The treasures
of Florence were beautiful, Pisa’s tower
amazing. Intriguing was the collection
of leaning church towers in Venice,
and the canals. But for me, the greater
appeal on Insight Vacations’ 12-day
‘Italian Elegance’ tour lay in other directions:
The stunning peaks of the Dolomites when
a rising sun first hits the snow-caps.
The rainbow streets in the Venetian
island of Burano, all the houses brightly
painted from a colourful palette.
The five enchanting villages of the
Cinque Terre, clinging improbably
to the steep and rocky slopes of
the Ligurian shoreline. And the
intriguing Borromean islands
in Lake Maggiore.
WE’D EXPECTED GRANDEUR and spectacle in
Italy’s famous cities, seen the images so many
times in so many places; seeing them at first hand
was awarmand fuzzy…like visiting old friends in
familiar settings. But our most lasting delights
were found in unexpected corners of northern
Italy, on the coast, in the mountains and in smaller
centres that get less exposure.
The decision to join the Insight coach tour
proved to be a smart move. Leave the driving to
them. Don’t worry about the luggage, leave that to
them, too. We enjoyed stays in interesting hotels,
most of themwith special character and not part of
a big chain (see sidebar). An experienced tour
director, like ours, the knowledgeable and unflappable
Ernesta, knows how to time the sightseeing
to minimize crowd interference. Born in Italy,
like many Europeans Ernesta is multilingual and
speaks faultless colloquial English with a northern
accent – a legacy of her upbringing in Britain.
Coach tours have been around a long time:
climb aboard and, on an Insight tour, head off with
amaximumof only 40 vacationers to half a dozen
different countries or cities in 14 days. The classic
coach tour – if it’s Tuesday, it must be Belgium!Its popularity seems to be undiminished.
Passengers can relax in comfort enjoying the
extra leg room provided by Insight and watch the
passing scene, stopping along the way for photo
ops and the occasional coffee break (the coach had
a toilet for emergencies). On each of the travelling
days, passengers – mainly from England, the U.S.,
Canada and Australia – moved back three seats,
eventually circling the coach so that no one
hogged the ‘best’ seats.
It didn’t take long for some of Italy’s less well
known towns to insinuate their special charms
into our consciousness. Early in the trip we spent
a morning in medieval Siena, famous for its Palio,
a mad horse race, perilous for horse and rider and
staged twice a year, on July 2 and August 16. In this
contest which began hundreds of years ago, horses
race around the Piazza del Campo, one of Europe’s
largest and most impressive town squares. Siena
has an unusual 12th-century Romanesque Duomo
(cathedral) with a picturesque striped bell tower. It
contains architectural highlights such as an octagonal
pulpit, fine Renaissance frescoes in the Sacristy,
and a labyrinth mosaic design in the cathedral’s
floor which penitents negotiate on their knees.
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