Seven nights through the most romantic corner of Italy, following the trail of Shakespeare’s most famous lovers from the medieval streets of Verona to the canals of Venice.
8 days
|From £4,560 pp
Seven nights through the most romantic corner of Italy, following the trail of Shakespeare’s most famous lovers from the medieval streets of Verona to the canals of Venice.
This is northern Italy at its most romantic, a journey through three of the country’s most beautiful cities connected by the trail of Shakespeare’s most famous lovers. Verona is the starting point and the heart of the itinerary, a UNESCO World Heritage city of Roman amphitheatres and medieval streets where the Romeo and Juliet story feels less like literary fiction and more like local history. A day trip to Mantua, the city of Romeo’s exile, completes the trail before the journey moves south to Florence and north to Venice.
Each city is distinct in character and extraordinary in its own right. Florence for the Renaissance art and the Oltrarno trattorias. Venice for the canals, the basilicas, and the particular quality of light that has been drawing painters here for five centuries.
Your driver meets you at the airport and takes you into Verona, one of the most beautiful and least hurried cities in northern Italy. The old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site of Roman amphitheatres, medieval towers, and Renaissance palaces, compact enough to explore entirely on foot and extraordinary at almost every turn.
Shakespeare set his most famous play here for good reason. The city has a quality of romance, and the landmarks associated with Romeo and Juliet, the balcony at Casa di Giulietta, the supposed tomb at San Francesco al Corso, are waiting to be explored.
Verona also has one of the great Roman amphitheatres still standing anywhere in the world, a remarkable restaurant scene rooted in the Veneto’s exceptional larder, and the Amarone wine country of Valpolicella within easy reach.
An hour east of Verona by road, Mantua is where Romeo was exiled and where he received the news that sent him back to Verona and the tragic conclusion of the story.
It is also, independent of its literary associations, one of the most beautiful small cities in Italy, sitting on three lakes formed by the River Mincio and largely bypassed by the kind of tourism that has overtaken more obvious destinations.
The Ducal Palace of the Gonzaga family is one of the great Renaissance interiors in northern Italy, the Camera degli Sposi containing Mantegna frescoes that have been stopping visitors in their tracks since 1474.
The city’s quiet piazzas, excellent restaurants, and almost complete absence of crowds make it one of the most rewarding day trips in the country. Your private transfer returns you to Verona for the evening.
A private transfer or first-class rail journey south brings you to Florence, the city that more or less invented the Renaissance and has been living with the consequences ever since.
The Uffizi, the Accademia, the Bargello, the concentration of world-class art here is without parallel, and Do Not Disturb arranges private early-morning access to the key collections before the crowds arrive.
Florence rewards those who balance the galleries with time at street level. The Ponte Vecchio at dusk. A long lunch in an Oltrarno trattoria. The climb to Piazzale Michelangelo for the view over the red-tiled rooftops that Turner painted and that has changed remarkably little since.
The final act. A private transfer or first-class rail journey north brings you to Venice, which arrives by water and on its own terms entirely. Your hotel sits on or near the Grand Canal, positioned so that the city is immediately present rather than something you have to navigate to find.
Venice is best understood slowly and best explored on foot through the calli and campi that most visitors never find by staying on the main routes. We can arrange a private gondola for an evening on the quieter canals, a guide who knows the city’s art and history well enough to make the Basilica di San Marco and the Doge’s Palace feel genuinely revelatory, and a table at one of the restaurants that the Venetians themselves consider worth the visit.
Departure is from Marco Polo Airport, a short water taxi ride from the city. There is no better way to leave Italy than watching Venice recede across the lagoon.
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