Depart MCI for your Trans Atlantic flight to Italy. Time to rest or start exploring the “Eternal City” before joining your Tour Director and traveling companions and leave the hotel for a special welcome dinner
with wine at one of Rome’s lively restaurants. Sightseeing with your Local Guide in Rome features a visit to ST. PETER’S SQUARE and BASILICA. Later drive to Umbria, the“Green Heart of Italy” and land of the Etruscans. Stop in Orvieto, perched high atop a volcanic rock, and ride a funicular right through the forbidding ramparts. Time to browse through tempting shops in the lanes off Piazza del Duomo and to take pictures of the fabulous gothic CATHEDRAL with its San Brizio Chapel. Continue to Assisi, where you will stay for the next five nights. Your walking tour with a Local Guide starts with visits to ST. CLARE’S CHURCH and ST. FRANCIS’ BASILICA, the hub of a religious order devoted to the ideals of humility, forgiveness, simplicity, and love for all God’s creatures. Visit Gubbio, the town where St. Francis tamed the wolf. Follow your Local Guide and admire the impressive Palazzo dei Consoli overlooking Piazza Grande, the 13th-century cathedral, and magnificent Palazzo Ducale with its elegant courtyard. For a panoramic view, ride a cable car to the San Ubaldo Basilica, which is famous as the end station for the Race of the Ceri, held in May. Discover Perugia, capital of Umbria, and an important university town. A guided walking tour features the PIAZZA IV NOVEMBRE, one of the grandest squares in Italy, graced by the Fontana Maggiore. Admire the gothic cathedral, the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, and Perugia’s stunning medieval municipal palace. Time to explore on your own—don’t forget to shop for chocolates and other specialties, for which the town is famous. Next, visit hilltop Todi, originally an Etruscan frontier settlement and a prosperous town during the Middle Ages. It still has its three sets of walls: Etruscan, Roman, and medieval. On Piazza del Popolo, marvel at the 13th-century palaces, and from the terrace of PIAZZA GARIBALDI, enjoy a panoramic view of the valley and hills of Umbria. Leave Assisi and stop in Spoleto, a former Roman municipium and capital of an important Lombard duchy from the 6th to the 8th centuries. Spoleto is famous for the annual Festival dei Due Mondi, held each summer since 1958. During your walking tour with a Local Guide, take pictures of La Rocca, the former Papal fortress that was used as a high-security prison until 1982; admire the Ponte delle Torri, erected on the foundations of a Roman aqueduct; and visit PIAZZA DEL DUOMO. Back in Rome, enjoy a farewell dinner with wine at a local restaurant to celebrate the success of your vacation.