The rugged Italian peninsula has been swept by waves of migrating peoples and ambitious emperors. The steady cycle of decline and rebirth results in a special sense of timelessness. Not surprisingly, today's visitors feel a kinship with Roman centurions as well as with Renaissance artists. Italy is a country that offers joy as well as interest, inviting surrender to the beauties of art and landscape, quickening the spirit with the reverberation of history, seducing the senses with robust food and wine and the warm Mediterranean sun.

The first visit to Italy can be only an introduction. Italy's 20 regions offer such an abundance of riches that to try to see all in one visit would be overwhelming. You will then want to return time and time again to visit the country that has so much of the world's artistic patrimony and an endless variety of things to do, to see, to buy, to eat and drink ...

To travel through Italy aware of architecture, painting, sculpture, and the other arts is to do more than pass in review many of man’s greatest achievements: it is to understand the Italians and, beyond that, to grasp the nature of this cradle of European heritage: there are Etruscan tombs, Greek temples, Roman ruins, Moorish architecture and statue-filled baroque fountains along with palaces full of Hellenic sculptures, Byzantine mosaics, Madonnas from Giotto to Titian, baroque tombs and frescoed ceilings.

Dubbed the world's 'living art gallery', Italy has more 'culture' than any other country. From a broken pillar rising up through the linoleum floor of a train station to a baroque church overlooking an antique pediment in the forum, history and culture surround you. Arrivederci in Italia

Part of being Italian is believing that life itself is a joyous experience, and visiting Italy is nothing less than that. Italy contains great diversity; but, among a people of widely varied ancestry, the indomitable vigor that attained the pinnacle of past achievement is still evident in the traffic of day-to-day life. 

Specialties include fashions for men and women, ceramics, alabaster and marble objects, wood carvings, embroidery, gold and silver jewelry, cameos and coral, leather goods, violins and other musical instruments.

And the music ....... the opera season runs from December to June; schedules are available from the tourist office. Teatro alla Scala of Milan, Teatro San Carlo of Naples, Teatro dell'Opera of Rome and Teatro La Fenice of Venice are among the most illustrious houses in the world. During the summer, there is open-air opera in Rome and Verona, and such events as the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto and the May Music Festival in Florence. Besides Opera there is such a wealth of music everywhere you turn. Some of this traditional music is very well known in every country, some has just recently been studied and recorded.

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Check our "Rhapsodies" for quick city visits' rates. Rhapsodies are 2 or 3 nights program in major cities with hotel accommodation selected by central location and value. usually, a city tour is also included. Use them as they are for a single city visit or combine them for a more complete program. To check rates, select the date of your stay from the calendar that will appear.