13 DAYS/12 NIGHTS – GROUP TRAVEL SUGGESTED ITINERARY - CAN BE CUSTOMIZED
If you always knew there was much more to Italy than Rome, then this is the tour for you! INCLUSIONS Enjoy magical coastlines, Roman and Greek ruins, local crafts, wine and delicious seafood - venture off the beaten path to delights many visitors never see. Learn about ancient 1 night in Naples cultures, get out on the water and have time to shop for unique handicrafts while visiting 2 nights each in southern Italy's best destinations. Sorrento, Palermo, Taormina, Syracuse, and DAY 1 ~ ARRIVE to Sorrento. En route you will visit the Agrigento NAPLES ruins of Pompeii, the ancient city destroyed 1 overnight ferry Breakfast daily Upon arrival to Rome’s by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. After the eruption, the city and its citizens were Lunch and dinner Fiumicino Airport, collect per itinerary your bag and proceed through customs to deeply covered by ash and volcanic pumice Ground transport the arrivals hall where a local assistant will rock – and then left untouched for 1600 via air conditioned luxury coach meet your group and escort it to a private years until Pompeii was discovered. The result – after much excavation – was a English speaking bus. From there you will travel south to assistant and guides remarkable view of what a city in ancient the busting and ever-lively city of Naples. Admission tickets Naples, the capital city of Italy’s Campania Rome probably looked like. So very much as outlined in region, is a fascinating, dynamic city. Its had been preserved in those packed layers itinerary origins are Greek. Its bay views are of ash and pumice. Enjoy your guided tour HIGHLIGHTS amazing – and its pizza is out of this world. through this amazing archeological site, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Visit the famous (You’re in the home region of pizza, ruins of Pompeii Walk through the Roman Forum, Market mozzarella di bufala and limoncello). Explore enchanting Place and the House of the Vettii to see Capri Upon arrival to the hotel in Naples (or narrow streets and luxurious villas frozen in Leisurely drive “Napoli” as it is locally called), your group time. along the Amalfi will store its baggage with the reception coast staff and immediately travel with a local After the tour and a break for lunch, Boat trip to the Island of Sicily guide to Naples’ Old Town, a UNESCO continue traveling to lovely Sorrento, which will be your seaside base for the next two Italian winery tour World Heritage Site. After free time for Archeological nights. lunch, the guide will lead a 2-hour tour of Museum visit the area’s best attractions before DAY 3 ~ SORRENTO Tour a pottery and accompanying your group back to the ceramic workshop Today after breakfast your Visits to Greek hotel. After check-in and time to freshen group will head to ruins and temples up, you and your fellow travel companions Sorrento’s port for a Visit fiery Mount with have a group dinner in the hotel’s Etna sightseeing excursion to the enchanting restaurant. island of Capri. Weather permitting you will DAY 2 ~ SORRENTO visit the Blue Grotto, a miracle of This morning after equilibrium among water, light and breakfast, your group will reflections of wonderful sea floors. Travel travel south by private bus to Anacapri for lunch at a local restaurant and enjoy some free time for shopping. guided adventure to Mount Etna, the Your group will travel back to Sorrento in highest (elevation of approx. 10,000 feet) the afternoon, and the evening is at leisure. and largest active volcano in Europe. Your bus ride will take you to the opening of the DAY 4 ~ FERRY lava flow and you will hear about the After breakfast your group eruptions that have occurred in the last will check out and depart years. Return to Taormina in the early for an Amalfi Coast afternoon where you will have time to sightseeing tour. Enjoy the drive along one browse the linens and pottery that is locally of Europe's most beautiful shorelines. produced. Evening at leisure. Brightly colored houses hug the cliffs DAY 7 ~ SYRACUSE amidst lush gardens and olive-green slopes, which hover over the clear sea below. After breakfast and check- Explore the charming town of Amalfi, out, today your journey seeing historic buildings built between the takes you to Southern 10th and 13th centuries. After free time for Sicily. En route to the southern city of lunch and exploring, your group will travel Syracuse (Siracusa), your group will stop in to the port in Naples. Tonight you will take the lovely city of Catania, which is a center a comfortable, overnight ferry to Sicily. of business and finance on the island. Here you will get a taste of normal life in a DAY 5 ~ TAORMINA Sicilian city. A local guide will give your You will wake up this group a guided tour of the city’s main morning in the city of highlights, and afterwards you will have Palermo. A local guide will free time for lunch before re-boarding your meet your group in the ferry terminal and private bus and continuing south to accompany it to the hotel with sightseeing Syracuse, a Sicilian city best known for its en route. Your private bus will travel along cultural and artistic heritage of the ancient the coastal road to Taormina. En route Greeks. your group will stop in the historic town of A UNESCO World Heritage City, Syracuse is Cefalu, renowned for its narrow streets and home to remarkably Greek, Roman and elaborate house decorations. Continue to a Baroque architecture. Upon arrival to town founded in 395 BC, the Roman-Greek Syracuse your group will check-in at the town of Tindari. hotel and have time to relax and begin Here you will visit the sanctuary of the looking around Syracuse. Tonight the Madonna of Tindari. The famous Black group will have dinner together in a local Madonna has been attributed for granting restaurant. favors to those who pray. Continue on to DAY 8 ~ SYRACUSE the coastal city of Messina before arriving to tonight’s hotel in the perched town of After breakfast a local guide Taormina. The afternoon is at leisure to will take your group on a explore Taormina. Group dinner tonight in sightseeing tour of this the hotel’s restaurant. 2700-year-old city. Syracuse was once one of the most important cities in the ancient DAY 6 ~ TAORMINA world. In fact, because of its wealth, power This morning after and cultural scene it was considered a rival breakfast at the hotel, your of Athens. During your tour you will see the group will embark on a ancient Greek theatre - which is said to be the burial site of Archimedes, the Paradise Greek city was probably really like. Quarry, the Ropemakers' Cave, the Altar of After a break for lunch, the tour will Heron and the Roman amphitheatre (all continue with a visit to the awe-inspiring sites are inside of the Archeological Site of Valley of the Temples. Inside this UNESCO the Neapolis “new city.”) World Heritage Site there are fantastic After free time for lunch, your guide will ruins of temples, cemeteries, houses, take your group inside the fascinating streets, auditoria, a small amphitheater and Archeological Museum which contains a fine archeological museum. In the late dating from the Bronze Age to the 5th afternoon your tour will finish at the hotel, century BC. After the museum visit the and the evening is at leisure. remainder of the day is free for you to DAY 11 ~ PALERMO explore, to shop or to swim. After breakfast and check- DAY 9 ~ AGRIGENTO out, travel north by private After breakfast your group bus to Sicily’s capital city of will check out and travel Palermo. Upon arrival your group will meet westward towards the a local guide for a tour of Palermo's Valley of the Temples. Your route will bring highlights including the Duomo, the Palace you through the historic town of of the Normans and Church of St John of Caltanissetta, and while here your group the Hermits. (There will be a break in the will visit its Norman Abbey of the Holy tour for lunch). Once your sightseeing tour Spirit, which was constructed in the late has finished, your group will transfer to the 11th century. Afterwards enjoy some free hotel for check-in. Enjoy a free evening to time to have lunch and see the workshops explore Palermo on your own. of great Sicilian potteries and ceramics DAY 12 ~ PALERMO before continuing east to the historic city of Agrigento, which will be your base city to This morning after explore Sicily’s famed Valley of the breakfast your group will Temples. travel by private bus to the wine-producing, coastal town of Marsala Group dinner tonight in a local restaurant. for a tour of a local winery. Afterwards DAY 10 ~ AGRIGENTO continue your journey up the coast to the scenic, fishing city of Trapani where you will After breakfast in the hotel have the chance to see windmills and salt your group will meet a local marshes that are well known in this area. guide in the lobby and Afternoon return to Palermo. Tonight your depart on what just might become your group will have a farewell dinner in a local favorite sightseeing excursion on this trip. restaurant. You’ll begin traveling west by private bus to Selinunte, an ancient Greek, coastal city DAY 13 ~ PALERMO that today contains ruins of an acropolis After breakfast and check- and numerous temples. The city was out your group will travel founded in the seventh century BC and was by private bus to Palermo effectively destroyed in 409 BC by the Airport where it will board its return flight Carthaginians. Selinunte is set in a tranquil to the USA. and scenic setting, with an ambience that offers a good impression of what an ancient