Uncover Italy's hidden gems via small-group tour
Romantic Italy is steeped in history and blessed by beauty. Travelers can create their own Italian Renaissance experience by taking a small-group tour that offers immersion in the heart of the local culture.
Collette Vacations’ Treasures of Italy: Art, Food and Wine tour spotlights the Italian lakes region, Italian Riviera, Tuscan hills, and the art centers of Florence and Venice.
The escorted tour is limited to 24 passengers and includes two-hour tours by local guides in the cities of Lucca, Siena, Florence and Venice.
The trip begins on the shores of Lake Maggiore, one of Europe’s most beautiful lakes, in the resort town of Stresa. Rough-hewn flower-lined streets lead to the town center and its colorful piazzas — and directly to Rosario’s Wine Bar to sample local products and homemade wines. The host has owned her family-run facility for 50 years. She gives an entertaining talk about regional food and wine pairings. Her specialties are Barberra (a rich red), Fiorio (a white Riesling type) and Moscato (also a white).
Stresa is known for its exquisite biscuits, Le Margheritine, named for royalty. The pastries are covered with sugar icing and are available at most cafes around the piazza.
Travelers can stroll the promenade, which showcases panoramic lakeside views and glamorous grand European hotels.
Guided boat tours visit picturesque islands, such as Isola dei Pescatori (Fisherman’s Island) — its rustic charm unchanged over the centuries — for dinner and browsing the gardens. Another small island, Isola Madre, is known for its display of camellias, azaleas and rhododendrons in spring.
Tour guests stayed at the Regina Palace Hotel overlooking Lake Maggiore for two nights. The 1908-era palace preserves its fin de siècle style in elegant furnishings and facade, antiques and frescoes.
A tour highlight was the Centovalli Express train journey through the Italian-Swiss Alps to Locarno, Switzerland, where the mountains meet the sea, and the scenery is breathtaking. The train makes its way through a chain of tunnels linking verdant valleys and tiny Swiss villages. The Italian and Swiss train systems were joined on the line in 1923 in the town of Santa Maggiore.
Stroll Locarno’s waterfront while sipping the local Prosecco, Italy’s sparkling white wine (its grapes are grown in this area, the Piedmont region). In fact, the country’s best white wines can be found from the Veneto region west to the coast. The best rich red wines are, arguably, found in Tuscany.
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Collette Vacations' Treasures of Italy: Art, Food and Wine tour spotlights the Italian lakes region, Italian Riviera, Tuscan hills, and the art centers of Florence and Venice. The escorted tour is limited to 24 passengers and includes two-hour tours by
never been occupied, and now the Tuscan-style building north of the Richland fire station on George Washington Way is being remodeled. The city recently issued a $10.8 million building permit for the planned four-story, 114-room riverfront hotel.
will have access to a castle-cum-hotel with 41 suites, a spa and restaurants. But annual maintenance charges can be pricey, starting at £5900. Segmented Tuscan holiday homes can also be found at Villa Bossi Pucci, with 21 one, two and three-bedroom
I learned the other day that there is one island in the Maldives that is home not only to the low-paid hotel staff from the other islands, but to the rubbish too. Why would you want to holiday next to that? I once stayed in a hotel in the Dominican
This week Graham Wickens, operations manager of villa rental company Tuscany Now (tuscanynow .com), gives his tips on one of our favourite parts of Italy. 1 After admiring the view of Florence from Fiesole, visit the gardens of the Villa Medici,
Tuscany drive via 1-way rental from Florence returning Siena by ...
For a day-trip from Florence, my boyfriend and I want to drive south through Chianti and visit a hill town or two. Could we drop off a one-way rental at Siena and take the train or bus back to Florence in the evening? I can see we could pick up the car at Hertz via Finiguerra and drive away from the restricted areas. There appears to be a Hertz in Siena. We have 5 nights in Florence. I don't want to relocate south for a night as we are driving north to near Cinque Terre after we leave Florence. I have read through this forum and spoken with friends about driving into Florence and everyone warns about driving into Florence by car. I'm warming to the idea of limiting all day-trips to only those reached by bus/train. But, I'm not quite ready to give up the idea of meandering for a day at our own pace to explore Tuscany south of Florence, stopping wherever we wish. We drove every inch of three Greek Islands and loved exploring by car!
If you want to spend 5 days in Florence and then go to near Cinque Terre, why don't you rent the car upon leaving Florence, explore Chianti, drive to near CT and leave the car. That way, you won't have to rent a car twice and you won't have to drive or park in Florence. You may want to stay one night somewhere between Tuscany and CT. As advised above, please work with the rental car companiew to find your best arrangement.
2. If we changed the itinerary to 4 nights in Florence and drive through Chianti and Tucany on day 5, any suggestions where to stay near Volterra or maybe beyond to a low-key coastal destination? How far can we reasonably drive from Florence (hotel check-out/pick up rental) while perhaps stopping at Greve in Chianti (lunch?), San Gimignano (mid-afternoon) and Volterra (dinner?)? Day 6 is our drive to Cinque Terre area. Other charming towns in this area are Panzano and Radda and of course Siena. (it would be simple to day trip to Siena on another day via a bus... about an hour trip and really simple. Here is the schedule http://www.sitabus.it/sita-toscana/Firenze-Siena2010.pdf) San G is nice but there are a LOT of tourists. Volterra is great and it might be nice to stay in Volterra as the next days drive to CT is about 2 1/2 hours and that coast area is not that pretty.
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Hotel Florence
Selection of hotels in the city of Florence, Italy, that are available to book online.