ITALIAN LAKES & VILLAS APRIL 23 – MAY 6, 2021 TOUR LEADER: ROBERT VEEL Villa Balbianello on Lake Como ITALIAN Overview LAKES & VILLAS Ever since the ancient Romans thought up the idea of escaping the city to Tour dates: April 23 – May 6, 2021 a refined country house, Western civilization has been captivated by the idea of the villa. The villas of Italy – be they ancient Roman, medieval, Tour leader: Robert Veel Renaissance or contemporary – epitomise elegance and refinement. Often they are the work of some of the greatest architects and artists in Tour Price: $9,810 per person, twin share history, and they offer unrivalled glimpses of the style and values of the period while also expressing the unique personality of their owners. Single Supplement: $2,560 for sole use of double room As the villa evolved across the centuries, the garden became equally important. Some of these gardens encapsulated the knowledge and reach Booking deposit: $1,000 per person of the owner through their botanical arrangements of exotic plants; others captured the spirit of the age, such as Isola Bella, with its exuberant floral Recommended airline: Emirates, Singapore, displays and theatrical landscaping. Qatar or Etihad This 14-day tour takes you to many of the finest villas of Italy. We begin on Maximum places: 20 the shores of Lake Como, and then follow a circular route visiting the elegant town of Mantua, with its stunning frescoes by Andrea Mantegna Itinerary: Bellagio (3 nights), Vicenza (2 nights), and Giulio Romano, and continue on to the Veneto, where we admire the Asolo (3 nights), Gardone Riviera (2 nights), Renaissance country houses and palaces of Andrea Palladio. The tour Stresa (3 nights) concludes on Lake Maggiore, with visits to the Borromean Islands and Lake Orta. The tour makes the most of the spectacular spring colour of Date published: May 13, 2020 pre-Alpine Italy and the region’s culinary delights. Most of the tour is spent in small lakeside and hill towns, rather than large cities. This allows you to enjoy the gentle pace and everyday elegance of provincial Italian life, free from noise and the tourist crush. The itinerary is gently paced; busy days are interspersed with quieter ones. Your tour leader Robert Veel is a cultural historian with over 20 years’ experience leading tours to Italy, the USA, Scandinavia and Asia. He has a strong personal interest in the visual arts, architecture and music, and is a founding director of Academy Travel. Robert holds a BA, Dip. Ed and M.Ed, all from the University of Sydney. He worked as a lecturer at the University of Sydney before a long stint at the University’s Centre for Continuing Education, lecturing in Italian history and culture and working as Assistant Director. Robert continues to teach occasionally in Continuing Education courses. Robert’s historical and artistic knowledge stretches Enquiries from the Middle Ages through the early 20th century. In Italy he has led and bookings many tours focusing on the Medieval and Renaissance periods. Robert speaks fluent Italian. For further information and to secure a place on this tour “Robert was an excellent tour guide – very informative, enthusiastic, keen to show us everything which led to a fantastic tour.” please contact Hannah Kleboe at Academy Travel on Feedback from Robert’s Venice tour, March 2019 9235 0023 or 1800 639 699 (outside Sydney) or email [email protected]. au Tour Highlights THE LANDSCAPES OF ITALY Italy’s varied landscapes have inspired poets, artists and travellers for millennia. Enjoy some of Italy’s most sublime scenery, from lakes and gardens set beneath the snow- capped Alps on Lake Como and Lake Maggiore, to the patrician elegance of Vicenza, a relaxed pace of life in the hill town of Asolo, and the verdant fields and vineyards of the Veneto. PALLADIO’S VILLAS IN THE VENETO Palladio’s World Heritage-listed villas and palaces are among the finest expressions of Renaissance ideals of the good life, which were founded on a notion of harmony among parts. Palladio’s innovations have been enduring, and we visit some of his finest buildings, such as the Villa Emo and La Rotonda, which have influenced generations of architects from Inigo Jones to Frank Lloyd Wright. THE BORROMEAN ISLANDS The islands in Lake Maggiore have been owned by the Borromeo family for centuries, and they’ve developed them beautifully as both places of repose and as a unique way to display their magnificence. Experience Isola Bella on Lake Maggiore, one of Italy’s greatest baroque gardens, in all its springtime splendour, and explore tranquil Villa Taranto, one of northern Italy’s finest botanic gardens. SPRING COLOUR ON LAKE COMO Lake Como has a number of different microclimates which gardeners and botanists have exploited. The combinations of temperate and warm climate plants are at their best in spring, when they flourish against an alpine backdrop, creating a spectacle that was designed to reflect the tastes and knowledge of the garden’s owner. Explore the villas and gardens of Lake Como, and dine at the historic Villa d’Este. COURTS OF NORTHERN ITALY During the Renaissance, small courts sprang up in northern Italy, emerging as fiefdoms of warlords and despots, but developing into centres of culture and refinement. We discover Mantegna’s Camera degli Sposi in Mantua, Queen Caterina Cornaro’s hill town court in quiet Asolo, and the medieval fortresses of Verona’s Scaliger dynasty on beautiful Lake Garda. Detailed itinerary Included meals are shown with the letters B, L and D. Tour start & finish time The tour starts at 10.00am on Friday April 23, at Milan’s Malpensa airport to transfer by coach to the Bellagio hotel. The tour ends at 11.00am on Thursday May 6, when we arrive by coach to Milan’s Malpensa airport from our Stresa hotel. Friday April 23 Lake Como A group transfer to Bellagio, spectacularly situated on Lake Como, is available for those arriving in Milan’s Malpensa airport on early morning flights. Those travelling independently should make their own way to the hotel. On arrival there is the chance to freshen up (hotel rooms may not be available until early afternoon), before we take a short stroll around the town. In the afternoon, we enjoy Lake Como in the way it was meant to be seen, from the water, on our private boat tour, stopping for an afternoon tea break and visit to the picturesque Villa Monastero. There is a light, early dinner in the hotel, which looks out across the lake. Overnight Bellagio (D) Above: The neoclassical Villa Melzi, on the shores of Lake Como, would be dwarfed by the alps behind it if it weren’t for its careful design Saturday April 24 Luxury and Escape Below: Built in 1568 as the summer residence of Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio, Villa d’Este is surrounded by a 10-hectare private park The villa has historically been a place for otium – a place for the rest and regeneration we need from the world of business and public life. Today we visit two villas that capture different ways to achieve this end. Our first visit is to the 18th-century Villa Balbianello, which occupies an exceptional position on a promontory with panoramic views of Lake Como. We take a guided tour of the interior, decorated in the 20th century by Italian entrepreneur and explorer Guido Monzino. After our visit of the villa, we continue by private boat to Villa D’Este, the best- known villa on Lake Como, where we enjoy a sumptuous welcome lunch, with time to explore the grounds before returning to Bellagio. Overnight Bellagio (B, L) Sunday April 25 Neo-classical villas Please note: today is a public holiday Villas and their gardens often have stories to tell, and the two we visit today speak volumes about Italy’s travails at the turn of the 19th century. The Villa Melzi was built in the neo-classical style for Napoleon’s Vice-President of Italy, Francesco Melzi D’Eril. He called in the designers of the Royal Park at Monza to do his gardens, which flow graciously down the mountainside to the lake. After visiting the gardens this morning, we cross the lake to the Villa Carlotta, commenced by Gian Battista Sommariva, the great rival of Melzi D’Eril of the Villa Melzi. Villa Carlotta became a fixture for Grand Tourists because of its collection of works by Canova and Thorvaldsen, the two best sculptors of the period. In the mid-19th century, Sommariva’s villa was sold, then given as a wedding gift to Princess Charlotte of Prussia, whose husband Georg of Saxe-Meuningen was an avid botanist. He is largely responsible for the garden’s appearance today, with its cascading azaleas, rhododendrons and camellias, and extensive botanical gardens which take full advantage of the lake’s microclimate. Overnight Bellagio (B) Monday April 26 the court of mantua We leave Lake Como today and travel by coach to Vicenza, stopping at Mantua, a small town that was a vibrant 15th- century court under the Gonzaga dynasty. Andrea Mantegna’s celebrated frescoes in the Camera degli Sposi, and Giulio Romano’s mischievous gods and goddesses at the Palazzo Te, are two different indications of the concerns of the dukes, whose city declined from the 16th century due to problems with succession. After a guided visit of the town, we continue on to our hotel and enjoy a meal together. Overnight Vicenza (B, D) Tuesday April 27 palladio in the city Vicenza, today a vibrant regional centre, was the home of Andrea Palladio, the great Renaissance architect whose Four Books of Architecture are among the most influential works ever written in the field.