- Board your flight Depart Australia and begin your journey to Italy
Italian Highlights
Zig-zag from north to south in Italia as you admire rolling green hills studded with olive trees and domed churches that dominate the skyline. Students will experience opera houses, basilicas, piazzas, palazzos and cathedrals galore as they explore Milan, Florence, Venice, and Rome.
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https://worldstrides.com.au/itineraries/italian-highlights
Italian Highlights
Zig-zag from north to south in Italia as you admire rolling green hills studded with olive trees and domed churches that dominate the skyline. Students will experience opera houses, basilicas, piazzas, palazzos and cathedrals galore as they explore Milan, Florence, Venice, and Rome.
Request Info Request Quote13 days
Destinations
MilanVeniceFlorenceRomePompeiiSorrento
Your Adventure
- Arrive in Milan Meet your Tour Director, board your coach and check in to your hotel
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Milan city walk
La Scala opera house, Milan Cathedral (Duomo), Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
Get a fascinating introduction into Italy’s second-largest city and one of the fashion capitals of the world. Start with the gorgeous 18th-century opera house La Scala before continuing on to the Milan Cathedral, a Gothic masterpiece that took nearly 600 years to build. Finish off your walk with a visit to the country’s oldest shopping mall—a 19th-century arcade with a gorgeous roof made entirely of iron and glass—and take a look at some of the luxury items that make the town famous.
- Milan Cathedral (Duomo) guided visit This stunning Gothic-style cathedral, Il Duomo di Milano, is located in the heart of Milan and stands 157 metres high and 92 metres wide. It can house up to 40.000 people and is one of the largest Catholic churches in the world.
- Travel to Venice
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Venice guided walking sightseeing tour
St. Mark’s Square, St. Mark's Basilica, Doge's Palace guided visit, Glass-blowing demonstration
Bubbling up on more than 100 islands in a lagoon off the Adriatic, Venice is an absolutely unique and unquestionably beautiful city. Step into Piazza San Marco, an airy expanse of arches, sunlight, and pigeons. The multi-domed Basilica on one end, completed in 1094 but decorated for centuries afterward, is the final resting place of the apostle St. Mark, Venice’s patron saint. The mosaics beneath the basilica’s outside arches depict the arrival of St. Mark’s body, stolen from Egypt in 828 by Venetian traders. The frothy Venetian Gothic Doge’s Palace stands next door. Continue on to a glass-blowing demonstration. Venetian glass has long been considered the best in the world, and its production was such a state secret that during the Middle Ages, any Venetian glassblower who attempted to ply his trade outside the city was immediately arrested.
- Travel to Florence
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Verona tour director-led sightseeing
Piazza delle Erbe, Romeo and Juliet balcony, Verona Arena
In fair Verona shall we lay our scene. The setting for Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” still glows with romance. See Juliet’s balcony, tenderly draped with climbing ivy and overlooking a golden-hued statue of the young mistress herself. As you gaze out and contemplate the power of love, don’t get too swept away -- remember that while Shakespeare based his characters on Verona’s real-life feuding families, both Romeo and Juliet were, in fact, fictional. - Traditional Italian pizza dinner
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Florence guided walking sightseeing tour
Palazzo Vecchio, Piazza della Signoria, Chiesa di Santa Croce, Ponte Vecchio, Duomo, Leather Workshop, Gates of Paradise, Giotto’s Bell Tower, Dante's House
Immerse yourself in the charms of old-world Firenze. The birthplace and focal point of the Italian Renaissance, Florence still has the masterpieces to prove it. Brunelleschi’s monumental cuploa (dome) atop the city's renowned Duomo dominates the skyline. Your local licensed guide will take you to Giotto's Bell Tower and the aptly named Gates of Paradise, the bronze east doors of the Baptistery that spurred the burgeoning Renaissance. Don’t overlook the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, and Machiavelli at the Chiesa di Santa Croce, or Florence’s amazing leather goods. You can check them out when you visit one of the area’s famed workshops! -
Pisa guided excursion
Baptistery visit, Leaning Tower
Stop in Pisa to see the famous leaning bell tower. It was already partly finished when builders realised that - surprise! the ground beneath was too soft to support it. They tried to correct the tilt by putting a slight bend in the structure, but the extra weight just made it tilt more. Famous as it is, the leaning tower is just one component of Pisa’s Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles). Rising from an immaculate green lawn, the baptistery, duomo, and tower are fine examples of Pisan Romanesque architecture. All three are clad in intricately carved black and white marble, and on bright summer days their brilliance can be blinding.
- Travel to Rome via Assisi
- St. Francis of Assisi Basilica visit Pope Gregory IX laid the first stone of the Lower Basilica the day after the canonisation of St Francis, on July 17, 1228. Two years later the saint's body that had been resting in the church of San Giorgio (the future church of St Claire's) was brought here in secret for fear of looting by tomb raiders and buried in the unfinished church. No date has been recorded concerning the start of works on the Upper Basilica, but it must have been after the abdication from the order of Brother Elia in 1239, who had hitherto directed the works on the Romanesque Lower Basilica. Both churches were consecrated by Pope Innocent IV in 1253.
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Rome city walk
Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Piazza Navona
Take a walk past Rome's most beautiful and unusual Baroque fountains. At the foot of the Spanish Steps, elegant cafes surround the central fountain. The water pressure here was so low that the artist had to sink the fountain into the ground to get any water going through it, so he went ahead and designed the fountain to look like a sinking ship. There's no shortage of water pressure at the nearby Trevi Fountain, a Baroque extravagance designed by master sculptor Bernini.
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Vatican City guided walking tour
Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel visit, St. Peter’s Basilica visit
Delve into the wonders of the Vatican City visiting iconic basilicas and churches on a walking tour with Whisper headsets led by your tour guide. Discover St. Peter’s Basilica with your tour guide and whisper headset. Outside the church, four rows of columns radiate out like welcoming arms; inside, the church seems enormous enough to embrace the entire world. The dome, partially designed by Michelangelo, rises 452 feet above the ground. [activity title="Authentic trattoria dinner"]
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Ancient Rome guided walking sightseeing tour
Colosseum visit, Forum Romanum visit, Piazza Venezia
The ultimate symbol of Ancient Rome, the Colosseum still dominates the modern city. Tour the amphitheatre with your local licensed guide. Built by the emperor Vespasian in A.D. 72, the structure held almost 50,000 spectators but was so well organised that the entire place could be emptied within 15 minutes. Inside, the spectacles varied from gladiator battles to immense naval contests to wild beast shows, in which thousands of exotic animals like giraffes and ostriches were popped into the stadium through trap doors and left to fight Roman hunters. See the system beneath the floor that operated the trap doors and housed the animals, then continue on to the relative calm of the Forum. Ancient Rome’s commercial, religious and political centre, the Forum held markets, temples and the Senate House. Near the Rostra, or speaker’s platform, you can still see game boards scratched into the marble by bored politicians - anyone up for a game of tic tac toe?
- Travel to Sorrento
- Cameo demonstration Cameos, oval in shape and consisting of a portrait in profile carved in relief on a background of a different color, are often worn as jewellery. Stone cameos of great artistry were made in Greece dating back as far as the 3rd century BC, the oldest being the Hellenistic piece the Farnese Tazza. They were very popular in Ancient Rome, especially in the family circle of Augustus. Stop by a modern-day cameo studio and watch artisans carve them up close.
- Pompeii guided excursion Stop to see the city where time stood still, literally. Once an important Roman city with 20,000 residents, Pompeii was frozen in time nearly 2000 years ago, when Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried the city under 30 feet of mud and volcanic ash. Forgotten for centuries after the eruption, Pompeii was discovered in the 1600’s and is now completely excavated. On your tour you will learn how Romans of all classes lived their lives - not only from large public structures, but from details like political graffiti, bars, and street signs.
- Italian gelato making class Join classmates in a one hour Italian gelato making class, where you'll make traditional gelato from fresh fruits and local dairy. You'll learn the ins and outs of this delicious treat and then enjoy tasting your creations. Buon appetito!
- Capri & Blue Grotto excursion From the Bay of Naples the island of Capri is less than an hour away by boat. Weather permitting, you will take a boat to the Blue Grotto, where sunlight reflected from beneath the water bathes the cave in a silver-blue light.
- Travel to Rome
