Take A Trip to Italy

What do you think of when I say: Milan, Rome, Lake Como, Sorrento, Pisa, Capri?

Traveling to Italy will soon become a very real possibility.  2022 is only 14 months away and it is to your advantage to at least secure your travel to Italy NOW with a deposit in order to hold your space.

For Luxury Travel in Italy pricing for a private daily tour begins at $81.00 with a walking tour of Florence all the way up to $2360.00 for a Private Yacht tour of Capri.

Four- and Five-Star Luxury Hotels are waiting for your arrival and your very own tour guide is at the ready to drive you wherever you want to go.  You will have First Class entry to all the art museums and places of interest such as the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, Basilicas and Underground Catacombs.

You can choose from Independent Tours, Mix & Match Tours, Escorted Tours, Private Daily Tours and Group Tours (up to 10 people).  People watch while dining at some of the sweetest sidewalk cafés, visit exquisite private residences for an authentic Italian meal, or just relax in Capri’ Grotto Azzure (Blue Grotto).

Won’t you join us in Italy?

We have chosen three different trips to three different areas of Italy for you to consider.  Enjoy reading about each one and give TravelKatz a call when you are ready to travel.  We have other Italian vacations to choose from, so let us know your vacation idea and we will customize it for you.

Beauty Comes Easily to Tuscany

• Siena’s principle sites cluster in the maze of narrow streets and alleys around the fan-shaped Piazza del Campo. One of Europe’s greatest
  

  Tuscany

  medieval squares, the piazza sits at the hearth of the city’s 17 contrade, a series of parishes whose ancient rivalries are still acted out in the twice-yearly Palio. Once a capital to rival Florence, Siena is Italy’s prettiest medieval town, still endowed with the grandeur of the age in which it was at its peak (1260 to 1348).

• For much of the middle ages, Pisa’s powerful navy ensured its dominance of the western Mediterranean. Trading links with Spain and north Africa in the 12th century brought vast mercantile wealth and formed the basis of a scientific and cultural revolution that is still reflected in Pisa’s spending buildings, especially the Duomo, Baptistry, and Campanile (Leaning Tower).
• Cortona was founded by the Etruscans. Apart from being one of the oldest hill-towns in Tuscany, it is also one of the most scenic.
• Lucca’s regular grid of streets still follows the pattern of the former Roman colony founded in 180 BCE. Giant, solid ramparts, built in the 16th to 17th centuries, help to shut out traffic, making the city a pleasant place to explore on foot. Lucca’s peaceful narrow lanes wind among the medieval buildings, opening suddenly to reveal churches, tiny piazzas, and many other reminders of the city’s long history, including a Roman amphitheatre.
• Set in the Colline Metallifere (metal-bearing hills) where lead, copper, and silver ores were mined as early as Etruscan times, Massa Marittima is far from being a grimy industrial town. Excellent examples of Romanesque architecture survive from the period when the town became an independent republic (1225 to 1235).
• Montepulciano is one of Tuscany’s highest hill towns, its walls and fortifications offering broad views over Umbria and Southern Tuscany. Its vineyards make the famous Vino Nobile wine.
• Hilltop Montalcino sits at the hearth of vineyards that produce Brunello, one of Italy’s finest red wines.
• Monteriggioni is a gem of a medieval hilltop town. Built in 1203, 10 years later it became a garrison town. It is completely encircled by high walls with 14 heavily fortified towers built to guard the northern borders of Siena’s territory against invasion by the Florentine army.
• The thirteen towers that dominate San Gimignano’s majestic skyline were built by noble families in the 12th and 13th centuries when the town’s geographical position (on the main pilgrim route from northern Europe to Rome) brought prosperity. The plague of 1348, and the diversion of the pilgrims route, led to the area’s decline as well as its current preservation. Today, although only one of the towers, the Torre Grossa, is open to the public, the town remains rich in works of art, good shops, and restaurants.
• Pitigliano is spectacularly situated high above the cave-riddled cliffs of the Lente Valley. Its maze of tiny medieval streets includes a small Jewish ghetto, formed in the 17th century by Jews fleeing from Catholic persecution.

A Visit to Amalfi Coast and Capri 

• Enjoy your dinner in Amalfi because there’s no such thing as a bad house in Italy. You can’t help but feel more at peace after watching the relaxed manner of doing everything in this getaway town.
• If you like to imagine you’re living in mythological times, come to the town known as the City of Sirens, Sorrento. Lovers of Greek mythology will recall that the sirens lured fishermen to dangerous rocks with their entrancing songs, and you will feel equally mesmerized by this lovely coastal town. If you need a jolt back to reality, try the zesty local limoncello made from the boon of local lemon groves.
  

  Amalfi Coast

• Take the boat from Sorrento to Capri Island to visit the Grotta Azzurra, or ‘blue grotto.’ This mysteriously pretty place was once considered a nymphaeum, a consecrated natural spring dedicated to nymphs, mythological creatures who lived in small bodies of water.
• Positano seems to have one of those magnetic personalities. People visit there, don’t want to leave, and feel happily stuck in this town of twisty streets, plazas, and cafes.
• Maiori, formerly an important port, this town’s current hot spot is its extensive and sparkling beachfront resort.
• In Praiano Ravello visit the Chiesa di San Luca Evangelista, a church dedicated to St. Luke in this quiet town with lots of breathing room.
• July13th holds regal marine processions each year for the festival of the town’s patron saint, Santa Trofimena. Your visit to Italy will have no lack in variety and taste, but Minori’s unusual melanzane alla cioccolata, a dessert of eggplant, chocolate, sugar and almonds will make you think twice about the stereotypical dessert ingredients.

Welcome to Cinque Terre

• Tucked away in the north of Italy, these seaside towns boast hiking among olive groves and hilly vistas alike. You’ll enjoy the charm of the buildings and homes built right into the crevices of the hills. Peering down on the harbor and lights at night is not to be missed and hiking the hills during sunrise down to the beach will definitely be a vision you’ll remember years later. We’ve mentioned hiking, and the way to do it is through a walking path carved into the rock on the side of the hills. One section is named the Via Dell’amore, so ask your tour guide about it. As you travel the hiking path, you’ll find a number of wine bars overlooking the harbor to try wines made right nearby. Restaurants abound as well. Sometimes, in the summer, this place gets pretty popular, so if you need some alone time, stroll over to the Gulf of Poets around La Spezia.
• Vernazza – When you make your way along Cinque Terre, you’ll notice a similarity in architecture of the homes. Some of them are almost like towers or castles. Like many parts of Europe, narrow streets pack together and cover different levels of town; we call the network of alleys between ‘carruggi.’ Closer to the water’s edge you can check out the remains of battlements protecting from naval invasions, such as the Castle of the Doria.
  

  Vernazza

• Monterosso El Mare – If you take a moment to depart from the famous hiking corridor onto the road between here and Vernazza, you will be following close to an old pilgrimage path. The Madonna di Soviore offers one stopping point to immerse yourself in this important part of Italian history, the history of the church. As with many religious places around the world, you will be inspired by the amazing view from the Madonna di Soviore, too. Your tour guide can also point out the Il Gigante, a wonderful sculpture of the male form cut directly into a cliff’s edge.
• As you continue your trek within the Cinque Terre, another point of interest is how the residents ‘moor’ their fishing boats in Riomaggiore. Some areas, covered with the rock that makes this area so transcendent with beauty, make for not-so-easy boat storage. At night, residents use cranes to lift their boats into parking garages.
• Once in Manarola, you may encounter one of the lovely vineyards, replete with fences covered in greenery and brightly colored doors draped with grape plant tendrils hanging down. Some may or may not be open to the public, so your tour guide can make sure that you have a chance to see a great Italian vineyard. The continued integration of religion into life here in Italy is quite literally built into the fabric of the land of Manarola. Your tour guide can make sure you see the nativity scene constructed on the side of a hill and explain the story behind its construction.

While thinking about travel to Italy, experience the food, culture, and tucked away areas not often visited by the everyday traveler.  Italian Cuisine is special and visiting a private residence will immerse you into the culture not often seen.  DON’T FORGET TRAVEL INSURANCE!

Contact Kathryn or Sandra for more information and pricing for your trip to Italy by calling 352-277-7300 or visit www.travelkatz.com or email either [email protected] or [email protected].