Day 1 - Milan

Milan Tour Including The Last Supper

You stand before the Duomo, stunned by its white, almost translucent beauty; then you go in and find it is even more beautiful inside. Grand, solemn, vast. Delicate, airy, graceful. Those were the adjectives that Mark Twain used to describe this impressive Gothic cathedral. And you will find he was right.But then, Milan is a city of fascination. You will discover the Sforza Castle, once home to the city’s most powerful families and now the seat of five museums. You will set foot in La Scala, the opera house that saw Verdi and Puccini’s debuts. And you will eventually find yourself face to face with nothing less than Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper.

Stay at Bulgari Hotel in Milan

When historic Italian jeweler Bulgari wanted to build a hotel there was only one city in question. Of course it was Milan, exemplar of fashion, the city where fashion is paramount. And what a hotel Bulgari created! Five stories of boutique opulence, where marble and granite meet genuine privacy and space. Completed by an enormous terraced garden, this deluxe five-star hotel is hidden away down a cul-de-sac in the luxury shopping quarter of Via Montenapoleone. While the bar and restaurant generates a daily buzz, the hotel’s sleek rooms are the big highlight. Think romance and an immersion in the Milanese fashionista.

Day 2 - Lake Como

Ferrari Introduction and Driving Instruction

Drive a Ferrari or a Lamborghini through Italy. The country’s leading travel designers can arrange a sports car rental that includes full-kasko car insurance of up to €40 million, mobile radio system, and a support car on the road. Of course you want to drive in sport mode. Of course you want to push such an immense machine. Well, you can. But first, gain some driving instruction from a certified sport driver. Just 30 minutes with an instructor will make the rest of the Ferrari rental far more enjoyable. And what Ferrari will you take. The instructor will explain the differences between each model, including the 458 Speciale, 458 Spider, Ferrari California, Ferrari FF, and F12 Berlinetta. So when you set off onto the open road you have the car best suited to your travel style, along with the knowledge of how to really drive it.

Lake Como Ferrari Tour

Roar away from Milan and embrace the open road. The Ferrari purrs. You can feel the car’s power, feel the warm rush as you press the pedal. It’s amazing how quickly the city of Milan completely fades away. With the top down you cruise amid green mountains and deep valleys. Villages dot meandering country roads. Traveling north you reach Cernobbio, a historic town draped along Lake Como’s shore. From here it’s a magnificent cliffside road to Bellagio, the lake’s grandest old town. Park up and lounge in the lakeside garden of Villa Serbelloni, the only five-star deluxe hotel in Bellagio. Stop for a coffee and lunch, then roar your own way around Lake Como. On route back to Milan you can stop in Lecco, where villas and parks decorate a backdrop of rugged mountains. And back in Milan you can take in the knowing glances, from those who watch you drive past in your Ferrari. This is a day trip that can include rental of a 488 Spider, 458 Speciale, 458 Spider, F12 Berlinetta or Ferrari California.

Day 3 - Milan to Florence

Drive an Italian Supercar From Milan to Florence

Milan to Florence is around four hours by road, although more like three hours in a Ferrari 458 Spider. While the driving route is especially memorable (certainly not in comparison to Tuscany), there’s a superb variety of possible stops on the way. You will drive through Italy’s most important culinary region, Emilia-Romagna, where Parma, Modena and Bologna appear like jewels from another era. Customise your route and stop for glorious food on the way. Balsamic in Modena, ham in Parm, cheese and tortellini in Bologna, and truffles in remote villages. You will be full, you will want to eat some more, and you will cruise into the Renaissance city in your Ferrari.

Balsamic Tasting With the Owner at Villa Sandonnino

It’s balsamic, not balsamic vinegar. In Modena you get the pure stuff, an unfermented grape juice that’s spent many years aging in small oak barrels. You only need a small drop, a tiny amount of this syrupy liquid gold. Complex flavours hit your palate and the aftertaste lingers on and on. Balsamic is very much misunderstood around the world, mostly because people buy balsamic vinegar, a mix of balsamic and acidic vinegar. At Villa Sandonnino you will tour a farm and cellar with the owner, discovering how pure balsamic is produced. Taste the difference between vintages, including rare 50-year-old balsamic. And find out why the best balsamic can only be bought in Modena, directly from the source.

Stay at Portrait Firenze Hotel

You can’t be better placed in Florence than Portrait Firenze Hotel. Gazing over the Arno River, a few steps from Ponte Vecchio, less than ten minutes on foot to the Duomo, Uffizi and other key highlights. Instead of Renaissance, the hotel’s interior is retro haute couture from the 1950s and 1960s. And it’s glorious, an echo of dolce vita from another time. This is a wonderfully private and low-key boutique hotel. Expect discreet pampering, floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Florence, and a sense of escaping to a forgotten Italian era.

Day 4 - Exploring Chianti

Chianti Tour in a Ferrari

Explore Italy’s most legendary region in one of Italy’s most distinctive vehicles. You will drive a Ferrari or Lamborghini across Chianti, winding through Tuscan hills of olive groves, vineyards and sunflower fields. The roads twist and turn, rise and fall. Every corner and every rise is another sublime vista. Small villages dot the route, featuring rectangular church towers and crumbling facades. Medieval castles are also abundant, contrasting the sleek red of your sports car.Stop in the hilltop town of San Gimignano, where the streets narrate tales of cobblestone and intrigue. Continue to Siena, the very embodiment of a medieval city, where the Piazza del Campo evokes 12th-century glory. Then drive through the Chianti Classico region, back to Florence upon Italy’s most famous driving route.

Day 5 - Exploring Volterra

Volterra Ferrari Tour, Tuscany

Take your Ferrari into an enchanting landscape of cliffs and old towns, from Florence to Volterra and the rural highlights of Pisa province. You can stop to see the famous leaning tower. But this is Pisa and there’s so much more than a tower. Shift gears and cruise effortlessly on rural roads, beneath vertical cliffs and fortified towns. Discover Volterra and wander its history, then roar upon mostly empty roads to Oliveto Castle. Loop back to Florence or fully tailor your journey with a stay in rural Tuscany. Real Luxury have a team of senior travel designers who can individualise any route, with cars including a Ferrari 488 GTB, Lamborghini Huracan Performante or something more vintage.

Behind the Scenes of Pisa

Is there more to Pisa than the famous leaning tower? You will find out on this expertly guided tour that goes behind the scenes. Some believe that everything about Pisa is wonderful except the tower. But those who believe this know the inside tricks and secrets. For you can take a photo of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, or you can come and discover a medieval city that will open its heart to those who look a little further. But let’s not kid too much, that leaning tower is fantastic, when you know how to see it without the crowds.

Day 6 - Tuscany

Torciano Winery Full-Day Experience

So much is possible when you spend the day at a private vineyard. The Giachi family invites you into their vineyard for a day-in-the-life-style experience.Start with an introduction to truffles and go truffle hunting in the woods. Continue with an archery lesson in a private forest before a cooking class that revolves around truffle-based dishes.Lunch with wine tasting is usually served in the cellar, where you’re surrounded by rare bottles and taste from the owner’s library collection.Continue the experience by touring San Gimignano nearby, or perhaps take a helicopter tour back to your accommodation.

Dining & Wine Tasting in a San Gimignano Castle Tower

On San Gimignano’s main square you will be surrounded by medieval memoirs. Your guide narrates. This town was once home to 72 medieval castle towers. Only 14 of them remain, protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Only one is still inhabited. And it is the castle tower owned by your travel designer’s family.Be invited by the Giachi family. Sip Prosecco with a private view onto the busy square. Listen to operatic harp and soprano in the Central Hall. Dine on three fine Tuscan courses, as sunset colours slowly work across the sky.Sample vintage wines from the Giachi family cellars, including rare Super Tuscans and Brunello. Only guests of the Useppi Palace can access this Torre Chigi tower and you have a full evening to enjoy this exclusivity.Other San Gimignano towers are open to the public and get very crowded. You will have an evening in the town’s second highest tower, in private, living 900 years of history and culinary expertise.

Stay at Borgo Santo Pietro

Borgo Santo Pietro was a healing stopover for medieval pilgrims. Fast forward three centuries and modern souls still come for its exceptional spa and salubrious waters. The 800-year-old establishment is now a contemporary sanctuary, a hideaway in the heart of Tuscany, a boutique hotel evoking the glamour of a region. Think vintage furniture, green gardens, endless views, and a Michelin-starred restaurant doing farm to plate dining on site. And just wait to see the wine list!Borgo San Pietro remains a working estate and this adds to the authenticity. You may want to hide away here forever, enveloped by the landscapes of old Tuscany.

Day 7 - Tuscany

Visit Civita di Bagnoregio

Civita, an island in Italian memory, a hilltop town so surreal it feels like a figment of the imagination. Enter through the ancient city gate and you will travel back in time. You may feel like time is suspended, as your footsteps echo upon cobblestone streets. The remains of old houses stand guard over a sheer cliffside drop, and you realise that nature is taking over, and Civita will soon disappear. 

Ride a Vespa in Chianti

Chianti is magical on a Vespa, a vintage Italian region complemented by vintage Italian wheels. Travel slowly along quiet, twisting roads. Admire vineyards and villages, from San Gimignano down through the backcountry.You can ride romantically, just two of you upon the roads of Chianti. It’s also possible to be accompanied by a guide or photographer as well.After whizzing around in the Vespa you will dine at a sumptuous vineyard, enjoying a classic Tuscan lunch and a full library of reserve vintages from the winery’s cellar.

Day 8 - Tuscany to Rome

Drive an Italian Supercar on the 1000 Miglia Route

Drive a Ferrari on the legendary Miglia 1000 route and you can truly feel what a Ferrari can do. Tight turns, rolling landscapes, then space to put your foot down. Shift down then accelerate out of a hairpin turn, up and up through the hills of Southern Tuscany. Then shift tempo as you descend onto open plains and push your speed. You won’t be driving the full 1000 miles and it’s not a race, but you will discover why the Mille Miglia has gone down in racing folklore. This is a sublime experience for all Italian sport car aficionados.

Stay at Palazzo Manfredi in Rome

Peer out of your hotel window and you can almost hear the lions roar. You can see the Colosseum, so close you can taste history on the breeze. For Ancient Rome you have the best location in the city. Yet remarkably, the surrounding Celio enclave has remained mostly free of overtourism. Nestled in the hotel you feel like a Roman count.2000 years of changing Roman styles create a unique interior (the exuberant design of legendary Giorgia Dennerlein), and from the rooftop there’s no better view of Rome. Oh, and that rooftop is also home to a Michelin-starred restaurant, such are the little touches at Palazzo Manfredi.

Day 9 - Rome

Visit Secret Roman Treasures in a Private Part of Rome

The apse mosaic in San Clemente Basilica is a thing of wonder.Mystic figures on a golden background, the portrayal of a whole cosmic vision with unsurpassable artistry. You will contemplate it for long moments, imbibing this vision that is so strange to your everyday world.Now you will descend to the second level, and marvel at the buried basilica. Then deeper still into the earth, down to the third level and the Roman ruins.And lastly, on leaving the Basilica, you will find yourself in a private area, where a privileged few can admire ancient pieces from the days of Roman glory.

Private Access to the Vatican Museums, Including the Sistine Chapel

Maybe you come because to you this is a holy place. Maybe it’s art itself that is sacred to you. In either case, you feel the grandeur of these museums as you advance from room to room and from collection to collection, in the solitude of an after-hours tour.There’s no one but you and your guide.Your footsteps are the only ones to resound in the vast marble interiors. And when you stop, there is utter silence. You contemplate Giotto’s Stefaneschi Triptych, the perfect body of a Roman statue, Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel — jewels collected over the centuries by many popes.You will wander at your leisure and, unhindered, undisturbed, will immerse yourself in millennia of art.

Day 10 - Venice

Stay at Danieli in Venice

The grande dame of Venetian five-star hotels, Hotel Daniele is a mix of 14th-century grandeur and very traditional luxuries. It’s located on a lively waterfront, with superb views over the canals and gondolas. There are actually three buildings here, but most travel designers will recommend you stay in the original 14th-century Palazzo Dandolo. Its sumptuous ceiling and atrium hall is what vacations in Venice are all about. Furnishing are regal and evoke a time of empire, with Murano glass chandeliers and damask curtains. There is no doubt that you’re in a palace. And if you can be here outside main tourism season, it can feel like you’re 14th-century medieval royalty.

Day 11 - Venice

Venice Tour by Private Gondola

The danger in Venice is that you may start with too many memories. Films, paintings, poems, songs.Instead, forget all associations. Make your mind a blank canvas, and let the city paint its own portrait on it. No human glory lasts forever. But St. Mark’s Basilica will fill you with awe; the Doge’s Palace will teach you about art and history; and during your boat tour, the Grand Canal will enchant you with its palatial memories of a glorious past.You will see Venice’s face does have a few wrinkles. But it is beautiful, and magically unique.

Romantic Dinner on a Venetian Rooftop

Mansions of infinite pastel shades peep into the mirrors of quiet canals. Footsteps echo down intimate alleyways, and seabirds call over the vast lagoon vistas. Boats chug gently along the Grand Canal, and a gondola splashes softly as it plies a watery backstreet. Among its roofs and chimneys are the altanas, Venice’s elegant wooden terraces. It’s here you two will dine, tasting Venetian recipes and local wines while you look on the Grand Canal. The sunset paints the clouds golden, and the awakening lights from the city answer those from the sky.There's really no competition. For romance, Venice is the perfect backdrop.

Day 12 - Departure