7 nights from £645 - Uffizi Included
From its cities, full of antiquity, culture and sophistication, to the special magic of its countryside, no gentleman’s (or gentlelady’s) education was complete without a visit to this most varied of countries. Indeed Goethe’s visit to Italy in 1775 resulted in the publication of ‘An Italian Journey’, a book of his travels. The goal of the ‘Grand Tour’ was not Rome or Florence but Naples, a town rich in cultural monuments, where nearby Pompeii, frozen in time by the eruption of Vesuvius, shows the best detail of Roman life.
Florence is perhaps the best-known and best-loved city in Italy, whose main sights are encompassed within a compact area. The Duomo dominates the city with its massive dome which inspired Michelangelo’s design for the Cupola of St Peter’s. ‘I go to Rome’ he proclaimed ‘to build your sister, she will be larger but never more beautiful than you’. The Piazza della Signoria is a unique outdoor sculpture gallery on which stands the Palazzo Vecchio, which has been at the heart of Florentine politics since the 14th century. The Uffizi, originally built as a suite of offices, was used to display the Medici family art treasures, creating what is now the oldest gallery in the world. Set in the Umbrian countryside lies tranquil Assisi, home to the Basilica di San Francesco, St. Francis’s burial place and Assisi’s most important monument containing matchless frescoes by Giotto, Cimabue, Lorenzetti and others. The Leaning Tower is just one of the impressive buildings of Pisa’s ‘Field of Miracles’ whilst the journey to Siena traverses the picturesque region of Chianti. Siena itself, with its winding streets of dignified Medieval buildings, opens out on to the main Piazza del Campo, a dramatic, sloping, theatre shaped piazza with the 13-14th century Palazzo Pubblico at its foot. Towering over the Palazzo is the 102-metre Torre del Mangia offering excellent views over the city.
Rome, the ‘Eternal City’, exerts an enduring fascination with the monuments of ancient times and the splendours of the Baroque, a backdrop to the hectic buzz of swarming scooters, bellowing motorists and animated street cafés.
