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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Next day provided what many considered the highlight of the entire tour, a visit to the five villages collectively called the Cinque Terre, filled with brightly painted houses perched higgledypiggledy on hilltops and stacked into ravines along 18 scenic kilometres of the Ligurian coastline.

Once the only means of transportation between these tiny outposts was the donkey, but today there are frequent trains along a railway line that clings to the rugged slopes and plunges through tunnel after tunnel below ranks of terraced vineyards and olive trees. The vines are planted, often in tiny patches of soil, almost from the water’s edge to 1,000 feet above the ocean.

Cinque Terre wine is highly rated by Italians and blends well with some of the unique dishes served by the many restaurants in the villages, although only the most dedicated students of the vine will recognize the grape varieties grown here. Drink it with the filled pastas – a local specialty – focaccia, stuffed basil leaves or the farinata, a crispy pancake made of chick pea flour.

To truly appreciate these remarkable communities takeoneof the small local ferries that runbetween Monterosso al Mare, whose modern section has one of the few good beaches along this coast, and the delightful little town of Portovenere. It’s a 30 minute cruise along one of the most fascinating stretches of coastline in the entire northern Mediterranean.

It was in Venice that we discovered another unexpected delight. We took a 50-minute cruise across Venice Lagoon in a vaporetto – one of the city’s busy water taxis – to the island of Burano.

Burano lace is well known everywhere (but be careful what you buy, much of what’s on sale is made in the Far East) and while the women are tatting the men are fishing. Small fishing boats are painted in bright colours for identification and the terraced houses are painted in colours to match the boats. As a result, the kaleidoscopic streets of Burano dazzle in the sunshine. Peaceful and friendly, the island is much less busy than Venice itself but tourists have discovered this little haven and restaurants and bars have grown up to serve them.Walk around the streets and along the canals where the fishing boats are parked outside the owner’s home and you’ll notice that every front door is wide open and covered only by a light curtain to give those inside some privacy.

In Lake Maggiore, one of the beauties of the Italian lake district, just offshore there are four scraps of land called the Borromean islands. On one, only about 180 by 300 yards in area, Count Carlo III of Borromeo constructed a remarkable palace and a beautiful terraced Italianate Garden. The family still makes use of the palace, but one floor of about 25 rooms is open to visitorswho stroll its wide corridors and vast reception rooms admiring the antique period furniture, Venetian mosaic floors, fine 17th and 18th century paintings, magnificent Murano glass chandeliers, and marble ballroom. There are five 17th-century Gobelin tapestries in one gallery and a Music Room where the great Spanish guitarist Segovia once performed. Napoleon and Josephine are said to have stayed at the palace and Prince Charles and Diana had lunch there.

Italy, of course, is a country so endowed with attractions for the visitor, that a 12-day tour such as this can only scratch the surface. But Insight packed in generous time at what might be called the obligatory sightseeing –Vatican CityMuseum, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s in Rome; Pisa; St.Mark’s Square, The Doge’s Palace and the Rialto Bridge in Venice; Michelangelo’s David and the gorgeousmarble cathedral in Florence; the endless vineyards of the north. A rich haul indeed in so short a time.

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The tour, which began in Rome, is designed so that guests stay for two nights in each city – except for La Spezia – allowing for a travel day followed by a day of free time and some leisurely sightseeing. It includes breakfast daily and five dinners, which gives participants ample opportunity to sample some of the rich Italian cuisine on their own.

Included sightseeing is complemented by optional tours priced individually, some of which include dinners such as the Dinner in Tuscan Hills, an evening of local specialties at a restaurant deep in the lovely countryside – wonderful antipasti with 20 dishes to choose from and Chianti wine from the restaurant’s own vineyard, all in a garden setting while being serenaded by a talented operatic baritone and an accordion player.

The Vatican’s treasures were the highlight of our stay in Rome, and the benefits of group travel meant that our visit was pre-arranged so there was no need to join the incredible line up waiting to enter The Vatican. We toured the museums, the Sistine Chapel with its famous ceiling, and vast St. Peter’s.

Florence and its treasure-trove of priceless art was a sharp contrast to the Cinque Terre. The towering Duomo has a wonderfully ornate façade of white, red and greenmarble and a beautiful 14th-century campanile or bell tower by Giotto, separated from the church in the Italian manner. In the Galleria Dell’ Accademia’s gallery you’ll find the original sculpture of David, Michelangelo’s masterpiece in white Carrara marble. Surprise for those who haven’t seen it before – it’s taller than one would expect, some 17 feet from toes to curls in fact.

Italy’s north country is filled with scenic delights.Aswe left the last of the threemajor cities on the itinerary, our excellent driver, Franco, headed the coach north, driving along the Benta Canal and its rows of elegant classical villas designed by Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, to Vicenza, a prosperous city at the heart of a fertile agricultural region.

Passing through Bassano de Grappa, where Italy’s fiery liquor is created, we entered the Dolomite Mountains, driving past jagged peaks and towering rock faces of pink and beige, turning rosy red in the glow of sunset. We were now en route to the winter playground of Cortina d’Ampezzo, dozing in its post-ski and pre-summer season doldrums. The unpolluted air and a lazy day in Cortina came as a tonic and later the drive through the mountain passes fromCortina to Bolzanowasmemorable. Thesesnow-capped peaks and Alpine meadows provide some of Europe’s best skiing.

There was much to see in Verona, including the alleged balcony where Juliet was supposedly courted by Romeo, a charade that Verona cherishes as fiercely as the Scots do their Loch Nessmonster. And the crowds that pack the courtyard lap it up. AMiss Verona is elected every year, we were told by Ernesta, but she actually holds office for two years, the second asMiss Juliet. Her duties then – to reply to the flood of letters the city gets each year addressed to Juliet and asking advice on matters of the heart. “Bizarre,” said Ernesta. “Would you ask for advice from a 14-year-old with suicidal tendencies?”

Bedding down with History
Travelling by coach on Insight Vacations’ ‘Italian Elegance’ tour brought with it the benefit of staying at hotels with a touch of history in addition to their four-star comfort. Quality hotels in desirable locations, just as they promise.