Renaissance Cities of Italy

Experience this unique opportunity to visit the three Renaissance cities of Italy: Florence, Parma, and Venice. The fusion of history, culture, food, and people in these beautiful cities will let you see why Italy is such a rich and textured country.

Date: All year
Duration: 9 days - 8 nights

This triad of Italian cities showcases the world’s best examples of Renaissance culture. Their beauty and art are still preserved and intact today, and the rich cultural history and culinary heritages are delights for the senses. To travel to Florence, Parma, and Venice is to take a trip back in time to the age of discovery, when mankind passed from the darkness of the Middle Ages to a time of luxury, artistic freedom, and scientific advancement. Get ready to pair world-class art and architecture with some of the best and most famous Italian foods and wines, such as Pecorino cheese and hearty Tuscan dishes served with red Chianti wine; Prosciutto di Parma cured ham and Parmigiano Reggiano aged cheese; and seafood with wines from the Veneto region.

Trip Overview

In addition to the prepared program, feel free to enjoy your personal Italian journey before and after this experience. During your free time on this tour we are delighted to assist you in making choices to enrich your experience.

Day 1

Arrive in Florence. Relax and enjoy the ancient, artistic atmosphere as you walk along the winding Renaissance roads looking in the many small shops and boutiques. For your welcoming dinner, taste your first fine Tuscan cuisine.

Day 2

Take a guided tour of this remarkable city in the morning, enjoying the famous sites like the Duomo, Santa Maria Novella, Santa Croce, and finally a fantastic view of the city from Piazzale Michelangelo. After lunch, we travel to a cheese and wine producer outside of the city. For dinner, we gather in the city at one of Florence’s finest restaurants for a Tuscan meal paired with the great Tuscan wines.

Day 3

Start the day in the characteristic area of the Chianti-producing region in a castle with a family that has produced Chianti for generations. Learn the nuances that make Chianti such a special wine, and taste during a lunch with typical Tuscan dishes. In the afternoon leave Florence and travel to Parma on a 1st class train. Arrive in Parma. Have a relaxing evening strolling through the stunning city of Parma, filled with antiquities of art and culture. Dinner is at a typical trattoria style restaurant, where you will be introduced to Parma food specialties.

Day 4

Welcome to Academia Barilla. Take a tour of the institute, meet the experts, and learn about the artisanal products of the region. You will participate in a sensory appreciation of the best artisan products: extra virgin olive oil, cheeses, and aged balsamic vinegar. Experts will share their knowledge of these products with you and guide your tasting. Then participate in a personalized cooking class on traditional Parma cuisine and eat the food you have prepared in a gourmet meal for lunch. In the afternoon you will be introduced to the stunning city of Parma, filled with antiquities of art and culture. A guided tour of the historical center with an art and history expert will give you insights into Italy’s, and especially the city’s, magnificent and fascinating past. Enjoy a free evening and dinner in Parma, provided with our suggestions for activities and restaurants in the city.

Day 5

You will meet producers of Parmigiano Reggiano and Prosciutto di Parma during a gourmet tour of artisan food, learning about their craft and tasting their products at lunch. For dinner, we will eat typical foods of Emilia Romagna, such as Salame di Felino and Spalla cotta.

Day 6

Depart Parma for the third and last Renaissance city, Venice. Enjoy an afternoon strolling the streets along the canals in this enchanting city. In the evening, get your first taste of Venetian cuisine with dishes based on fish.

Day 7

In the morning, we travel to nearby Lido for cooking classes with a professional chef who will teach you how to cook Venetian style. Lunch will be a delicious meal of the dishes you have prepared. In the afternoon, take a guided tour of the city, seeing all the famous sites of Venice like Saint Mark’s Basilica, Palazzo Ducale, and the Clock Tower. End in one of the finest wine bars in the city for the famous Italian “happy hour,” or aperitivo drink, the Venetian Spritz.

Day 8

In the morning, we visit some more great sites of Venice, appreciating the world’s finest collection of Venetian art in Museo dell’Accademia. For lunch, get the chance to sample some unusual but delicious and distinctly Venetian seafood dishes. In the afternoon, we travel by gondola to a wine tasting, where you will sample many different varieties of the best Venetian wines. We end our trip at an elegant restaurant in Venice for our farewell dinner, complete with a menu full of different dishes of Venetian cuisine paired with the wines of Veneto.

Day 9

Departure.

History

The Italian Renaissance had placed human beings once more in the center of life’s stage and infused thought and art with humanistic values.

In time the stimulating ideas current in Italy spread to other areas and combined with indigenous developments to produce a French Renaissance, an English Renaissance, and so on.

The term Renaissance, literally means “rebirth” and is the period in European civilization immediately following the Middle Ages, conventionally held to have been characterized by a surge of interest in classical learning and values. To the scholars and thinkers of the day, however, it was primarily a time of the revival of classical learning and wisdom after a long period of cultural decline and stagnation.

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