Italy 12-Day Luxury Private Tour

Welcome to Italy. Your driver meets you at Rome Fiumicino airport and brings you to your hotel in the historic center, about 45 minutes away. Nothing is planned today, so settle in and rest after the flight. If you feel like a short walk later, Piazza Navona is lovely in the early evening, when the fountains are lit and the cafés fill up. Your local team is on hand for anything you need, and your guide will be in touch to go over the coming days. A gelato on the way back is almost compulsory.

Meet your private guide after breakfast and start at the Colosseum, ideally early before the day warms up. Walk through the arena where crowds once gathered for the games, then continue into the Roman Forum and up the Palatine Hill, where the emperors built their palaces above the city. Your guide brings the ruins to life without rushing you, with plenty of shade breaks and time for photographs from the hill over the Circus Maximus. The afternoon is free. You might stroll to the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain, or simply rest at the hotel before dinner.

This morning your guide takes you through the Vatican Museums, past the map gallery and the Raphael Rooms to the Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo’s ceiling. Then step into St. Peter’s Basilica, with its great dome and Michelangelo’s Pietà, and out into the curving colonnades of St. Peter’s Square. The museums are closed on most Sundays, so we plan this visit around your dates. Comfortable shoes help, as the museums are large. The afternoon is yours for a long lunch or a rest, and tonight dinner is included at a well-chosen Roman restaurant.

After a relaxed breakfast your driver takes you to the station for the fast train to Florence, about an hour and a half, through the green hills of Umbria and Tuscany. Another driver meets you on arrival and brings you to your hotel. Take the afternoon at your own pace. A first walk might lead past the cathedral and its striped marble bell tower to the Ponte Vecchio, where goldsmiths have kept their shops since the sixteenth century. Stay for the evening light on the Arno, then find a quiet table for dinner nearby.

Your private guide meets you after breakfast for a walk through the heart of Renaissance Florence. Start at the Galleria dell’Accademia to see Michelangelo’s David, then continue to the Duomo square and Brunelleschi’s dome. Your guide points out the details most people walk past. The Uffizi can be added if you would like more time with Botticelli and Leonardo. After a free afternoon, join a cooking class in the early evening. A local chef shows you how to make fresh pasta and a classic Tuscan dish, and you sit down to dinner together.

Today your driver takes you south into the Chianti hills, a landscape of cypress-lined lanes, olive groves and stone farmhouses. Stop at a family olive-oil farm to see how the oil is made, then sit down to an included lunch at a country restaurant with views over the hills. In the afternoon continue to Siena, about an hour from Florence, where your guide walks you through the shell-shaped Piazza del Campo and into the striped cathedral with its inlaid marble floor. There is time for a slice of panforte or a coffee in the square. You are back in Florence by early evening, with no plans except dinner.

Breakfast at leisure, then a transfer to the station and the fast train to Venice, about two and a quarter hours through the Apennines and across the plain of the Po. The last stretch crosses the lagoon, and a boat takes you along the canals to your hotel. Spend the rest of the day settling in. Late afternoon is a good time for a first walk, losing yourself in the small lanes and crossing the Rialto Bridge as the light softens over the Grand Canal. Dinner tonight is at your leisure.

Meet your private guide this morning in St. Mark’s Square. Visit St. Mark’s Basilica, glowing with gold mosaics, and the Doge’s Palace, where the old republic was governed, crossing the Bridge of Sighs inside. Arriving early means the basilica is calm and the light through the domes is soft. Your guide also shows you quieter corners of the city that most visitors never find. The afternoon is free for a gondola ride, a coffee in a historic café or a rest at the hotel. Tonight dinner is included at a restaurant chosen for its Venetian cooking.

Today has no fixed program. Take a boat across the lagoon to Murano, where glassmakers still work their furnaces, and on to Burano, with its brightly painted houses and lace shops. Lunch by the water is easy to find. Or stay in Venice for the Accademia Gallery, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection or a quiet walk through Dorsoduro. Your local team can arrange a private boat or a guide if you would like one. In the evening, the squares are quiet once the day visitors have gone, a good time for a slow last dinner in the city.

After breakfast a boat takes you to the station for the fast train to Milan, about two and a half hours. Your driver meets you there and continues north to Lake Como, about an hour to an hour and a quarter, depending on your hotel. The road reaches the water among steep green hills and the first villas appear along the shore. Check in, have a late lunch on a terrace and spend the rest of the day resting. The lake is at its best in the evening, when the ferries slow down and the light turns gold.

Today you explore the lake by boat with your private guide. Cross to Bellagio, set on the point where the lake divides, and walk its stepped lanes and waterfront. Continue to Villa del Balbianello, on its wooded promontory, or to the gardens of Villa Carlotta in Tremezzo, with azaleas, camellias and old trees above the water. Lunch is included at a lakeside restaurant. The villas open from about March to November and some close on certain weekdays, so we set the order around your dates. The rest of the afternoon is free.

Enjoy a final breakfast looking out over the lake. Depending on your flight time, you may have the morning for a last walk along the shore or a coffee in the village square. Your private driver then takes you to Milan Malpensa airport, about an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half away. If you have an evening flight and would like a few hours in Milan to see the cathedral, we can arrange a stop on the way. We say goodbye at the airport and hope Italy stays with you for a long time.