seine, you’ll travel past bridges arcing over the water before reaching Place de la Concorde, where the obelisk cuts a clean line through the square. Drive along the Champs-Élysées towards the Arc de Triomphe, then claim the evening for yourself, perhaps slipping into a world-famous cabaret show where velvet seats, stage lights and music carry Paris late into the night.
With your Local Specialist, you'll cross Paris on a panoramic tour, taking in the iron lattice of the Eiffel Tower, the broad sweep of the Champs-Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe. At Place de la Concorde, you'll see one of Paris’s grandest squares and hear how this elegant setting became the site of the guillotine during the French Revolution. Later, settle in at a local restaurant, where good cheer and aromas from the kitchen accompany a dinner of French cuisine.
