Florence, Bologna and Milan

We’ll soon be back with the new dates for 2024!

Florence, the cradle of the Renaissance. One of the most visited cities worldwide, a city that is often ‘synonymous’ with Italy. But what about some other maybe less known cities that are also brimming over with great art and monuments, amazing food and breathtaking scenery?

A combination of superb elegance with down-to-earth grit in one beautifully colonnaded medieval grid, Bologna is a city divided into two intriguing halves. On one side the hard-working, hi-tech city located in the super-rich Po valley where opera-goers waltz out of regal theatres and gather in some of the nation’s finest restaurants and trattorias, on the other a politically edgy city that hosts the world’s oldest university and is famous for its graffiti-embellished piazzas filled with students swapping fashion tips.

The whole world got to know Milan better during the latest 2015 Expo. Home of Italy‘s stock exchange, an industrial powerhouse and the internationally accepted arbiter of taste in fashion and design, Milan is a seething metropolis. Art collections, old and new, unparalleled shopping, one of Europe‘s biggest trade-fair complexes, a sparkling nightlife, the prestige of opera at La Scala, the mark of Leonardo da Vinci’s genius, a religious addiction to football and endless opportunities to eat the best of Lombardy and Italian food, all make Milan much more than the work-obsessed city it is often portrayed as.

 

We first gather in the lobby to meet our new travel buddies and tour guide, followed by an enjoyable welcome cocktail and a brief orientation tour. To end a long day, nothing better than a nice, hearty dinner at a local, family-run trattoria where the typical Florentine humour of the owners will make you forget the long journey. Leave your worries behind and get ready for a stress-free, entertaining holiday.

Meals included: dinner

 

Begin your new day in Florence with a rich, healthy breakfast.

Meet your local guide at 10:00 am and start the day by exploring the city (entrance fees to museums and churches are not included and need to be paid on the spot). You will be amazed at the sight of this monumental town with such a concentration of beauty where you can understand what the Stendhal Syndrome is. The tour continues to the local Food Market for a light lunch (not included).

Some leisure time before gathering again in the hotel lobby at 4:00 pm for our very special evening: a private bread-making lesson followed by a unique dinner at the home of some local friends.

Meals included: breakfast, dinner

 

After a hearty breakfast, enjoy your second walking tour of Florence with a local guide. Visit the famous Academy of Fine Arts (entrance tickets included) where you can enjoy the pure beauty of Michelangelo’s David and other artworks. A morning to remember!

Enjoy the rest of the day with your new friends or on your own. Florence is such a beautiful city, with so many things to see and do: get the most out of it! Lunch and dinner not included.

Meals included: breakfast

 

Breakfast and checkout. Have your tissues on hand when you say ciao to Florence and get ready to visit a lesser known but unforgettable Italian town: Bologna, about 45 miles north of Florence.

Return to the hotel to freshen up and then (and why not?) enjoy an aperitif while gazing at the sunset. Dinner in a cozy “trattoria” with some typical local dishes.

Meals included: breakfast, lunch, dinner

 

After a delicious breakfast, we’ll enjoy a quick trip to some other lesser known Italian towns, two authentic gems: Mantua and Sabbioneta, north of Bologna. For those of you who are fond of opera, Mantua is where Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto is set (Sparafucile’s house is just outside the walls). A small jewel surrounded by two lakes that offers an outstanding first sight upon arrival. Enjoy your full-day guided tour with our private local guide. Lunch at a local restaurant with traditional dishes of Mantua. You must try the famous Tortelli alla Zucca (tortelli with pumpkin filling). After lunch, we will continue on to Sabbioneta.

On the way back to Bologna, a stop off in Borghetto to visit this charming hamlet.  Dinner in Bologna not included.

Meals included: breakfast, lunch

 

Start your day with a good breakfast and then prepare to head over to amazing Ravenna. Legend has it that the Byzantines were a clever, smart, rich and elegant people, and the town of Ravenna perfectly reflects these features. The former capital of the Western Roman Empire, this is a European “superstar” city that attracts visitors from the four corners of the world to visit its unparalleled Byzantine mosaics with their complex allegorical meanings. It is not surprising that as many as eight of the monuments of Ravenna have been included on the World Heritage List.

A walking tour with our local guide and then lunch at a local trattoria just a few steps away from Dante’s tomb. Its cellar hosts no less than 250 different labels of local wine-makers. You will enjoy the typical tasty and varied cuisine from Romagna.

The afternoon is free for shopping or other activities. Return to Bologna in the late afternoon. Dinner not included.

Meals included: breakfast, lunch

 

Our bus leaves at 9:30, shortly after breakfast, to take us to a private Dairy Farm near Parma. Learn more about organic cheese-making and enjoy a little tasting before moving on to a very special and quite unique ‘bar’ called the Prosciutto Bar, where you’ll taste some of the best-ever prosciuttos produced in the area.

On the way back to Bologna, a stop-off at a famous Balsamic Vinegar Farm where a delicious dinner will be served. The cuisine of Emilia Romagna has exported the most famous Italian dishes like Lasagne, Tortellini, Tagliatelle all over the world. Wouldn’t you like to try all of this? Back to Bologna after dinner.

Meals included: breakfast, lunch, dinner

 

Breakfast, checkout and farewell to Bologna. Milan awaits us… We’ll stop on the way for a visit to one of the most unforgettable museums, the ancient Fondazione Stradivari Violin museum, home of true masterpieces with a collection of violins since the 16th century and instruments built by Amati, Guarnieri “Del Gesù” and of course, Stradivari.

A visit to Sperlari is worth making for those who have a sweet tooth (and even for those who don’t). Sperlari, one of the oldest and most important Italian food brands, produces Torrone (nougat) and has made it a world famous sweet specialty. There will then be a tasting of a selection of local cheeses and mustard pickled fruits. Lunch not included.

Arrival in Milan. Check into your new, trendy hotel located in the nightlife district of Milan. Welcome cocktail and dinner in a local trattoria.

Milan has a very vibrant gay scene. Check out its numerous clubs or ask your tour leader for suggestions.

Meals included: breakfast, dinner

 

Today we’ll gather at 9:30 am in the hotel lobby, just after breakfast, to meet our local guide who will take us to see Da Vinci’s breathtaking Last Supper in the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Let’s find out whether what Dan Brown wrote was true or not! (ticket included). We continue our guided tour to the amazing gothic cathedral, simply known as the Duomo, followed by a very nice brunch , followed by a very nice brunch on the 7th floor of La Rinascente, Italy’s largest retail department store. Free afternoon to explore this amazing city. Lunch and dinner not included.

Meals included: breakfast

 

Brera; a small world apart within the big city!

Its unique courtyard houses known as case di ringhiera, formerly popular houses, are made of several apartments sharing the same open gallery on each floor, now turned into very fashionable and expensive properties. Outside, the cobblestone stereets, the artisans, the fashion designers and the artists all contribute to an old European flair. We’ll walk around this area, enjoying the history and the art but also visiting old stores and artistic labs that give life to this fashinating neighborhood.

Lunch not included, and free afternoon (we can give suggestions about visits, shopping, coffee, museums and so on…). Farewell dinner and overnight stay.

Meals included: breakfast, dinner

 

Breakfast in the hotel. Checkout and transfer to Milan Malpensa International Airport. We know that this is a sad moment…we trust you enjoyed the tour and hope to see you again very soon for yet another Outhentico tour.

Meals included: breakfast

Sep. 10th – Sep. 20th 2021

Florence, the cradle of the Renaissance. One of the most visited cities worldwide, a city that is often ‘synonymous’ with Italy. But what about some other maybe less known cities that are also brimming over with great art and monuments, amazing food and breathtaking scenery?

A combination of superb elegance with down-to-earth grit in one beautifully colonnaded medieval grid, Bologna is a city divided into two intriguing halves. On one side the hard-working, hi-tech city located in the super-rich Po valley where opera-goers waltz out of regal theatres and gather in some of the nation’s finest restaurants and trattorias, on the other a politically edgy city that hosts the world’s oldest university and is famous for its graffiti-embellished piazzas filled with students swapping fashion tips.

The whole world got to know Milan better during the latest 2015 Expo. Home of Italy‘s stock exchange, an industrial powerhouse and the internationally accepted arbiter of taste in fashion and design, Milan is a seething metropolis. Art collections, old and new, unparalleled shopping, one of Europe‘s biggest trade-fair complexes, a sparkling nightlife, the prestige of opera at La Scala, the mark of Leonardo da Vinci’s genius, a religious addiction to football and endless opportunities to eat the best of Lombardy and Italian food, all make Milan much more than the work-obsessed city it is often portrayed as.

 

We first gather in the lobby to meet our new travel buddies and tour guide, followed by an enjoyable welcome cocktail and a brief orientation tour. To end a long day, nothing better than a nice, hearty dinner at a local, family-run trattoria where the typical Florentine humour of the owners will make you forget the long journey. Leave your worries behind and get ready for a stress-free, entertaining holiday.

Meals included: dinner

 

Begin your new day in Florence with a rich, healthy breakfast.

Meet your local guide at 10:00 am and start the day by exploring the city (entrance fees to museums and churches are not included and need to be paid on the spot). You will be amazed at the sight of this monumental town with such a concentration of beauty where you can understand what the Stendhal Syndrome is. The tour continues to the local Food Market where lunch will be served.

Some leisure time before gathering again in the hotel lobby at 4:00 pm for our very special evening: a private bread-making lesson followed by a unique dinner at the home of some local friends.

Meals included: breakfast, lunch, dinner

 

After a hearty breakfast, enjoy your second walking tour of Florence with a local guide. Visit the famous Academy of Fine Arts (entrance tickets included) where you can enjoy the pure beauty of Michelangelo’s David and other artworks. A morning to remember!

Enjoy the rest of the day with your new friends or on your own. Florence is such a beautiful city, with so many things to see and do: get the most out of it! Lunch and dinner not included.

Meals included: breakfast

 

Breakfast and checkout. Have your tissues on hand when you say ciao to Florence and get ready to visit a lesser known but unforgettable Italian town: Bologna, about 45 miles north of Florence.

Return to the hotel to freshen up and then (and why not?) enjoy an aperitif while gazing at the sunset. Dinner at Da in a cozy “trattoria” with some typical local dishes.

Meals included: breakfast, lunch, dinner

 

After a delicious breakfast, we’ll enjoy a quick trip to some other lesser known Italian towns, two authentic gems: Mantua and Sabbioneta, north of Bologna. For those of you who are fond of opera, Mantua is where Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto is set (Sparafucile’s house is just outside the walls). A small jewel surrounded by two lakes that offers an outstanding first sight upon arrival. Enjoy your full-day guided tour with our private local guide. Lunch at a local restaurant with traditional dishes of Mantua. You must try the famous Tortelli alla Zucca (tortelli with pumpkin filling). After lunch, we will continue on to Sabbioneta.

On the way back to Bologna, a stop off in Borghetto to visit this charming hamlet.  Dinner in Bologna not included.

Meals included: breakfast, lunch

 

Start your day with a good breakfast and then prepare to head over to amazing Ravenna. Legend has it that the Byzantines were a clever, smart, rich and elegant people, and the town of Ravenna perfectly reflects these features. The former capital of the Western Roman Empire, this is a European “superstar” city that attracts visitors from the four corners of the world to visit its unparalleled Byzantine mosaics with their complex allegorical meanings. It is not surprising that as many as eight of the monuments of Ravenna have been included on the World Heritage List.

A walking tour with our local guide and then lunch at a local trattoria just a few steps away from Dante’s tomb. Its cellar hosts no less than 250 different labels of local wine-makers. You will enjoy the typical tasty and varied cuisine from Romagna.

The afternoon is free for shopping or other activities. Return to Bologna in the late afternoon. Dinner not included.

Meals included: breakfast, lunch

 

Our bus leaves at 9:30, shortly after breakfast, to take us to a private Dairy Farm near Parma. Learn more about organic cheese-making and enjoy a little tasting before moving on to a very special and quite unique ‘bar’ called the Prosciutto Bar, where you’ll taste some of the best-ever prosciuttos produced in the area.

On the way back to Bologna, a stop-off at a famous Balsamic Vinegar Farm where a delicious dinner will be served. The cuisine of Emilia Romagna has exported the most famous Italian dishes like Lasagne, Tortellini, Tagliatelle all over the world. Wouldn’t you like to try all of this? Back to Bologna after dinner.

Meals included: breakfast, lunch, dinner

 

Breakfast, checkout and farewell to Bologna. Milan awaits us… We’ll stop on the way for a visit to one of the most unforgettable museums, the ancient Stradivari Fondazione Violin museum, home of true masterpieces with a collection of violins since the 16th century and instruments built by Amati, Guarnieri “Del Gesù” and of course, Stradivari.

A visit to Sperlari is worth making for those who have a sweet tooth (and even for those who don’t). Sperlari, one of the oldest and most important Italian food brands, produces Torrone (nougat) and has made it a world famous sweet specialty. There will then be a tasting of a selection of local cheeses and mustard pickled fruits. Lunch not included.

Arrival in Milan. Check into your new, trendy hotel located in the nightlife district of Milan. Welcome cocktail and dinner in a local trattoria.

Milan has a very vibrant gay scene. Check out its numerous clubs or ask your tour leader for suggestions.

Meals included: breakfast, dinner

 

Today we’ll gather at 9:30 am in the hotel lobby, just after breakfast, to meet our local guide who will take us to see Da Vinci’s breathtaking Last Supper in the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Let’s find out whether what Dan Brown wrote was true or not! (ticket included). We continue our guided tour to the amazing gothic cathedral, simply known as the Duomo, followed by a very nice brunch. Free afternoon to explore this amazing city. Dinner not included.

Meals included: breakfast, lunch

 

For those of you who are opera fanatics (as we are) today is the day! Enjoy the unique atmosphere of the Ansaldo workshop, in charge of all La Scala’s props, costumes, wigs, where most of the handmade works for the production are carried out. The premises hold more than 60,000 stage costumes, and include practice rooms for the chorus and a stage area for rehearsals.

And then directly on to La Scala theatre, the world’s most famous Opera house. We’ll see if tonight’s performance is interesting and if so, we’ll book tickets.

Lunch not included, and free afternoon (we can give suggestions about visits, shopping, coffee, museums and so on…). Farewell dinner and overnight stay.

Meals included: breakfast, dinner

 

Breakfast in the hotel. Checkout and transfer to Milan Malpensa International Airport. We know that this is a sad moment…we trust you enjoyed the tour and hope to see you again very soon for yet another Outhentico tour.

Meals included: breakfast