Treasures of Italy

Day 1 London – Venice
Titan’s VIP Home Departure Service® transports you from your front door to London Heathrow or Gatwick Airport in time for a direct, scheduled British Airways flight to Venice. Upon arrival, we transfer to our centrally located hotel, the 4★ Gabrielli Hotel, by private water taxi. Your luggage will be taken directly to the hotel.
Please note: For 2013 departures you will stay at the 4★ Bellini Hotel.

Day 2 Venice
There is nowhere in the world quite like Venice, known by a host of romantic sobriquets from ‘La Serenissima’ to ‘the Queen of the Adriatic’.
To enhance your stay, we have arranged a short guided tour, beginning with a short walk to iconic St Mark’s Square and including visits to the stunning 11th century St Mark’s Basilica and La Galleria San Marco glass factory. This evening we have dinner at a local restaurant in St Mark’s Square.

Day 3 Verona
After breakfast we walk the short distance to our water taxi and are taken to meet our coach this morning for an excursion to Verona, which reveals the treasures of another enchantingly romantic city.
Immortalised by Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet as the home of those ‘star-cross’d lovers’ and their warring families, Verona is a showcase for more than two millennia of architectural treasures, including Juliet’s balcony and the spectacular Arena, a 20,000-seat Roman amphitheatre in such a miraculous state of preservation that it hosts an annual festival of opera, most famously Verdi’s Aida.
We return to Venice in the afternoon, and the opportunity for further independent sightseeing.

Day 4 Venice – Bologna – Florence
We bid farewell to the Grand Canal and walk the few steps to take a short private water taxi ride toour coach, where it will be waiting to transport us south to the great art city of Florence. We make a lunch stop in Bologna with time to appreciate the attractions – its wonderful churches and arcaded streets, towers, palaces and the oldest university in Europe, dating back to the 11th century. Later in the afternoon, we arrive at our hotel, the 4★ Best Western Hotel Villa Gabriele D’Annunzio, a converted convent located in a residential area on the outskirts of Florence, some 4km from the city centre. Evening meals will be enjoyed at local restaurants.

Day 5 Florence
2013 Departures – The powerhouse of the Renaissance, home to the greatest names in Italian art and literature from Leonardo to Michelangelo, Dante to Botticelli, Florence is a city of mesmerising beauty and outstanding historical importance. Its instantly recognisable skyline is dominated by the 15th century dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, considered to be one of the greatest accomplishments of Renaissance architecture.
Our walking tour takes in the cathedral, along with the medieval Ponte Vecchio, spanning the River Arno. There is then time to indulge your own interests – you may like to spend time in contemplation of artistic jewels beyond compare at the world famous Uffizi and Accademia galleries, trace the footsteps of Lucy in E M Forster’s classic novel A Room with a View, or head over to the peaceful and picturesque Oltrarno district.
2014 Departures – This morning we have a guided walking tour of the historic centre, listed as an UNESCO World Heritage Site. Our tour includes the Ponte Vecchio, a medieval stone bridge crossing the Arno River and the impressive Piazza della Signoria. This afternoon will be free to explore by yourself alternatively take an optional excursion to the Uffizi Gallery, one of the most famous in the world given it contains works of art by great Italian artists such as Botticelli and Michelangelo.

Day 6 Lucca – Pisa
Two further historical gems of Tuscany occupy us today. Lucca is interesting and charming, hiding within its ramparts an array of fine churches, palaces and squares, as impressive today as in the city’s Renaissance heyday.
Take some time to wander its attractive streets before we reconvene for the short journey to Pisa. Its Leaning Tower thoroughly merits its fame – a dazzling 12th century confection of marble columns and arches listing at a bizarre angle, perhaps best appreciated from the grounds of Piazza dei Miracoli, rather than climbing the 294 steps!

Day 7 Florence – Assisi – Rome
Continuing our journey to the Italian capital takes us through the captivating countryside of Umbria, with its vineyards, meadows and hill towns. We stop at Assisi, home of St Francis, the founder of the Franciscan Order of monks who became legendary for his humility and love of nature. The monumental Basilica of St Francis, an important centre of Christian pilgrimage and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, towers over the city’s ancient streets, helping to preserve its enthralling historical character. Early evening we arrive at the 4★ NH Leonardo da Vinci in Rome, ideally located close to the famous Vatican City and many other key sights.

Day 8 Rome
Our introduction to the magnificence of Rome includes an early start and visits to the Colosseum, the 1st century amphitheatre with a brutal history of gladiatorial combat recently voted one of the ‘New Seven Wonders of the World’, and the highlights of Vatican City, the smallest country in the world.
Here, St Peter’s Basilica, a late Renaissance church of epic grandeur befitting its pre-eminence for the Catholic faithful, impresses the traveller, and the Vatican Museums showcase a superlative collection of paintings and sculptures, the crowning glory of which are Michelangelo’s breathtaking early 16th century Sistine Chapel frescoes, which occupy an area of 500m².
Michelangelo’s near contemporary, the art historian Giorgio Vasari (1511-87) wrote of its profound impact – “painters no longer need to seek for new inventions, novel attitudes, clothed figures, fresh ways of expression, different arrangements, or sublime subjects, for this work contains every perfection possible under those headings” – cementing the place of the Sistine Chapel frescoes in the highest pantheon of artistic achievements.

Day 9 Rome
Enjoy a day at leisure, shopping, sightseeing or relaxing.

Day 10 Rome – London
We transfer to Rome Airport in time for a direct, scheduled British Airways flight to London Heathrow or Gatwick, where members of our airport team greet you and show you to your VIP Home Departure vehicle, waiting to take you home.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Please note:
At many of the places visited the terrain is uneven
With so many sights to see this is a busy itinerary
Guided tours involve walking for 1-2 hours at a time.

Titan Travel have a reputation for innovative and enthralling escorted holiday itineraries, and through the guidance of their founding principles, “quality, service and value” which have remained unchanged since the 1970′s, their expertise and experience are second to none.

Titan Travel strive to ensure that aspect of their holidays whispers quality, before you fly, you get to appreciate a comfortable, chauffeur-driven transfer from your front door to the airport with our peerless VIP Home Departure Service, check-in assistance and complimentary porterage. All international flights are with world-renowned scheduled airlines and cruises with acclaimed operators. Touring holidays are expertly designed by the product team to present a comprehensive, imaginative introduction to the destination of choice yet still offer plenty of time for relaxation. The services of a tour manager or cruise manager are included throughout. When you return to the UK, you are met in the arrivals hall of the airport and shown to your VIP Home Departure Service vehicle, waiting to return you to your front door.

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