Fly & Drive Italy Experience

About the destination: Perhaps no city is as fabulous as Venice, a metropolis built upon pilings, a labyrinth poised over a lagoon. Venice has been called the drawing room of Europe, and indeed for centuries the city was a sanctuary for ideas and idealists, a crossroad of the Byzantine and Roman worlds. Today Venice is a different kind of drawing room. Wealthy visitors clamber into gondolas to gawk at the Byzantine palaces while being serenaded by accordionists and art appreciators stand on tiptoe for a glimpse of Renaissance masterpieces. No monument is as memorable as the city itself, so use the major sights only as an excuse for wandering. Venice revolves around piazza San Marco. The best feature of the mosaic-covered Basilica di San Marco is the Pala D’Oro, a glittering gold Byzantine bas-relief. The Torre dell’Orologio, left of San Marco, is a beautifully embellished clock tower. For culture vultures check the Accademia for the best of Venetian paintings. Some say that the tourist Venice is indeed Venice, but there are other Venices as well. To find them, wander away from the major sights and into the quieter outlying residential neighbourhoods, you won’t be disappointed, this maze of stone and colour exudes enchantment from every brick.

About the destination: The city of La Spezia is located ubidacada in the region of Liguria, in Northern Italy, and is at the same time the capital of the province that has the same name, located in the Gulf of La Spezia, also known as Golfo dei Poeti (of the poets) since it was the residence for some time of important English poets such as Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) and George Byron (1788-1824). Said is the commercial port, one of the most important in Italy although La Spezia also hosts one of the biggest military industries of the country: OTO Melara. Although La Spezia stands out as a modern city (almost all the buildings were built from 1920), there are many places of interest in the surrounding area since the area has very beautiful villages such as Lerici, Portovenere (typical fishing village) and the Cinque Terre, where a national Natural Park has been developed. Cinque Terre, Portovenere and the islands of Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto, have been declared by the Unesco as world heritage.

About the destination: The city of Pisa once rivalled Genoa and Venice as a maritime power, emulated Padua and Perugia as a university town, and developed a distinctive style of Romanesque architecture. Today, the city draws its fame from an architectural project gone terribly wrong and relies on the tide of tourists who flow into the city every day. The most important monuments are concentrated in the piazza del Duomo. The baptistery, cathedral, Leaning Tower, and Camposanto shine like carved ivory, rising out of a broad expanse of emerald green grass. The duomo contains Giovanni Pisano’s masterful pulpit, with its violently dramatic Gothic reliefs. You can make your unbalanced way to the top of the Torre Pendente, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, from which local boy Galileo Galilei dropped a variety of objects in his attempt to understand gravity. Education has fuelled the local economy since the 1400s, and students from across Italy still compete for places in its elite university and research schools and help keep a vibrant and affordable cafe and bar scene. This metropolis of a hundred thousand inhabitants is much more than a tower, is a city full of art and history.

About the destination: Perugia is the capital city of the region of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the river Tiber. The city is also the capital of the province of Perugia. MAIN TOURIST ATTRACTIONS • Undergound Perugia. The escalators from the lower town lead up through the remains of Rocca Paolina which was a 16th-century fortress. • Porta Marzia (Marzia Gate). This is an Etruscan city gate built in the Third Century BC and much later incorporated into the city walls. It is close to the remains of the Paolina Fortress. • Fontana Maggiore. This large medieval fountain is found between the cathedral and the Palazzo dei Priori. It was made between 1277 and 1278 by Nicola and Giovanni Pisano as part of Perugia's celebrations of its independence. • Cathedral of San Lorenzo. This has an unusual layout for Italian churches in that the side rather than the front entrance faces the main square. • Palazzo dei Priori. This is a large building in Italian Gothic style built in the early 1300s. On the side facing the piazza are a griffin, the emblem of Perugia, a 14th century bronze lion, and some chains, from where the keys of Siena were displayed after victory over the Sienese in 1358.

About the destination: Modern and old, past and present go side by side, all the time. Whether you are in Rome for 3 days, 3 weeks or 3 months, be prepared to step into the world’s biggest open air museum. Rome will seduce you and it will hardly leave you indifferent. It will surprise you, since has so much to offer to any visitor, and it’s beauty is just been merely blurred by time passing by. Rome is one of world's most photogenic cities - not surprising when you remember what's here - The Vatican, the Trevi Fountain, St Peter's Square, Spanish Steps, Colosseum... Whether you spend your time sightseeing, or lazing in cafés watching the world go by, it will be your turn to feature in your very own Roman Holiday. If you can plan to stay as long as a week, you won't run out of things to do and you'll still feel like you're leaving too soon.