The most common “first trip" is a 12 day vacation tour of Italy to the 3 most popular cities, Venice, Florence and Rome…and I can help you get there!

If you're dreaming of Italy and watching the new Stanley Tucci series on Nat Geo "Tucci in Italy" and you're saying,...."honey, we've got to go and see Italy".....then the most common first trip is to Venice, Florence and Rome. NOW, if you're stuck on whether to pick a "pre packaged" tour or to try to do it all yourselves, why not consider hiring me as your own private guide for the whole vacation trip in Italy for the same cost as one of those pre packaged tours,...no kidding, what you pay for a pre-packaged tour is about what I charge all in per day per person, but you get your own exclusive tour guide with you the whole way and no big tour bus with other people-just your group! - many of my trips are around $400 USD per day per person including me with all costs often times including the airfare, not including meals!.....I like to find your airfare as well and meet you in transit, so why not customize it?

We start by flying into Venice's Marco Polo airport, spend at least 4 nights there. The first night is a wash as you'll be arriving that day and all you can do is have dinner and get some rest. Then we do Venice for 3 days, Saint Mark's Cathedral, the Doge's Palace, the Church of the Friari, a Gondola ride with my favorite Gondolier I know since 1997, yes, you read that right, 1997,...and then we day trip to the islands of Murano and Burano, Murano for Glass blowing and Glass Art and then Burano for the Lace making and beautiful sights......don't want to visit the islands? then we can day trip to Verona, so many options near Venice.

The second part of your trip is an easy train trip to Florence and 4 nights there. You don't need a car traveling to the major cities while in Italy, simply just a hassle. I'm an expert at mangaing your train reservations and travel. Florence is the heart of the Renaissance and warrants 4 nights there because there is so much to see and do.

I book all your tourist attractions months in advance so we have entry to everything with very little hassle. Sure there's big crowds there but there's big crowds in all the main cities in Italy. We'll visit the Duomo, the Accademia to see the original Michaelangelo David Statue (there's others that are copies throughout Florence), Palazzo Vecchio, The Ponte Vecchio and the other side of the river called the Oltrano. Great art at the Uffizi Gallery, great walking, great food and wine and great evenings after dinner strolling and hearing concert quality music in the streets. You tell me what you like to see and I book everything for you in advance. I don't have set itineraries and re-use cookie cutter past trips - I customize all you want to do.

The third part of your trip and the finale is in Rome. It's another easy train ride there and BAM, you're in the cradle of our modern Western Civiliaztion. So much history and things to do so we stay for 4 nights here as well. The obvious sights are the Colosseum, Saint Peter's Vatican Church and Museum (2 separate places, some think it's all in one), the Pantheon (not free anymore-5 Euros now) and then the Rome free sights walk of Piazza Navonna, the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. Rome is brutal if you don't prepare for it with reservations for everything and this is what I do for you a few months before your trip. There's many inside museums like the Borghese Gallery but Rome outside is also a Museum by itself. We try to walk as much as possible because you see everythig when you do. The trip to the Vatican is a Metro subway ride as that's way too far unless you're staying close tot he Vatican but I never stay that close to it because all the other main sights are NOT near the Vatican. Many novice travelers make this mistake. These are the things I know from all my travels to Italy and I want to share them with you. After we finish Rome we leave out of the airport here which is 45 minutes to the coast and you've completed your first trip to Italy and I betcha you'll return to see more of it with Custom Tours of Italy!

Ciao, Chris