You’ll start your Italian adventure in the Eternal City: Rome. After you land, you’ll be met by a representative from Adventures by Disney, who will escort you to a car and driver for the trip to your hotel for the next two nights, the Gran Meliá Rome Hotel. This city-center property can feel like a country villa, with a large outdoor pool and landscaped grounds. It’s fitting that the hotel is located where the country house of Emperor Nero’s mother once stood.  

You’ll follow in her footsteps this afternoon when you join a tour of the Colosseum, making your way along a similar route to the one she may have followed to the heart of ancient Rome. Even today, this monumental structure looms over not just the neighboring Forum, but the contemporary city as well. Completed in 80 C.E., the stadium could accommodate around 65,000 spectators. Despite being damaged by fires and earthquakes over the centuries, and at times being used as a quarry for stone for other buildings, the building remains mostly intact. On your tour, you’ll learn not only about the building’s architecture and engineering, but also the role that the spectacles presented here played in the daily life of ancient Romans.  

After your visit, you’ll return to your hotel for a welcome cocktail reception and dinner with your fellow travelers and your Adventure Guides.

After breakfast, you’ll board a motor coach for a panoramic tour of Rome, followed by a walking tour. The first provides a helpful overview of the larger city, to see where the landmarks of ancient Rome, for example, sit in relationship to their Renaissance counterparts. You’ll then explore part of the city on foot and experience the almost startling proximity of so many of the city’s iconic sights, with the Spanish Steps, the Piazza Navona, the Trevi Fountain, and the Pantheon all within walking distance of each other.  

Your guide will then take you to a favorite restaurant for delicious salads and authentic pizzas.  

In the afternoon, you’ll have a privately guided tour of the world’s most famous church, St. Peter’s Basilica. An earlier basilica from the fourth century long stood on the site of the current church, but by the middle of the 1400s it had become clear that it would need to be replaced after centuries of neglect. The current St. Peter’s took most of the 16th century to complete, and many of Renaissance Italy’s most famous figures contributed to its design: Bramante, Bernini, Michelangelo, and others. Its dome remains the world’s tallest, and the church is the world’s largest, attracting thousands of pilgrims and tourists every year.  

Tonight’s dinner is on your own; your Adventure Guide will be happy to provide recommendations of restaurants that best suit the tastes of your family or other travel companions. 

Afterwards, you’ll experience a trip highlight (and a backstage-access opportunity): a private, after-hours tour of the Vatican Museums, including the Sistine Chapel. Many of the thousands of visitors who make their way to St. Peter’s Basilica each year also visit the Vatican Museums. During the day, the crowds who want to see the museum’s incomparable collections of art, which extend from ancient sculptures to contemporary works, can be overwhelming. On your VIP experience, however, you’ll have room to admire masterpieces like the Apollo Belvedere, the Laocoön, and frescoes by Raphael in the Vatican apartments. The most famous work, of course, is the Sistine Chapel, with its ceiling and other frescoes by Michelangelo. It’s reason enough to make the journey.

You’ll say farewell to Rome this morning and travel north to Orvieto. Along the way, you’ll pass through landscapes that may look like they’re straight from the Italian paintings you admired at the Vatican Museums. Villages with soaring medieval towers and domed churches rise above a landscape of rolling hills, vineyards, olive groves, and country roads lined with cypresses.  

You’ll arrive in Orvieto later in the morning, with time to explore one of Italy’s most magical hill towns. It sits on an outcropping of volcanic stone, high above the plains of Umbria. Its 14th-century cathedral, with a façade covered in biblical scenes made of mosaics, is the most famous landmark, and there are several former palaces that now house a remarkable collection of medieval and Renaissance works. The magic of Orvieto is perhaps, however, its streetscapes, with a twisting warren of alleys and lanes largely preserving the medieval design of the city.  

You’ll have lunch in Orvieto, perhaps paired with a local wine—the ones produced here reflect the richness of the local grapes, which are grown in the area’s volcanic soil.  
In the afternoon, you’ll continue on to Tuscany, and specifically the Chianti region, where you’ll spend the night at the Borgo Di Cortefreda, a hotel in Tavarnelle Val di Pesa. This hotel has a casual, welcoming air—you may feel like you’ve been invited to the country home of an Italian friend. After admiring the views of the rolling hills of Chianti, with olive orchards and vineyards in every direction, you’ll have some downtime to enjoy some of the property’s amenities: a swimming pool, Turkish bath, and Finnish sauna.  

You’ll rejoin your group in the evening for a special dégustazione dinner, with multiple dishes featuring the best Tuscan ingredients in traditional preparations and paired with some of the region’s best wines. Younger travelers will have their own event this evening, beginning with lawn games and an Italian-soda tasting, followed by a kids-only dinner and a screening of a Disney movie.

If you were traveling on your own, you may see the sights and even dine at some critically acclaimed restaurants. But an Adventures by Disney trip always takes the extra step to connect travelers with local experiences and provide opportunities to meet the people who live in the destinations they visit. 

This morning is an example of that approach. After breakfast at your hotel, you’ll travel by motor coach to Fattoria Poggio Alloro, a working farm in the heart of Chianti. As you arrive at the farm—which sits next to San Gimignano, a fortified hilltop town famous for its dozen soaring medieval towers—you’ll be greeted by the chef for a pasta-making class. Later, you’ll tour the winery, learning about the grapes grown here and what makes the wines of Chianti and Tuscany prized around the world. Afterwards, the owners will uncork some bottles so you can sample the final product. If weather allows, you’ll eat a pasta lunch on the farm’s terrace while enjoying the views of San Gimignano.  

You’ll then return to your hotel, where you’ll have some more time to enjoy the property or head into nearby Tavarnelle Val di Pesa. The town lies on the road connecting the city-states of Siena and Florence, and counts St. Francis of Assissi among its past famous visitors. But despite all that, it remains remarkably low-key. You can stroll along centuries-old streets and lanes, shop for olive oils, soaps, and other local products, or simply stop at an appealing café for an aperitivo or coffee.  

When you rejoin your group in the evening, you’ll head to a 15th-century castello for a banquet served by costumed staff. The delicious meal and unique setting add up to an unforgettable meal.

In 1350, Florence was an unremarkable town of some 25,000 people. If it was known at all, it was as a modest center of wool production. At the beginning of the 15th century, that would all begin to change. The city would become famous as the home of philosophers, writers, and many artists who worked here for all or part of their careers, enjoying the patronage of the ruling Medici family. Ghiberti, Vasari, Titian, and Botticelli are just a few of the people who walked the streets you will explore today. The most famous of them all, however, was Michelangelo. Just as his frescoes in the Sistine Chapel are among Rome’s most famous works, seeing his statue of David is a highlight of a visit to Florence. 

Adventures by Disney will arrange a timed visit so you can skip the long lines when you visit the Galleria dell’Accademia to visit David, and afterwards you’ll explore Florence on foot. You’ll see the Duomo—with its famous dome by Filippo Brunelleschi—and the Baptistry, one of the city’s oldest buildings and an influence on Renaissance architects, who admired its elegant design. You’ll stop at several piazzas and cross the Ponte Vecchio, a bridge spanning the Arno that’s famous for the jewelers located, to this day, in small stores atop it.  

Florence has an abundance of restaurants, and your Adventure Guide is ready to offer recommendations, from casual eateries to white-tablecloth restaurants. You may want to try some of the city’s signature dishes, like Florentine beefsteak, tagliatelle with mushrooms, pappardelle with wild boar. While you can find gelato everywhere in Italy, Florence is where it was invented, so sampling it here counts as a must.  

In the afternoon, rejoin your group for a VIP tour of the Palazzo Vecchio. Construction of the palace began in 1299, and it was long a fortification intended to protect the city’s residents. It would later serve briefly as the seat of the Medici family, before they moved into the larger Palazzo Pitti on the opposite side of the Arno. Even later than that, it was the seat of the Italian government for six years in the 19th century, when Florence was the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. It houses works by Michelangelo, Vasari, and Botticelli, and the tour also includes an opportunity for kids to dress up in period costumes for photos.  

You’ll have the rest of the day to explore this captivating city on your own.

You’ll leave your hotel this morning after breakfast and travel to your next stop, Venice, on an ITALO bullet train. You’ll speed your way through the countryside of northern Italy, with a boxed lunch provided on board, and arrive in Venice by the early afternoon.  

There is, simply, no other city in the world like Venice, built atop a series of islands on a lagoon at the northern end of the Adriatic. It has long drawn poets and artists, enchanted by this watery world. Most of the city is car-free, and while there are motorized water taxis and a public transit system of ferries, the most magical way to see it is from a gondola—the traditional mode of transportation to get around this city since the 11th century. We can’t guarantee your gondolier will sing, but as you travel along the Grand Canal and pass by the Rialto Bridge, you may be moved to belt out a song yourself.  

Afterwards, you’ll join a walking tour of Venice’s most famous square—the Piazza San Marco. Here, the Doge’s Palace sits next to the Basilica San Marco, the city’s cathedral and one of the best surviving examples of the Italo-Byzantine style of architecture. Its ornate exterior and interior glowing with golden mosaics reflect the cultural influence of the Byzantine Empire when the building was constructed in the 11th century. The iconic horses atop the church and overlooking the piazza were in fact looted from Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, in the Fourth Crusade.  

The piazza is more than the buildings that ring it, however. It has been described as “the drawing room of Europe” (a phrase often attributed to Napoleon). That nickname seems even more apt today. If you sit at a cafe and watch the world pass by, you’ll see visitors from every corner of the continent (and the globe, for that matter) taking delight in Venice’s beauty.  

After your tour, you’ll board a private boat to the Hotel Hilton Molino Stucky, which sits on the island of Giudecca, across a channel from Venice’s principal islands. This hotel, located in a former flour mill (in Italian, molino) is an appealing base in Venice, with larger rooms and amenities like an enormous spa and a rooftop pool that you won’t find in most hotels on Venice’s main islands.  

The hotel will host a welcome reception for your group, and then you’ll have an evening free to enjoy dinner on your own. Adventure Guides can recommend options both on Giudecca or back in Venice.

You’ll head back this morning to the Piazza San Marco for a guided tour of the Doge’s Palace. For more than 1,000 years, from 697 until 1797 (when Napoleon abolished the office), Venice was ruled by a doge, elected from the city’s aristocracy. While there were earlier palaces on the site, the current palace dates from the 14th and 15th centuries and is considered a masterpiece of Gothic architecture. As you tour rooms from the doge’s private apartments to chambers used for various government functions, your guide will provide a fascinating introduction to the history of one of the world’s great maritime and trading powers. A Junior Adventurer art detective game will bring history and the masterpieces on display to life as players search out clues around the palace. 

Along with gondolas and the Piazza San Marco, the masked revelers of Carnevale may be among the images that come to mind first when you think of Venice. After your tour of the Doge’s Palace, you’ll visit Tragicomica, a shop famous for its beautiful and elaborate masks, and take a workshop to create your own mask. Anyone can return from Italy with a bottle of olive oil or Chianti, but you’ll have a unique souvenir that you created yourself—with some help from the experts at Tragicomica. 

After lunch, you’ll have the afternoon free to explore Venice on your own. Perhaps you’ll want to visit some of its museums, foremost among them the Galleria dell’Accademia, known for its many medieval and Renaissance masterpieces, and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, with exhibits of modern and contemporary works. A visit to the Ghetto, the namesake of other ghettos that followed it, provides insights into the history of Jewish life in Venice. Or perhaps the best way to spend the day is simply wandering and not worrying if you get lost. You can’t ever stray too far, thanks to water on all sides.  

In the evening, you’ll meet up again with your group for an exciting dinner cruise aboard the Jolly Roger. This pirate-themed galleon will host a fun farewell celebration full of lively entertainment and special surprises. You’ll also enjoy the magical perspective of Venice from the water, with its palazzos and other buildings illuminated and glowing under the night sky.

This morning, you’ll have a final meal with your fellow Disney travelers. (We suggest exchanging contact info to keep in touch.) After you check out of the Hotel Hilton Molino Stucky, the Adventures by Disney team will take care of all the arrangements to get your bags to the airport or train station (if you’re lucky enough to be continuing on to explore Italy on your own). Saying goodbye to Italy won’t be easy, though Adventures by Disney will make the process as smooth as possible. And remember you’re always welcome to return. Perhaps next time you’ll head farther south, on the Adventures by Disney Italy & Amalfi Coast itinerary, or north on their Italy & Switzerland trip. It’s only ciao for now.