ESCORTED -10 DAYS- ROME TO ROME
$1279.00 per person, land only, contact us for reduced airfare from your city.
TRAVEL VALUE INCLUDES
• Airport transfers in Rome if World One issues the tickets.
• Services of a professional tour director
• Hotels listed below or equivalent. Twin-bedded rooms with private bath or shower, hotel taxes, service charges, and tips for baggage handling
• 9 buffet breakfasts (BB); 5 three-course dinners (D), including a special welcome dinner with wine in Rome
• Private deluxe motorcoach featuring full air-conditioning, extra leg room, and emergency washroom. Private transfer boat in Venice
• Funicular to Orvieto
• Sightseeing with local guides: Rome, Ostia Antica, Florence, Venice
• Visits to Pisa, San Gimignano, Siena, Bologna, Verona, St. Apollinaris at Ravenna, Assisi, Orvieto
• Chianti wine tasting at Verrazzano Castle
• Inside visits as shown in UPPERCASE in the tour description, including admission charges where applicable.
• Travel bag and travel documents
HOTELS: ROME Cicerone (F), PISA Grand Hotel Duomo (F) or jolly Cavalieri (F), FLORENCE Sheraton Firenze (SF), VENICE All Angelo (F), ASSISI San Francesco (ST) or Windsor Savoia (ST), ROME - Jolly Midas or President or Quality Nova Domus
Day1 BOARD YOUR OVERNIGHT TRANSATLANTIC FLIGHT.
Day 2 ARRIVAL IN ROME, ITALY. Welcome to a sunny, history-steeped land, home of exuberant, friendly, hospitable people who take art as seriously as the pursuit of ever more refined culinary pleasures. At 6 p.m. meet your tour director and traveling companions and leave the hotel for a welcome dinner with wine in one of Rome's gourmet restaurants. (D)
Day 3 ROME. Sightseeing with your local guide starts with a stroll along the Via Sacra at the ROMAN FORUM, where Roman Legions marched in triumph; then pass the COLOSSEUM and hear about gladiatorial combats; finally across the Tiber to see monumental St. Peter's Square and Basilica. There's also plenty of time for independent activities and exciting optional excursion possibilities: the Sistine Chapel (arranged next morning if closed today), Tivoli, and an Italian feast at one of the fine restaurants. (BB) Note:
Depending on the ceremonies of the 2000 Holy Year Celebrations, some roads might be closed to motorcoaches, which may force us to modify the Rome sightseeing operation. At the time of printing, traffic regulations are not yet finalized.Day 4 ROME-PISA.
Expertly guided Morning visit to OSTIA ANTICA at the mouth of the Tiber, home port for ancient Rome's conquest of the Mediterranean. Hear about surprisingly sophisticated urban living more than 2,000 years before our time as you visit a trading mall, an inviting tavern and the luxurious Forum Baths. Afterwards head north along the Tyrrhenian coastline through an area where many a town was founded at the very beginning of recorded history by the mysterious, highly civilized Etruscans. Mid-afternoon arrival in Pisa, and plenty of time to wander around dazzling CATHEDRAL SQUARE.Built during the 12th and 13th centuries, when the maritime republic was at its apex of wealth and power, the cathedral is considered the cradle of medieval Italian art. Take your pictures of its elegant but precariously leaning belfry, 180 feet high and no less than 16 feet out of the perpendicular. (BB,D)
Day 5 PISA-FLORENCE. Look forward to an unforgettable journey through Tuscany's landscape of gently rolling, vine-clad hills. Morning visit to hilltop San Girnignano, the most picturesque of Italy's perfectly preserved medieval towns. On to Siena for a leisurely lunchtime break. Follow your tour director on a 30 minute walk through ancient narrow lanes to beautiful Piazza del Campo, theater of the biannual Palio, Siena's spectacular medieval-style horse race. In the afternoon, a particularly scenic ride along the Chianti Road leading from Siena due north to Florence. On the way call at splendid VERRAZZANO CASTLE to hear about the fine art of blending four types of grapes to obtain the Famous Chianti Classico. Taste the wine as the local connoisseurs do, accompanied by local specialities. (BB,D) _
Day 6 FLORENCE. A full clay to savor the Renaissance splendor of the Tuscan capital. Guided sightseeing includes magnificent SANTA MARIA DEL FIORE, Giotto's Bell Tower, the Baptistry's heavy bronze "Gate of Paradise," and sculpture-studded Signoria Square. To top it off, admire Michelangelo's celebrated David in the GALLERY OF FINE ARTS. Afternoon free for independent sightsecing and browsing through the shops on Ponte Vecchio and in Piazza Santa Croce. Leather goods and gold jewelry sold by the ounce are attractive buys. Try the culinary delights of a fine Florentine restaurant tonight. (BB)
Day 7 FLORENCE-VENICE. After a one-hour drive across the wooded Apennine mountain range you reach Bologna, the prosperous capital of Emilia-Romagna. It boasts the oldest university in the world, founded in 1088 and proud to count Dante and Petrarch among its early scholars. join the crowd promenading in the shade of the arcades lining most downtown streets. Snap pictures of Neptune's fountain, and two towers leaning every bit as dangerously as their more famous cousin in Pisa. Then re-board your coach and motor right across the fertile Po Plain to Verona, setting of Shakespeare's
Romeo and Juliet. See Juliet's Balcony and stroll around the lovely market square. Tonight you are in Venice, a powerful magnet for romantics and art lovers from around the globe. (BB,D)Day 8 VENICE. Start morning sightseeing in style as you glide by private boat along the Giudecca canal to meet your resident expert. Highlights of your walking tour are St. Mark's Square and the Byzantine splendor of ST. MARK'S BASILICA, lavish DOGES' PALACE, and the Bridge of Sighs. Also watch VENETIAN GLASS BLOWERS fashion their delicate objects in an age-old traditional manner. Then enjoy Venice at your own pace, or join an optional gondola ride. Tonight is your chance to sample the city's fine restaurants. (BB)
Day 9 VENICE-RAVENNA-ASSISI. Along the coastline of the Adriatic Sea to Ravenna. Here see the famous mosaics in the 6th-century basilica of' ST. APOLLINARIS IN CLASSE. In the afternoon arrive in Assisi. From St. Clare's church enjoy a pleasant walk via pretty Piazza del Comune down to ST. FRANCIS' BASILICA, the hub ofa religious order devoted to the ideals of humility forgiveness, simplicity, and love for all God's creatures. Hear about monastic life, and view the priceless frescoes adorning the walls ofthe church. (BB,D)
Day 10 ASSISI-ROME. Enjoy St. Francis' peaceful town on your own before departing for the final leg of your Italian journey. After a scenic drive along the Tiber valley reach Orvieto, perched high atop a volcanic rock. Access, denied to many a would-be conqueror through the ages, is easy for you. Ride a modem funicular right through the forbidding ramparts. Time for lunch, browsing through tempting shops in the lanes off Piazza del Duomo, and finding the right angle for a picture of the fabulous Gothic facade of ORVIETO
CATHEDRAL. In the late afternoon return to Rome. Tonight your tour director will suggest an optional festive dinner at one of Rome's gourmet restaurants to bid farewell to the companions of a nemorable Italian vacation. (BB)Day 11 YOUR HOMEBOUND FLIGHT
ARRIVES THE SAME DAY. (BB)