Vacation Packages:
Italy

Add $100 if departing in next 30 days.

Single, triple occupancy or families and groups, please inquire

*The Base and Full Land packages are based on exchange rate of $1.50 = 1 Euro and change with fluctuations in the exchange rate. Also, prices shown here do not include airline tickets, which vary by season.

**Categories 3, 4, and 5 refer to varying degrees of excellence in rooms.

• Rooms for 8 nights in first class, superior, or deluxe hotels or villas
  
• Daily breakfast and cooking school with dinner
  
• Five private sedan transfers between airports, docks, train stations, and hotels (all transfers, tours, and excursionss are with English speaking driver or guide.)
  
• Guided walking tour of Alperbello, UNESCO World Heritage site
• Guided tour of Castellana Grottos
  
• Guided walkng tour of Lecce
• Two hour exploration of Pompei
• Boat excursion along Amalfi Coast to the Emerald Grotto and Positano*
  
• Half day excursion by minibus to Ravello and the Amalfi countryside
  
• Guided cruise and tour of the island of Capri, including the Blue Grotto*
  
• Trip Packet with detailed daily itinerary, maps and guidebooks
  
• Extensive Pre-trip consultation
• *Guided cruises to Capri and Amalfi Coast not available 11/1 - 4/30.

U.S.A. / Apulia (Bari)
Day 1
Depart U.S.A. for Italy. Meals Aloft

Pick up your rental car at the Bari airport and follow our detailed driving directions approximately 74 miles to the village of Alberobello. This entire village has been declared a UNESCO world heritage site, primarily because of strange circular buildings called trulli. A trullo is a whitewashed cone made of stones held together without mortar. Many of the trulli are ancient and the oldest areas of Alberobello, the Monti and Aia Piccola, were built around 1070.

An English speaking guide will show you around the village and enthrall you with the mysteries connected to Alberobello and the magical symbols painted on roofs of many of the trulli. Our featured 3 star hotel in Alberbello is Giardino dei Trulli, consisting of trulli cottages which enable you to experience how it is to live in a trullo. One of our friends commented that it was like staying in a doll house and that it was a delightful introduction to the culture of the area. B.

Day 3
 Alberobello / Otranto (Castellana Grottos, Polignano a Mare)

Depart Alberobello this morning and take the short drive to Castellana Grottos, where you will have a guided tour of the largest grottos of Europe. You will be stunned by the magnificent forms displayed by the stalactites and stalagmites.

Then drive 15 miles to the Adriatic coast and Polignano a Mare. A tasty lunch with fresh fish and local wine is highly recommended! Enjoy a romantic walk in this picturesque town which dates back to the Middle Ages and lies on the edge of a hill scooped out at the base of magnificent grottos. Polignano is like a “hidden jewel”: stroll along its roads and be surprised by unexpected views that open onto the blue sea.

Drive South and then East about 2 hours to the charming ancient port town of Otranto. Your lodging tonight is outside Otranto in a “Masseria”, a typical Apulian accommodation. Originally these were farmhouses but the buildings have been refurbished and offer fine lodging that is reflective of the Apulian culture. B,D

Have breakfast in your masseria and then make your way to explore the Ionian part of the bootheel, driving one hour from the Adriatic side of the heel to Gallipoli. This gleaming white city Gallipoli, completely surrounded by the sea, fully deserves its name, "beautiful city" in ancient Greek, both for its enchanting location and for its unique monuments: The Castello Angioino which serves as a sentinel towards the sea, the Cathedral of St. Agatha and the Hellenic Fountain. Gallipoli is one of the most lively cities of Salento, here you can enjoy nightlife, with its many restaurants, bars and shops.

Before making your way back to your masseria ask for directions to the nearest food festival, as somewhere in this little stretch of land called Salento there is a good chance for a food festival with live folk music. This night will be unique and unforgettable like the rest of your stay in one of Italy’s more unspoiled regions: Apulia. Return to the masseria inear Otranto tonight. B

Drive northbound about 45 minutes to Lecce. Located in Italy’s bootheel, Lecce is famous for its architectural baroque style, the “barocco leccese”, and is known as “Florence of the South”. This morning you will enjoy a tour of Lecce with an English speaking guide. The city was founded by the ancient Greeks called Messapian, became a stronghold of the Roman Empire, then became a regional power after the Norman conquest in the 16th.century. Your visit will include the Duomo , Palazzo Vescoville, the marvellous baroque Basilica of Santa Croce and many other marvels of the city which is considered to be an open air museum. There is time for lunch and shoppng ithis afternoon., but be sure to see Piazza Sant’Oronzo, where you can admire the 2,000 year old Roman amphitheater. You will also want to take photos of Colonna di Sant’ Oronzo, which memorializes the appointment of St. Oronzo as Bishop of Lecce by St. Paul in the year 57 A.D. Return tio the masseria near Otranto. B
 

Amalfi Coast (Pompei)
Day 6

Return the rental car near the train station in Lecce and catch your train to Caserta (a bit over 4 hours in 1st class reserved seats). Our car service will take you to Pompeii, which was frozen in time when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D. Extensive excavations and painstaking reconstruction have made it possible for you to experience the homes, fountains, courtyards, inlaid marble floors, mosaics and frescoes that constituted the town's everyday life nearly 2,000 years ago. After you explore Pompeii for a couple of hours, the driver will take you to your hotel on the Amalfi Coast.

As you enter the Amalfi Coast, neither words nor pictures can prepare you for the magnificent views, rugged coastline, luxuriant hills, and vineyards fragrant with olive, lemon and orange groves.   Continue on the cliffside roads to your choice of hotel in Positano, Ravello, Amalfi, or Maori. B

Day 7
Amalfi Coast (Amalfi, Positano)

Driven to and from the dock by our shuttle service, you have pre-paid reservations this morning for a boat ride to Grotto dello Smeraldo (Emerald Grotto), its exceptionally clear waters indirectly illuminated by rays of sunlight that impart an intense, deep emerald color.  View fine ancient Saracen ruins en route to Amalfi, an extremely picturesque little town with multi-storied, red-tiled white houses built on rugged slopes facing a beautiful harbor.  Walk through Amalfi’s historic center, visiting the twelfth-century Duomo, its eleventh-century bronze doors, imported from Constantinople, opening onto a harmonious blend of Saracen and Romanesque styles, including an exquisite Arab-style cloister.

Your cruise includes a 2 hour stop in Positano. Often the setting for Hollywood films and ever popular with artists and the jet set, Positano is a Moorish-style village with houses, many white-washed and some colorful, clinging spectacularly down the sides of cliffs around a protected bay. On the pebbled beach, with breathtaking views of both sea and mountains, try Limoncello, a locally produced liqueur served in the inlaid wooden vessels typical of the region. And be sure to explore Positano’s fascinating pedestrian streets, with free time to shop the many wonderful boutiques.

 Tonight you will be driven by our car service to and from your cooking class, which includes wine and dinner. Ask your host to recommend the best place to see locals perform the Tarantella, a seventeenth-century folk dance once believed to cure the tarantula’s bite. Return to your Amalfi coast hotel this evening. B/D

Amalfi Coast (Ravello and countryside)
Day 8
 You will be picked up by shuttle van at the hotel this morning and will be taken to the minibus in Maori for your excursion to Ravello and the Amalfi Coast countryside.

 The small town of Ravello is more remotely located for this itinerary than Positano, Amalfi, and Maori, but if you do not stay in Ravello you should not fail to include it as an excursion. After seeing Positano you will find it hard to believe, but the coastal views from Ravello are even more spectacular. Visit the imposing thirteenth-century Villa Rufolo, formerly the residence of Charles of Anjou and several Popes.  Beyond its Gothic entrance tower is a Moorish-style courtyard with sharply pointed arches in the Sicilian-Norman style, with exquisite interlacing above.  Be sure to see the gardens of both Villa Rufolo and Villa Cimbrone, from which the views of the bay are awesome.  On most Thursday evenings during season there is a concert in the gardens of Villa Ruffolo at sunset.

Returned by our shuttle service to your hotel on the Amalfi coast this evening. B

Amalfi Coast (Capri)
Day 9

Our car service will drive you to and from the dock today for your cruise / tour of the island of Capri, an extraordinarily captivating—even magical—place.  Its beautiful, rugged landscapes and luxuriant vegetation made it popular with the ancient Romans. Today, its whitewashed houses and villas, fragrant lemon trees, narrow winding lanes, and flower-filled courtyards make it a favorite destination for travelers.  Take a guided cruise around the island, viewing the remains of Tiberius’ baths and Augustus’ Palazzo a Mare (Sea Palace), as well as a number of Capri’s spectacular marine caves, including the most famous—the Blue Grotto—which gets its name from an intensely blue light that filters through its waters via a submerged opening, creating an absolutely stunning effect.

 Continue past the Faraglioni rocks, craggy islets that have been eroded into fantastic shapes by the waves; the Arco Naturale, a gigantic natural rock arch rising high above the sea; the Grotta di Matromania, where Romans venerated the goddess Cybele; and the Grotta del Bove Marino (Sea Ox Cave), named for the roar the sea makes as it rushes in during stormy weather.  You will travel  a dramatically beautiful, sharply winding “ribbon” road to the idyllic village of Anacapri and take a chair lift to Monte Solaro, the loftiest citadel on Capri, for a spectacular, panoramic view of the whole island and the Bay of Naples. 

 Following some time at leisure for shopping and strolling Anacapri’s charming streets, have lunch in  Capri village overlooking Naples and Salerno Bay.  Next, take a walking tour to the Piazza Umberto I, lined with exclusive cafes, and home to Capri’s famous bell tower.  Walk through narrow streets flanked by beautiful villas, luxuriant gardens and elegant shops to the Villa Jovis, the splendid ruins of the estate from which Tiberius once ruled the empire.  Return to your Amalfi Coast hotel this evening   B

Amalfi Coast / Naples / USA
Day 10

Our car service will take you by private sedan to the Naples airport and you depart for home. B/Meals aloft.