2001
Sorting through the monuments of magical Venice, we trace its decline from Europe's most powerful city to its most hedonistic. We cruise its main street - the Grand Canal - then get lost in its back lanes. We drink-in the art of Titian, Bellini, Donatello, and the Doge's Palace. We luxuriate in a venerable café on St. Mark's Square, enjoy calamari with locals in a canal-side pub, then find our own private Venice: on a gondola, under the moonlight.
2001
Pulling on hip boots, we settle into the muck of Venice, then take a speedboat tour of the lagoon. On the mainland, we head for Padova to tour a once-illegal anatomy theater and track the restoration of Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel. In Vicenza, we admire elegant Palladian-style streets and villas. In Verona, we climb the Roman arena, jostle with tourists to rub the brass breast of Juliet, and taste-test grappa before riding the train to Ravenna for its dazzling 1500-year-old mosaics.
2001
We look into the eyes of Michelangelo's David and Botticelli's Venus, learn tricks for touring the Uffizi art gallery, and climb the amazing cathedral dome that kicked off the Renaissance. Then we immerse ourselves in the Florentine good life: visiting a fragrant 400-year-old perfumery, sipping Campari on a rooftop, chasing the sunset on a Vespa, and sleeping serenely in a converted monastery.