Venice, Versilia & Lake Maggiore

Depart the U.S. on your flight to Venice.

NOTE: If you are combining this trip with Treasures of Rome, Florence & Venice, see Day 11 of that itinerary.

Arrive at Venice Marco Polo Airport, where your guide will meet you and accompany you by private motor launch to your hotel, which is near the Grand Canal and the area called “Strada Nova.” Enjoy dinner tonight at a local restaurant. D Metropole Hotel (4-star)

NOTE: If you are combining this trip with Treasures of Rome, Florence & Venice, see the alternate Day 12 of that itinerary. You will meet the guide and the group arriving from the U.S. for dinner in a restaurant near the hotel.

After breakfast enjoy a morning guided tour of this unique city. Visit the glorious St. Mark’s Basilica, decorated with marble and filled with glowing mosaics. Continue to the Doge’s Palace, seat of the once-great Venetian Republic and still resplendent with works by Venice’s great painters including Veronese, Titian and Tintoretto. After your tour, stop for lunch in a local restaurant. In the afternoon you may have time at leisure to explore this unique city of waterways, bridges and palazzi. You may choose an optional afternoon tour of the islands of Murano, where Venetian blown glass has been created for centuries, and colorful Burano. Have dinner on your own. B/L Metropole Hotel (4-star)

NOTE: If you have visited St. Mark’s and the Doge’s Palace on the previous trip, you have the day for other activities of your choice. Venice has several splendid museums devoted to old masters, including the Gallerie dell’Accademia, which has the largest collection of Venetian masters anywhere, with works by Titian, Tintoretto, Giorgione, Veronese and many others. The Ca’ d’Oro, one of the city’s most beautiful palazzi, and the adjacent building have a private collection of paintings, sculpture and furniture. A number of Venetian churches, including the Chiesa dei Frari and Chiesa dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo, hold masterworks of painting and sculpture.

Outdoors, depending on your interests, you might take a picnic to the bucolic island of Torcello, which may be reached by vaporetto, enjoy the Rialto Markets, sketch or photograph the sights around you, or take a gondola ride for a unique perspective on the city’s canal byways. Whatever you choose to do, you may arrange with your guide to meet the group for lunch.

Your destination today is Viareggio, on the Tuscan coastal strip called Versilia. You will spend the next three nights there. On the way stop in Ravenna, which was once the crossroads of the Roman Empire. In the great octagonal Basilica of San Vitale,* built in the 6^th century in Byzantine style, see some of the mosaics for which the city is famed.

View the breathtaking Mediterranean coast from the sea as you cruise by the Cinque Terre.* These five red- and pink-hued towns, built along dramatic seaside cliffs amongst olive groves, are connected by a winding trail. After the boat tour stop for lunch with the group. If you would like to walk along the famed paths of the Cinque Terre, you will have opportunity to do so in the afternoon. (There are several routes of different lengths.) Return to Viareggia—and your home beach—for dinner on your own and the evening. B/L Hotel Europa (4-star)

Enjoy a leisurely breakfast at your hotel before today’s excursion to Lucca and Pisa. Lucca, first built around a Roman amphitheater, has grown in circles. The amphitheater at the center is now an oval marketplace. Lucca’s Romanesque and Gothic cathedral is considered one of the most beautiful in Tuscany. The city is surrounded by a most accommodating wall, shaded by plane and chestnut trees and wide enough to permit walking, jogging or cycling along the top. Have lunch at a restaurant in Lucca.

Pisa* is near the coast, and not far from Lucca. See the famous Leaning Tower, which has recently been reopened for public visits. You may choose, on your own, to ascend to the top for a panoramic view of Pisa and the countryside beyond. Return to Viareggio, have dinner on your own, and enjoy an evening walk. B/L Hotel Europa (4-star)