EUROPE // ITALY
14 DAYS ITINERARY
Take a chance to see world’s greatest masterpieces, try sophisticated Italian wines and indulge yourself with authentic cuisine during this 14 days Italian trip filled with the sights, sounds and wanders that have been inspiring people from all over the World for centuries.
ITINERARY
GRAND ITALIAN TOUR
12 - 14 DAYS
1390 KM / 865 MILES
SPRING ( MARCH TO MAY )
DAY 1: TURIN
GRAND ITALIAN TOUR
WHAT TO SEE & DO IN TURIN – TOP 4
The Royal Palace of Turin is an extraordinary landmark built in the 16th century. Located in the Piazza Castello, the Palace resides in a central position in Turin and is known as a symbol of power for hundreds of years.
Another majestic building residing in the Piazza Castello – built in the 1st century BC, and furtherly modified serving as a defensive fortification. In the 13th century the building was transformed again into a palace and remained in it’s form to this day..
Possibly the most recognisable building in Turin. Its towers visible above the surrounding skyline and the basilica is the signature of the city. Originally a Jewish Synagogue, Mole Antonelliana is now the National Cinema Museum.
The museum can be found between the Piazza Castello and the Piazza San Carlo. This absolutely fantastic museum contains a significant and very informative collection. In order to get the greatest insights from the museum guided tours are available.
WHERE TO STAY IN TURIN?
DAY 2: GENOA
GRAND ITALIAN TOUR
WHAT TO SEE & DO IN GENOA – TOP 4
A collection of grand mansions originally dedicated to host visiting popes, dignitaries, and royalty.
One of the central points of Genoa located in the center of the Old Town. The central point of the piazza is an exquisite ornate fountain surrounded by the Palace of the Doges, the Genoa stock exchange, and the Carlo Felice Theatre.
Explore the remainings of Genoas (once expansive) city wall – back in time, the longest city walls in Italy. What’s been left stands today in te form of a gatehouse and towers of Porta Soprana.
Also known as Genoa Cathedral, built in 1118 – the architecture is a reflection of Florence Cathedral, featuring very much alike striped marble and stone front facade. The inside of the Cathedral is filled with marvelous frescos and colorful artwork.
WHERE TO STAY IN GENOA?
DAY 3: PADUA
GRAND ITALIAN TOUR
WHAT TO SEE & DO IN PADUA – TOP 4
Built from much-altered design of Michelangelo’s, the whitewashed symmetry of Padua’s cathedral is a far cry from its rival in Piazza San Marco.
Padua’s version of the Sistine Chapel, the Capella degli Scrovegni houses one of Italy’s great Renaissance masterpieces – a striking cycle of Giotto frescoes. Dante, da Vinci, and Vasari all honour Giotto as the artist who ended the Dark Ages.
Planted in 1545 by Padua’s University’s medical faculty to study the medicinal properties of rare plants, Padua’s World Heritage-listed Orto Botanico served as a clandestine Resistance meeting headquarters in World War II. The oldest tree – named ‘Goethe’s palm’ was planted in 1585.
The soul of Padua, a key pilgrimage site and the burial place of patron saint St Anthony of Padua. The construction began in 1232, and its polyglot style incorporates rising eastern domes on top of a Gothic brick structure.
DAY 4-6: VENICE
GRAND ITALIAN TOUR
WHAT TO SEE & DO IN VENICE – TOP 4
Rise early to catch the sun on the Basilica Di San Marco’s mosaics with coffee at Florian. Venice’s Basilica is an unforgettable sight. It dates to the 9th century when, according to legend, two merchants smuggled the corpse of St Mark out of Egypt in a barrel of pork fat. The original was burnt down in 932, but Venice rebuilt the Basilica in its own cosmopolitan image.
The 3.5km route of vaporetto ( passenger ferry), which passes some 50 palazzi (mansions), six churches and scene-stealing backdrops featured in four James Bond films. The Grand Canal starts with controversy: Ponte di Calatrava a luminous glass-and-steel bridge that cost triple the original 4 million euro estimate.
Venice’s historic gallery traces the development of Venetian art from the 14th to 18th centuries, with works of Titian, Veronese, Bellini, Tintoretto, and Canaletto among others.
Antonio da Ponte beat out Palladio for the commission of this bridge, but construction costs spiraled to 250,000 Venetian ducats – about 19 million euro today.
WHERE TO STAY IN VENICE?
DAY 7: BOLOGNA
GRAND ITALIAN TOUR
WHAT TO SEE & DO IN BOLOGNA – TOP 4
Bologna’s Gothic basilica is the world’s 5th largest church, measuring 132m by 66m by 47m. Construction began in 1390, but it was never finished and its main facade remains incomplete to this day.
This 13th-century palace is named after King Enzo, the illegitimate son of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, who was held here by papal forces between 1249 and 1272.
About 3.5km southwest of the city centre, the hilltop Basilica occupies a powerful and appropriately celestial position overlooking the teeming red-hued city below.
Standing sentinel over Piazza di Porta Ravegnana, Bologna’s two leaning towers are the city’s main symbol. The taller of the two is 97.6m / 498 steps high.
WHERE TO STAY IN BOLOGNA?
DAY 8-9: FLORENCE
GRAND ITALIAN TOUR
WHAT TO SEE & DO IN FLORENCE – TOP 4
Florence’s Duomo is the city’s most iconic landmark. Capped by Filippo Brunelleschi’s red-tiled cupola it’s an immense construction whose breathtaking pink, white, and green marble facade dominate the medieval city landscape.
Dating to 1345, Ponte Vecchio was the only Florentine bridge to survive destruction at the hands of retreating German forces in 1944. Above the jewelers’ shops on the eastern side, the Corridolo Vasariano is a 16th-century passageway between the Uffizi and Palazzo Pitti that runs around, rather than, through, the medieval Torre dei Mannelli at the bridge’s southern edge.
Home to the world’s greatest collection of Italian Renaissance art, Florence’s premier gallery occupies the vast U-shaped Palazzo Degli Uffizzi, built between 1560 to 1580 to house government offices. The collection contains some of Italy’s best-known paintings including Piero Della Francesco’s profile portraits of Duke and Duchess of Urbino and a room full of masterpieces by Sandro Botticelli.
The epicenter of local life since the 13th century, Florentines flock here to meet with friends for chats over evening aperitivi at historic cafes. Presiding over everything else is Palazzo Vecchio, Florence’s City Hall, and 14th-century Loggia del Lanzi – an open-air gallery.
WHERE TO STAY IN FLORENCE?
DAY 10-13: ROME
GRAND ITALIAN TOUR
WHAT TO SEE & DO IN ROME – TOP 4
Rome’s great gladiatorial arena is the most thrilling of the city’s ancient sights. Inaugurated in AD 80, the 50,000 seat Colosseum, originally known as the Flavian Amphitheatre. Inside, tiered seating encircled the arena, itself built over an underground complex, where animals were caged and stage sets prepared. Games involved gladiators fighting wild animals or each other.
In ancient times, a forum was a market area, civic center, and religious complex all rolled into one, and the greatest of all was the Roman Forum. Situated between the Palatino, ancient’s Rome’s most exclusive neighborhood, and the Campidoglio. It was the city’s busy, bustling center.
A 2000-year-old temple, now a church, is the best preserved Rome’s ancient monuments and one of the most influential buildings in the Western World. Built by Hardian over Marcus Agrippa’s earlier 27 BC temple, and although its greying, pockmarked exterior looks its age, it’s still unique and exhilarating experience to pass through its vast bronze doors and gaze up at the largest unreinforced concrete dome ever built.
As an independent state, the Vatican has its own postal service, newspaper, radio station, and army. In this little city of outstanding churches, nothing non can take lead over St. Peter’s Basilica – Italy’s richest, largest, and most spectacular basilica. Completed in 1626 after 120 years’ construction. Its interior contains some of the greatest works of art, including Italy’s grandest masterpiece: Michelangelo’s Pieta
WHERE TO STAY IN ROME?
DAY 14: NAPLES
GRAND ITALIAN TOUR
WHAT TO SEE & DO IN NAPLES – TOP 4
The three main streets of Naples’ Centro Storico follow the original street plan of ancient Neapolis and most of the major sights are grouped around the busiest two of these: ‘Spaccanapoli’ and Via del Tribunali.
Visible from all over Naples, beautiful Certosa di San Martino is the one compelling reason to take the funicular up to the middle-class Vomero. This charterhouse-turned museum was founded as a Carthusian monastery in the 14th century.
A secret trap door, war-time hideouts, sacred catacombs and ghoulish cementries make for a gripping subterranean tour 40m below the ground.
Naples’ National Archaeological Museum serves up one of the world’s finest collections of Graeco-Roman artifacts, Originally a cavalry barracks and later a seat of the city’s university, the museum was established by the Bourbon king Charles VII in the late 18th century to house the antiquities he inherited from his mother.
WHERE TO STAY IN NAPLES?
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