Day 1:  Welcome to Rome! Introductory Dolce Vita Tour

After relaxing you will be picked up by your guide who will accompany you on your “Dolce Vita” Tour. You’ll uncover the secrets locked in Bernini’s work, marvel at the Pantheon (ancient Rome’s best preserved monument), toss a coin in the Trevi Fountain to ensure your return to the Eternal City, and simply enjoy Rome’s charming streets in a leisurely Italian fashion. By the end of the tour, you will realize that your guide has not only shown you around Rome, but has taught you how to get around Rome as if you were a native.

Day 2:  Walk in the Footsteps of the Ancient Romans

Your driver will pick you up at your hotel and accompany you to meet your guide at the Coliseum, one of the ancient world’s largest structures, where Romans once gathered to watch gladiator games, animal contests, and even reenactments of sea battles. A massive stone amphitheater that seated an estimated 60,000 spectators, it was built in only eight years. Your guide will tell you about its design and construction, political purposes, fighters (both willing and unwilling), and eventual demise as an arena. At the Imperial Roman Forum, you will hear about the myths and religions of ancient Rome as you wander through the ruins of meeting halls and temples, such as that of the Vestal Virgins, who maintained Vesta’s sacred fire and were considered to be almost goddesses. The most ancient Latin text ever found, the Lapis Niger (“black stone”), can also be found in the Forum, in the foundation of a column. Your tour will end on the Capitoline Hill, the smallest and most important of the seven hills of ancient Rome, which offers a wonderful view of the city and the Forum.

Day 3, Morning:  Explore The Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica

Your driver will pick you up at your hotel and accompany you to meet your guide for this signature Your Own Italy tour of The Vatican Museum and St. Peter’s Basilica. The art of The Vatican is among the most recognizable in the world. In leading you through the museums, your guide will convey the tantalizing background of these Renaissance masterpieces, the geniuses who created them, and the powers who commissioned them. In the Sistine Chapel, below the largest and most renowned fresco in the world, your tour guide will explain the intriguing history of this work and the hidden messages Michelangelo painted into it. After the museum, you’ll visit St. Peter’s Basilica, the largest Catholic church in the world, where you can see Michelangelo’s magnificent Pietà, Bernini’s acclaimed altar canopy, and the tombs of the Popes, including that of John Paul II.

Afternoon:  Culinary Adventure

Enjoy a Food and Wine Tour in the Trendy Trastevere Neighborhood

Your sommelier-guide will take you on a food and wine tour in trendy Trastevere. This quintessential Roman neighborhood across the Tiber River is a little bit Greenwich Village, a little bit Left Bank, but mainly regular Italian – a place where Roman pappas bring their families for Sunday dinners after church and young Romans lounge in the piazzas on evenings and weekends. Your Own Italy’s four-hour food and wine walking tour presents Trastevere at night. You’ll sample a sumptuous blend of Italian classics like pizza and pasta, real Roman street food, less-known meats and cheeses, and amazing wine in a secret cellar – its history will blow you away. Few activities in Rome deliver as many hidden surprises and enchanting moments as this, in one of our favorite neighborhoods.

Day 4:  Tour of Hadrian’s Villa and Villa d’Este in Tivoli

Your driver will pick you up at your hotel for an excursion to the Roman hill town Tivoli, where you will visit two splendid villas with your local guide: the ancient Roman villa of the Emperor Hadrian and the Renaissance Villa d’Este. Hadrian’s Villa, the largest of its kind in Roman times, testifies to the remarkable skills of Roman architects and builders, while the Villa d’Este, commissioned in 1550 by Cardinal Ippolito II d’Este, is famous for its masterpieces of Renaissance art and, in particular, for its many pools and fountains. Afterwards, you will enjoy lunch at the extraordinary La Sibilla restaurant.

Day 5:  Free Day

Day 6:  Departure – Arrivederci !

Italy salutes you with a warm and heartfelt “arrivederci”! See you again! Now that you’ve traveled with Your Own Italy, you have friends here in Rome.