10 unique and amazing ways to see Italy in 2019
Italy is a country that can easily be explored on your own. So why take an escorted tour? First, there's the reduction in stress and hassle: it's a well-known fact that driving and parking in Italian cities can be challenging. Second, the sheer amount of culture on offer – classical ruins, Renaissance paintings, Baroque architecture – can be overwhelming. Tours led by well-informed and engaging guides will separate the interesting from the humdrum, and bring everything to life.
Third, many tours, particularly specialist ones, include special access to villas, palaces, gardens and wineries, or after-hours visits – and with a tour guide you can usually skip the sometimes long queues at museums and sights.
So, where to go? If you are a first-timer to Italy, you might want to sign up for a countrywide highlights tour. That said, such is the density of history and art in regions such as Sicily, Tuscany, Umbria and Campania that they really reward an individual focus.
As for when to go, most cultural tours sensibly take place in the spring and autumn; try to avoid the summer, when the heat on a shadeless site such as Pompeii will be sapping. It’s worth looking at visiting cities such as Rome, Venice and Florence in winter when they are less crowded with visitors.
The tours below cover many of the themes for which Italy offers brilliant holidays – not only culture but also food, drink, gardens and walking.
1. Walking in the Dolomites
In summer, the jagged limestone peaks of the Dolomites rise up above green meadows speckled with hamlets sporting onion-domed churches and wooden barns, best enjoyed on foot. Ramblers Walking Holidays runs seven, 10 and 14-night In the Heart of the Dolomites breaks from three-star Hotel Belvedere in Val Badia. A choice of guided walks, both easy and hard, is offered daily.
Departures in July, August, September: seven nights £1,345 half-board, including a pass for mountain lifts and buses, and flights; Ramblers Walking Holidays (01707 331133; ramblersholidays.co.uk).
2. Sicilian highlights
Sicily is the Mediterranean’s largest island; its multilayered history can be hard to piece together; and Palermo, the capital, is chaotic. So an escorted coach tour is a good plan, especially if you’re a newcomer. Titan’s fast-paced and comprehensive 10-day Sicily – Jewel of the Mediterranean tour covers key classical sights such as the Valley of the Temples and Piazza Armerina, plus Norman-era high points such as Monreale cathedral, and Etna. Vox audio headsets, promising improved audibility, are used on excursions.
Frequent departures April-October: from £1,604, including breakfasts, some dinners, flights and home-to-airport transfers. Titan (0808 115 4089; titantravel.co.uk).
3. A classical education
To appreciate fully the remarkable sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum, you need an expert guide. On Andante Travels’ Pompeii, Herculaneum and Classical Campania tour, not only are all the guide lecturers specialists in Roman archaeology or ancient history, but many have also excavated at Pompeii. As well as devoting a whole day to Pompeii, the seven-night holiday heads to intriguing lesser-known sites such as the Piscina Mirabilis.
Multiple departures in May-October: £1,895 including most meals and flights. Andante Travels (01722 713800; andantetravels.co.uk).
4. Undiscovered Tuscany, Umbria and Le Marche
Jules Verne has six of what it calls “Secrets” tours in Italy during 2018, aimed at travellers who are revisiting the country and wanting to take in less-explored areas, towns and sights. Secret Italy explores the hidden corners of central Italy, such as Orvieto, Spoleto, Urbino and Ravenna. Trips are made each day from a base in Assisi, and a local art collector hosts the seven-night tour.
Once-a-month departures in May-October: from £1,395, including breakfasts, some other meals and flights; Jules Verne (020 3733 2694; vjv.com).
5. Truffles, cheese and Barolo
Responsible Travel's nine-day self-guided walking holiday in Piedmont promises insights into the gastronomy of the region, from Barbaresco to Barolo. As well as the world-famous Barolo wine, you will find sweet Moscato, white truffles, hazelnuts and an array of cheeses. In addition to several pit-stops at family-run wineries, other highlights include Verduno and Roddi castles; the 12th-century cathedral in Alba; and La Morra, known as the "balcony of Langhe" for its views over Barolo‘s pinstripe vineyards.
Departs every two days from May-October; eight nights from £2,095, including accommodation on a B&B basis, private transfers, luggage transfers and flights. Responsible Travel (01273 823700; responsibletravel.com).
6. Lakes and gardens
Set against glittering waters, wooded escarpments and the snow-capped Alps as a backdrop, the villas in the Italian Lakes are reason alone to visit this northern region. Gardens specialist Brightwater Holidays offers a great tour, focusing on Lake Como and Lake Maggiore and its exquisite Borromean Islands. The itinerary also includes visits to gardens that are not open to the public.
Hidden Lakes and Gardens of Italy
£ 1049 pp 7 nights £150 per night Check availability Provided by Arena Travel
Departing June or September: £1,895 for seven nights’ half board, including flights; Brightwater Holidays (01334 897375; brightwaterholidays.com).
7. Italy by train
Among the wide selection of Italian holidays offered by Great Rail Journeys, there are some that include flights and coach trips as well as train travel. If you want to stick to trains all the way, consider the 13-day A Grand Tour of Italy. High-speed rail services will whizz you from London via Paris to Milan, then on to Rome, Florence, Venice, Turin and back to London; and from Florence there is a day excursion, also by train, to Pisa and Lucca. Almost all the train travel is in first class, and guided tours are included in all the cities.
Departures once a month in May, September and October: from £3,095 including breakfasts, some dinners and rail travel. Great Rail Journeys (01904 521936; greatrail.com).
8. Puccini Opera Festival with Rupert Christiansen
Join The Telegraph’s opera critic, Rupert Christiansen, on this exclusive five-day trip to the 65th Puccini Opera Festival in Torre del Lago’s magnificent open-air theatre to watch performances of some of the composer's greatest works near his home town. You'll stay in the beautiful Renaissance walled town of Lucca and spend four nights at Hotel Ilaria.
Departing July: £2,339, including accommodation, some meals, theatre tickets and flights. Telegraph Tours (0333 3316040; telegraph.co.uk/tt-rcpuccini).
9. The grand tour
Trafalgar’s 17-day Grand Italian Experience tour takes in the three must-see cities of Florence, Venice and Rome – but also Pompeii, Capri, Assisi, Verona, Milan, the Lakes, Liguria, Siena and more. Along the way, there is time for such experiences as a meal at a traditional farmhouse in Puglia, and an after-hours tour of the Missionary Ethnological Museum at the Vatican followed by a private dinner in a courtyard.
Departures weekly April to October: from £3,395, including breakfasts and some dinners but excluding flights. Trafalgar (0800 533 5619; trafalgar.com).
10. Venetian palaces
Martin Randall runs small-group tours of Venice’s most memorable palaces, led by Dr Michael Douglas-Scott, a specialist in 16th-century Italian art and architecture. Visit richly decorated private palazzi otherwise not open to the public and enjoy St Mark’s Basilica on a private, after-hours visit.
Departs November 5: from £2,560, including four nights in a hotel on the Grand Canal, a gondola ride, breakfasts, three dinners and flights. Martin Randall (020 8742 3355; martinrandall.com).
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