Italy: Rome and Florence, a Slow Two-City Stay

1. Day 1: Arrive in Rome

   Rome Fiumicino Airport to your hotel in central Rome, then the Pantheon and Piazza Navona

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Dinner
   • Stay in Rome
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Rome Fiumicino (FCO), about 30 km from the centre; plan to land by early afternoon. Our driver meets you in arrivals and takes you to the hotel, within walking distance of the Pantheon and Piazza Navona. At about 5 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing and an easy first walk. The Pantheon comes first, rebuilt under Hadrian with a concrete dome still open to the sky at its centre. A few minutes away is Sant'Ignazio, where the Jesuit painter Andrea Pozzo covered the ceiling with figures that seem to rise into heaven, and painted a flat canvas that passes for a dome. We finish in Piazza Navona as the evening crowd comes out, around Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers, then sit down together to a welcome dinner of Roman dishes at a local trattoria.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Rome Fiumicino Airport (FCO)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Evening walk: the Pantheon, Sant'Ignazio and Piazza Navona
   • Welcome dinner

   Free time: Free until the late-afternoon briefing

   Activity: About 2 km of easy walking.

   

2. Day 2: The Vatican at the first entry

   Your hotel to the Vatican Museums and St Peter's, then Prati

   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Rome
   Day 2 details

   We are at the Vatican Museums for the first entry at 8 am, with a licensed Vatican guide and quiet-guide headsets. The museums are vast, so the guide picks a route rather than trying to see everything: the Pinecone Courtyard, the Gallery of Maps with its painted map of every Italian region, the Raphael Rooms, and then the Sistine Chapel, where Michelangelo painted the ceiling from 1508 to 1512 and the Last Judgement more than twenty years later. The chapel is kept silent and photos are not allowed, so the guide explains what you are looking at before we go in. From there we cross into St Peter's Basilica for Michelangelo's Pietà and Bernini's bronze canopy under the dome. Lunch is a sit-down meal in Prati, the quieter neighbourhood beside the Vatican. The afternoon is free: rest at the hotel, climb St Peter's dome, or walk along the Tiber to Castel Sant'Angelo.

   Included

   • Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel on the first entry, with a licensed guide
   • St Peter's Basilica
   • Sit-down lunch in Prati

   Optional experiences

   • Climb St Peter's dome
   • Castel Sant'Angelo

   More active option: Climb the 551 steps (or take the lift part way) to the top of St Peter's dome after the basilica.

   Free time: Afternoon free in Rome

   Activity: About 3 hours standing and walking in the museums, with stairs; covered shoulders and knees for St Peter's.

   

3. Day 3: Ancient Rome early, Trastevere at night

   The Colosseum, the Palatine and the Roman Forum, then Trastevere

   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Rome
   Day 3 details

   We are at the Colosseum for the first timed entry of the morning, before the tour coaches arrive, with a licensed archaeological guide. Inside the amphitheatre, opened in AD 80, the guide shows how around fifty thousand spectators were seated by rank and how animals were raised into the arena from the passages under its floor. Then we walk up the Palatine, the hill where the emperors built their palaces, for the view down over the Circus Maximus, and come down into the Roman Forum along the Via Sacra, past the Arch of Titus and the Senate House. Lunch is your choice in Monti, the old neighbourhood behind the Forum, and the afternoon is free to rest. In the early evening we cross the Tiber into Trastevere, walking its ivy-hung lanes to Santa Maria in Trastevere and its gold apse mosaics, then sit down to dinner: cacio e pepe, carciofi in season, saltimbocca.

   Included

   • The Colosseum, the Palatine and the Roman Forum on the first timed entry, with a licensed guide
   • Evening walk in Trastevere and Santa Maria in Trastevere
   • Dinner in Trastevere

   Optional experiences

   • Capitoline Museums
   • Galleria Borghese (timed tickets sell out weeks ahead)

   Easier option: Skip the climb up the Palatine: your guide leads a level route through the Forum and meets the group at the Arch of Titus.

   Free time: Afternoon free in Rome

   Activity: About 3 hours on foot on uneven ancient paving and the Palatine slope; bring a hat and water in summer.

4. Day 4: Fast train to Florence and David

   Rome to Florence by fast train, then the Accademia and the centre

   • By train
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Florence
   Day 4 details

   After breakfast we check out, and our vehicle takes the group and bags to Roma Termini for a reserved fast train north at about 10 am, about an hour and a half through the hills of Lazio, Umbria and Tuscany. At Firenze Santa Maria Novella the driver meets us and takes the bags to the hotel near the Duomo. We arrive by about midday; after lunch on your own near the Duomo, we go to the Accademia on a reserved mid-afternoon slot with a local guide, to see Michelangelo's David, more than five metres of marble carved from 1501 to 1504, and the unfinished Prisoners in the gallery that leads to it. Then a first walk through the historic centre, a UNESCO site since 1982: the Baptistery doors, Brunelleschi's dome on the Duomo, Piazza della Signoria and the Palazzo Vecchio, and out onto the Ponte Vecchio as the goldsmiths' shutters close. The evening is free; dinner is your choice.

   Included

   • Transfer to Roma Termini and from Firenze Santa Maria Novella, with your bags
   • Reserved fast train, Rome to Florence
   • The Accademia and Michelangelo's David, with a local guide
   • Walking tour of the historic centre: the Duomo, the Baptistery, Piazza della Signoria and the Ponte Vecchio

   Optional experiences

   • Climb Brunelleschi's dome (separate timed ticket)

   More active option: Climb the 463 steps to the top of Brunelleschi's dome on a timed ticket we can book for you.

   Free time: Evening free in Florence

   Activity: About 1 h 35 to 1 h 50 on the train; about 2 to 3 hours on foot in the afternoon.

   

5. Day 5: The Uffizi at opening, Fiesole at sunset

   The Uffizi in Florence, then up to Fiesole

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Florence
   Day 5 details

   We are at the Uffizi for the first entry at 8:15, before the corridors fill. A local art guide takes us through the rooms in order, so the Renaissance reads as a story: Giotto's Ognissanti Madonna, Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera, Leonardo's Annunciation, and the view up the Arno from the top-floor corridor. Small groups wear quiet-guide headsets, so we never crowd a painting. By late morning you are free. Lunch is your choice, and the Mercato Centrale food hall near San Lorenzo is a good place to start; the afternoon is yours for the Pitti Palace, the Boboli Gardens or a long rest. In the late afternoon our vehicle climbs about 8 km to Fiesole, the hill town that was here before Florence. Walk the Roman theatre and the Etruscan walls in the archaeological area, then watch the city below turn gold from the terrace by San Francesco.

   Included

   • The Uffizi Gallery at 8:15 opening, with a local art guide
   • Fiesole: the archaeological area with the Roman theatre and Etruscan walls
   • Sunset from the San Francesco terrace in Fiesole

   Optional experiences

   • Pitti Palace and the Boboli Gardens
   • The Medici Chapels

   Easier option: Stay on the main square in Fiesole with a drink while the group walks up to San Francesco.

   More active option: Walk back down to Florence from Fiesole by the old lanes through San Domenico, about 5 km and an hour, mostly downhill.

   Free time: Late morning and afternoon free in Florence

   Activity: About 2 hours standing in the Uffizi; the lane up to San Francesco in Fiesole is short but steep. The Fiesole visit's timing is set by season, as the archaeological area can close before sunset in autumn and winter.

6. Day 6: A Chianti lunch day

   Florence to Panzano in Chianti, a winery and Castellina in Chianti, then back

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Florence
   Day 6 details

   A slower morning, then we leave Florence at about 10 am in our own vehicle and drive about 50 minutes south on the old Chiantigiana road through olive groves and vineyards. In Panzano in Chianti we stop for coffee and the view over the Conca d'Oro, the bowl of vines below the village. Then on to a family winery in the Chianti Classico area for the day's centrepiece: a walk through the vines and the cellar with the family, then a long Tuscan lunch with their wine and olive oil. Nobody needs to drive afterwards. Mid-afternoon we go on to Castellina in Chianti, walking its covered medieval street, the Via delle Volte, and the Etruscan tomb mound of Montecalvario just outside town. We are back in Florence by about 6 pm, and the evening is free.

   Included

   • Panzano in Chianti and the Conca d'Oro view
   • Family winery visit with a cellar tour and tasting
   • Long winery lunch with wine
   • Castellina in Chianti: the Via delle Volte and the Etruscan tomb of Montecalvario

   Easier option: Stay in Florence for a free day; the vehicle leaves from the hotel, so you can decide that morning.

   Free time: Morning until 10 am and the evening free

   Activity: About 2 and a half hours of driving in three short legs; easy walking in the villages and the vineyard.

7. Day 7: Leave from Florence

   Your hotel to Florence Airport (FLR) or Santa Maria Novella station

   • Breakfast
   Day 7 details

   A last breakfast in Florence, and the morning is yours until your transfer. If you have time, the San Lorenzo market lanes and the Mercato Centrale open early, and a last espresso standing at a bar costs about the same as anywhere in Italy. Our driver takes you to Florence Airport (FLR), about 6 km and 20 minutes from the centre, or to Santa Maria Novella station if you are continuing by train. Florence airport mainly serves European routes, so if your long-haul flight leaves from Rome Fiumicino, you can add a fast train to Roma Termini at your own cost, about an hour and a half, and from there the airport train takes about 32 minutes; we help you book both. Your guide checks everyone's onward times the evening before and plans the transfers around them, so nobody waits hours at a station or rushes for a flight.

   Included

   • Transfer to Florence Airport (FLR) or Santa Maria Novella station

   Free time: Morning free until your transfer

   Activity: Book a flight from Florence after about 11 am, or a long-haul flight from Rome Fiumicino after about 3 pm.

Wildlife and weather: Spring and autumn are mild and the best months. July and August are hot and busy, so we keep sightseeing to the mornings and leave the middle of the day free; November to March is cooler and quieter, with shorter days and some rain.

• Rome3 nights
• Florence3 nights