Florence & Venice Winter Tour
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FLORENCE & VENICE WINTER TOUR • Join me on a special winter tour featuring Freya from Freya’s Florence for a wonderful inside look of Florence and Venice. We explore these two beautiful cities over 8 days/7 nights discovering secret alleyways, hidden canals and local art and Christmas markets. Florence & Venice are two of Italy’s most important cities. They are filled with amazing architecture, art and unique monuments. In Florence, we discover Michelangelo, The Medici Family, Food and Wine and of course, fashion! Venice brings Palazzo’s, Gondola’s, Canal’s, Bridges and colorful neighborhood markets. This city has been unchanged for centuries and we get to explore every corner of this fascinating floating city!
TOUR DATES:
December 15th – 22nd, 2024
December 7th – 14th, 2025
(Maximum group size 10 persons)
DAY 1 | VENICE: 3 NIGHTS • Arrive this afternoon at the hotel and settle in. Once settled into our new home we start our exploration of this city with a guided tour of its tiny streets and a gondola ride. We then enjoy a wonderful dinner full of local specialties!
Dinner
DAY 2 | VENICE • We start the day with a visit to a fabulous bead making jeweler for a demonstration on how she makes her beautiful jewelry. Afterwards, we visit the wonderful Scuola Grande di San Rocco, with its lavish meeting hall and beautiful paintings, then we have lunch near the Rialto Fish Market. The rest of the afternoon/evening is yours to explore more of Venice!
Breakfast, Lunch
DAY 3 | VENICE • We start the day at the magnificent church of San Zaccaria, then on to the most important church, St. Mark’s Basilica. The church, with its gold floor mosaics and opulent interior, was the chapel of the Doges for most of its history but in 1807 it became the cathedral of Venice. After our visit to the church, we walk across the Grand Canal, arriving at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. The gallery was once her home and is located along the Grand Canal. The view from here is spectacular!
Breakfast
DAY 4 | FLORENCE: 4 NIGHTS • This morning we travel by train to Florence. We meet this afternoon and start off our Florentine experience with a peek into the city: we learn all about the wealthy merchant families and how they lived during the 1300’s and 1400’s. We’ll visit the Medici-Riccardi Palace, home of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and the Accademia Gallery to see the incredible “David”. This evening we enjoy a Tuscan dinner at a local restaurant.
Dinner
DAY 5 | FLORENCE • Your morning is free to relax, perhaps visit the Mercato Centrale to watch the locals do their shopping or stroll through the German Christmas market in Piazza Santa Croce. We meet mid-day for lunch then visit the beautiful Santa Croce church, where you can find the tombs of some famous Florentines. We then make our way up to the 1000-year old monastery, San Miniato al Monte, which has been described as one of the finest Romanesque structures in Tuscany and one of the most scenic churches in Italy. You will also find one of the best best views of the city from here. As we stroll back down to Florence. exploring the wonderful little streets, we visit a fabulous jewelry maker like no other!!
Breakfast & Lunch
DAY 6 | ARREZO • Today we travel 1hr by train to Arezzo. Here, we visit one of the best Christmas markets in Italy, stroll through the town, enjoy a wonderful Tuscan lunch and shop for goodies!
Breakfast & Lunch
DAY 7 | FLORENCE • This morning we visit the beautiful Palazzo Davanzati, A Florentine House of the 14th century. Afterwards, we visit the lovely Santa Maria Novella church, the Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella (600 year old pharmacy/perfumery), a paper-making shop and a few more surprises! You will have time for some last minute Christmas shopping before we meet for our farewell dinner this evening.
Breakfast & Dinner
DAY 8 | FLORENCE • Unfortunately all good things come to an end as our fabulous week concludes today after breakfast.
TOUR DETAILS:
Tour Begins: In the afternoon on Day 1 at 4:00pm in our hotel in Venice
Tour Concludes: After breakfast on Day 8 at our hotel in Florence
TOUR PRICE:
$4995 Per person/Double occupancy
TOUR PRICE INCLUDES:
- 7 nights double occupancy lodging
- All breakfast
- 3 lunches with the local wine
- 3 dinners with the local wine
- All entry fees to museums
- Day trip to Arezzo
- Gondola ride
- All ground transportation during the tour
- Personal tour guide throughout the tour
TOUR DOES NOT INCLUDE:
- Air transportation
- Transfers to and from your hotels at the beginning and ending of the tour.
- Hotel tourist tax (see Roommates section below for details)
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Required Trip Insurance
Please note that trip insurance is required to join us on a Ciao Darcy trip. Trip cancellation insurance will protect all deposits and payments for land and air costs if you are required to cancel your tour. We recommend www.travelguard.com
Minimum Travelers
Minimum Travelers: To run this trip we require a minimum of 6 persons. If a trip has fewer attendees at 45 days before the trip dates, we will cancel the trip. However, if this were to happen, we can give you the option of a private tour with a surcharge applied.
Accommodations
We have partnered with boutique hotels that meet the Ciao Darcy standards of service.
Room Options
Double Occupancy: Double occupancy pricing is the price for (1) person to stay in a shared (i.e. double) room. In other words, each person staying in that room will pay the posted double occupancy rate. If you’re a couple or friends traveling together, please know that you’ll each pay the double occupancy rate.
Single Occupancy: Need some alone time? We hear you. That’s why we offer single occupancy rooms. The single occupancy rate is what you will pay to have the room all to yourself.
Roommates
If you do not have a travel partner, you can purchase single occupancy room and have it all to yourself! We do not pair up trip attendees because we find there is not enough privacy in the rooms to allow strangers to room together.
Please note: Many cities in Italy and France have recently implemented tourism taxes on hotel stays in order to “to ensure the quality of tourist, cultural and environmental services in addition to the efficiency of public transports.” We are unable to include these taxes in the tour price as the majority of hotels require the tax to be paid in cash upon check- out. The tax is usually 1 euro per hotel star per person per night. (A four star hotel will usually be four euro per person per night).
