Hidden Italy: a 12-day tour through 6 regions

Once in Milan, the city of art, fashion and entertainment for excellence, you can spend your first Italian evening in the city center, after arriving at the hotel designated for overnight stay. Upon awakening, no day can start in the right way without a rich and healthy breakfast offered by the restaurateurs present in the hotel, who will offer a considerable amount of flavors to satisfy every type of taste and need. After the first meal of the day, you will begin the panoramic tour of the city comfortably seated on the famous City Sightseeing: a double-decker tourist bus that will allow you to observe, listen and discover some of the artistic beauties of the city, such as the Castello Sforzesco at the gates of the Park Sempione, the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, the evocative Navigli area, the Duomo and the homonymous square, the Teatro alla Scala and the nearby shopping streets. After a guided tour it is time to move your legs and explore the city independently and in complete freedom: a return on foot to Piazza Duomo for a visit to the nearby Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and the Royal Palace should not be excluded. Getting lost in the historic streets of Milan is never a bad idea: among the immense possibilities you can walk along Via Dante, arriving at Parco Sempione and then passing through the Arco della Pace, or admire the fashion of Made in Italy and beyond passing through Via Monte Napoleone, continuing through the Pinacoteca di Brera and the Botanical Garden in the evocative district of the same name and then concluding with a obligatory passage in Piazza Gae Aulenti and the modern garden behind it.

Breakfast in Milan and then travel to the discovery of Verona. After the quick journey by high-speed train, at the station you will be accompanied to the hotel where you will spend the night: leave your suitcases in the room, freshen up your face and start the panoramic tour with the City Sightseeing bus of the city declared a World Heritage Site. Do not miss the symbols, including without any doubt Piazza Bra and the Arena, Piazza delle Erbe, Piazza dei Signori, the nearby Shakespearean Juliet's House, and why not, a ride on the Lungoadige, a pedestrian street that takes its name from the river that crosses the city, on which you can walk accompanied by the rustle of the water while you will be entranced by the architecture of the historic center that overlooks it.

After the typical breakfast, a new high-speed train awaits you for Mestre station, but not to visit the Serenissima: the Tour of Hidden and Unusual Italy has several surprises for you. Departing from Venice, you will spend the whole day in the picturesque islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello. You will be charmed by the suggestive tour that will start to discover the timeless tradition of Murano glass processing, then proceed to the colorful island of Burano where the "lace" (merletto) is born, and conclude with the mystical and almost uninhabited island of Torcello. You will have the whole day free to undertake the itinerary you prefer in total autonomy and find the glimpses in which to lose yourself: you will choose to be pervaded by the lively polychromy of the houses in Murano and Burano that are reflected on the water, or by the silence and the enormous green spaces that characterize a timeless landscape of Torcello?

The fifth day will be dedicated to a guided tour of the city of Venice: a walking tour through the city of water, to discover the canals that surround the historic center of the Serenissima, with unmissable stops dedicated to places of greatest historical and cultural importance. During your one-day stay in Venice, you certainly can't miss a gondola ride along the Grand Canal but, before that, you can't miss Piazza San Marco with its homonymous Basilica, the Palazzo Ducale and the Campanile. You will be guided through the Calli to the shopping streets crossing the Rialto Bridge, reaching the San Polo sestiere or continuing an alternative route to get to the Cannaregio sestiere. Venice is an incredible discovery that must be admired from top to bottom without losing attention even for a second, especially because the city does not allow it: you will notice the richness and architectural magnificence in every corner, so much so that you will be breathless.

Wake up early for departure to Bologna, where a guided tour of the city of arcades awaits you: enjoy a day of stay in the capital of Emilia-Romagna, visiting the famous "T"-shaped historic center including Piazza Maggiore with the Basilica of San Petronio and Palazzo del Podestà, the shopping street Via Indipendenza and the two towers: Garisenda and degli Asinelli. Do not miss any glimpse of the city preferred by university students from all over the world, with the primacy of the oldest university institute in the West, the Archiginnasio, and take advantage of the free time available to visit the Jewish Ghetto or Via Piella, from which through the small and curious red window you will notice one of the canals that still flow into underground Bologna.

Have you ever dreamed of being the protagonist of the preparation of the typical handmade Emilian pasta? With the Unusual Italy Tour you will have the opportunity to participate in the preparation, cooking and tasting of a timeless tradition, spending a pleasant day dedicated to the arts of a country recognized throughout the planet; and, after a fantastic culinary experience, a direct train will be waiting for you to Florence where you will spend the first evening to have a look at the city, through which you will be subsequently guided on a walking itinerary in the historic center by a specialized guide: the Church of San Lorenzo, Piazza del Duomo, the Cathedral, Brunelleschi's Dome, Giotto's Bell Tower, Piazza della Signoria, Palazzo Vecchio and the Uffizi Gallery will no longer be images projected on your computer, postcards or magnets given by friends to stick on the refrigerator, but real and tangible places that you will finally live with your eyes and in first person: enjoy the whole afternoon free to visit the places full of art you have always wanted.

After Florence, Rome, the Eternal City, certainly cannot miss: through the wheels of a tourist bus and lulled by the stories of a guide, you will find yourself in an Imperial Rome passing through the Colosseum, symbol of the capital of Italy and of Western history, and the related archaeological sites that surround it such as the Roman Forum, at the foot of the Palatine Hill. The guided tour leaves room for a visit in total freedom of the city, during which you cannot miss the Altare della Patria, the Pantheon and Piazza Navona, the Trevi Fountain and the nearby Spanish Steps, and then push yourself from the other side of the Tiber river to enter the Vatican City passing through Castel Sant'Angelo. If the first day was entirely dedicated to the exteriors of the millenary city, during the second day of stay in Rome you will be guided inside the papal palace at St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museums, characterized by the Renaissance treasures they preserve, with consequent visit to the Sistine Chapel, decorated with the works of art by Michelangelo Buonarroti which are among the best known, appreciated and celebrated frescoes by art lovers from all over the planet. The end of the visit converges with the departure towards the next stage of the journey: Naples.

After an early breakfast in the Neapolitan city, a bus will be waiting for you ready to take you to Pompeii: walking along streets dating back two thousand years ago, a tour guide will provide you with a 360-degree experience on the civilization that once resided, guaranteeing you a cultural and historical journey unique in the world. The findings of the archaeological excavations, begun at the behest of Charles III of Bourbon, are one of the best testimonies of Roman life, as well as the best preserved city of that time, destroyed by the eruption of the Vesuvius volcano in 96 AD. The archaeological park, together to that of Herculaneum and Oplonti is a World Heritage Site and the most visited after the Pantheon and the Colosseum in Rome. After more than two hours of visiting the archaeological site, a return to Naples is expected, where you can spend the last day of a tour of Italy from north to south: Castel Nuovo, Galleria Umberto I, Piazza del Plebiscito, Castel dell'Ovo and its Borgo Marinari are definitely places not to be missed before having dinner with a tasty Neapolitan pizza.