italian vintage

Individual arrival at Turin and hotel check-in.

🍽 none

Turin city tour. Option: for railfans piedmont railway museum. Welcome dinner in the evening.

🍽 breakfast, dinner

Today we go by rail to the sea at Genova (Genoa) traveling southward across the end of the Po Valley and entering the Apennine Mountains. On arrival in Genova we have a two-hour guided tour of the city ending in the Ancient Port where there are many places to have lunch. In the afternoon we go to the terminus of the 950mm narrow gauge railway “Ferrovia Genova Casella” where we board a service train to Casella with a vintage coach built by Breda in 1929 reserved for us. Arriving in Casella a charter bus is waiting for us to take us to Ronco Scrivia where we board a service train back to Torino on the first Italian main line built in 1853.

🍽 breakfast

Colorful genova in northwestern italy

Colorful genova in northwestern italy

The ferrovia genova casella

This morning we travel to Superga on the historic rack tramway. Our 25-minute ride takes us high up to the Basilica church giving superb views of the city and the Alps from a point that La Corbusier defined as “the most delightful position in the world”. The Basilica was built by Juvarra in 1717-31. The beautiful yellow and white façade is dominated by a large portico designed like a classical Roman Temple. Before boarding the rack tramway we visit the small tram museum and the tram depot. After visiting Superga we return by rack tram to Sassi and by a service tram back to our hotel for a lunch break. In the afternoon there is a two-hour tour of the city with a historic tram.

🍽 breakfast

The superga rack tramway

The superga rack tramway

Rail option: Travel on the GTT lines Torino – Ceres and Torino – Pont Canavese. Cultural option: A guided tour of the Reggia di Venaria (The King’s Palace), one of the finest examples of the majesty of 17th and 18th century architecture. We also visit the Gardens of the Reggia.

🍽 breakfast

The reggia di venaria (the king's palace)

Today we head into the region known as “The Italian Lakes”, traveling by coach to Arona by the side of Lake Maggiore. This is the second largest Italian lake after Lake Garda and is a long expanse of water nestling right against the mountains. The gently sloping shores are dotted with camellias, azaleas and verbena. Here we join a boat for a 4-hour cruise, with lunch included, to Locarno in Switzerland. After a break we catch the narrow gauge “Centovalli Railway” to Domodossola in Italy; a very scenic line as it crosses the mountains. Coach transfer from Domodossola to Turin.

🍽 breakfast

Photos below of the breathtaking italian lakes district

The centovalli railway running from
switzerland back to italy

The centovalli railway running from
switzerland back to italy

The centovalli railway running from
switzerland back to italy

The centovalli railway running from
switzerland back to italy

We leave Turin behind and travel east to our next base, at Venice. First, we travel by high-speed train to Milan. This is Italy’s center of fashion, business and finance, a smart, wealthy city. We will have a guided tour of the city with a professional guide including a visit to the Duomo Cathedral – one of the largest Gothic churches in the world which took 500 years to build. We also see the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, the 18th century Scala Theater, one of the world’s most prestigious opera houses. Lunch is available in one of the many city center restaurants.  After lunch we visit the Sforzesco Castle, one of the most curious and fascinating monuments of the town. Late afternoon we take a train to Venice Mestre. Mestre is joined to Venice itself by a 4 mile railway line, much of it on a causeway, and is a more pleasant place to stay than the main city. Night in Venice Mestre.

🍽 breakfast

Italy's high speed train turin to milan

We take the train for the short 10 minute ride into Venice. Venice is truly a unique city which survives against the odds, built on a series of low mud banks amid the tidal waters of the Adriatic, and regularly subject to flooding. In the morning we will have a two-hour guided tour of the city center with a professional guide. We will visit the San Marco Basilica, Venice’s most famous landmark and one of the greatest buildings in Europe. After the lunch break we have a boat tour out to the islands of the lagoon. On Murano Island we can see the famous colored glassware, on Burano the laceware and on Torcello (the oldest inhabited island of the lagoon) its 7th century cathedral. We return by our boat to Venice and then by train to Venice Mestre.

🍽 breakfast

Romantic venice, italy

Today we have the option of a free day in Venice or joining an excursion to Trieste on the border with Slovenia. We take the local train service to Trieste, a journey of just under two hours. A professional guide will meet us at the station. Trieste is an atmospheric city with a long, bustling harbor lined with handsome buildings. We will take the funicular up into the Opicina hills. The funicular is unique in that the tram section is supplemented by a cable section where the tram cars are connected to two buffer wagons and then connected to the cable, the only one of its type in Europe. In the late afternoon we return by train to Venice Mestre. In the evening we have a farewell dinner in a local restaurant.

🍽 breakfast, dinner

The train venice to trieste, italy

The train venice to trieste, italy

The opicina hills funicular

For those returning home by air we have road transport to the Venice airport. Today we take a ES City train to Milan where we change to an EC train to Basel in Switzerland and then onward by rail to Strasbourg. Overnight in Strasbourg.

🍽 breakfast

Colorful strasbourg switzerland

A free day for your own exploration of Strasbourg. Tear your gaze away from that mesmerising Gothic cathedral for just a minute and you’ll be roaming the old town’s twisting alleys lined with crooked half-timbered houses straightness from Grimm’s Fairy Tales and feasting in the a Winstub (an Alsatian tavern) by the canals in Petite France. Overnight in Strasbourg.

🍽 breakfast

Leaving Strasbourg we travel to Paris and end of the tour.

🍽 breakfast