DAY 01 ISTANBUL – TURIN: GATEWAY TO THE GRAND TOUR – THE SAVOY CAPITAL – MUSEO EGIZIO
Meeting at Istanbul Airport Departures Terminal at the time specified by our guide. After luggage drop-off, passport, and check-in procedures, departure for Turin with Turkish Airlines flight TK1309 at 07:30. Upon arrival at Turin Airport at 09:30 local time, we proceed to the city center with our waiting vehicle. Turin, the first major stop in Italy for Grand Tour travelers crossing the Mont Cenis pass in the 18th century, also hosted the Royal Academy where young British aristocrats enrolled to learn horseback riding, fencing, and court etiquette. Since 1563, as the capital of the House of Savoy and serving as the first capital of unified Italy between 1861 and 1865, we read the city through this political heritage during our walking tour. Starting from Piazza Castello, surrounded by the Royal Palace and Palazzo Madama, we follow the porticoed Via Roma built on the grid plan inherited from the Roman camp of Augusta Taurinorum, and reach Piazza San Carlo, known as the “drawing room of Turin” with its twin churches and historical cafes. After free time for lunch, we visit Museo Egizio, considered the world's oldest museum founded in 1824 and dedicated exclusively to Ancient Egyptian civilization (admission ticket included in the package). Champollion, who deciphered the hieroglyphs, reportedly said while examining the collection in those same years, “The road to Memphis and Thebes passes through Turin.” The statue gallery, papyri, and grave goods of Kha and Merit from the Deir el-Medina workers' village allow us to read a civilization through its daily life as well as its pharaohs. Transfer to our hotel after the tour. Overnight in Turin.
DAY 02 TURIN – GENOA – SANTA MARGHERITA LIGURE – PORTOFINO: “LA SUPERBA” AND THE RIVIERA
Early in the morning, after breakfast, we depart crossing the Apennines towards the Ligurian coast. Our first stop is Genoa, the capital of the Republic of Genoa, which Petrarch called “La Superba” (The Superb) and which was Venice's great rival in the Mediterranean for centuries. Accompanied by our guide, we discover from the outside Strade Nuove, established by the banking aristocracy in the 16th century and introduced to Europe by Rubens in a book published in 1622, today's UNESCO World Heritage site Via Garibaldi, and its palaces. These “Palazzi dei Rolli”, obliged to host the Republic's official guests, tell us that Genoa's power was measured not only in its port but also in its banks. Descending to the port via San Lorenzo Cathedral and Piazza De Ferrari, we touch upon the impressions of Byron and Dickens who lived in the city, and the establishment of Italy's oldest football club here by the British in 1893. After free time to try regional delicacies, especially pesto alla genovese, we proceed to Santa Margherita Ligure. If weather and sea conditions are favorable, we reach Portofino by boat. Castello Brown, which oversees the small harbor from above, takes its name from Montague Yeats-Brown, the British consul in Genoa who purchased it in 1867. Elizabeth von Arnim’s novel “The Enchanted April”, which directed British readers to the Italian Riviera, was also born on this coast. After a walk around the colorful-facaded piazzetta and free time, we return to Santa Margherita and depart from there to Turin. Overnight in Turin.
DAY 03 TURIN: MAUTO – MOLE ANTONELLIANA AND NATIONAL MUSEUM OF CINEMA – MILAN
After morning breakfast, we continue our Turin tour. First, we visit the National Automobile Museum – MAUTO, which tells how this city, where FIAT was founded in 1899, transformed Italy into an industrial country. Located on the banks of the Po River, the museum's collection, stretching from the earliest motor vehicles to classic models of Italian design, treats the automobile as a matter of social history and style as well as an engineering product. Here we also see the impact of Turin design schools such as Pininfarina and Giugiaro on world automotive aesthetics. Afterward, we proceed to the Mole Antonelliana, which dominates the city's silhouette. Architect Alessandro Antonelli started it as a synagogue in 1863, but it was handed over to the municipality due to its constantly increasing height, and when completed in 1889, it was one of the tallest brick structures in the world; today it houses the National Museum of Cinema. We discover, in the galleries rising beneath the dome stretching from optical toys to film sets, that Turin was the capital of Italian cinema before Rome, with major early productions like Cabiria shot in 1914. The order of visits may be changed depending on museum working days and reservation hours. After free time for lunch, we leave Turin and reach Milan through the rice fields of the Po Valley. Following our arrival, we check in to our hotel. Overnight in Milan.
DAY 04 MILAN: DUOMO – GALLERIA – LA SCALA – HEMINGWAY’S MILAN – CASTELLO SFORZESCO
After morning breakfast, we start our Milan city tour. The Duomo, whose foundation was laid in 1386 and whose facade was completed only at the beginning of the 19th century by Napoleon's order, is a monument to the city's patience and wealth with its construction period exceeding five centuries. We examine the most ambitious example of Italian Gothic from the square with its marble facade and thousands of statues. Afterward, we pass through Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, designed by Giuseppe Mengoni in the early years of unified Italy and one of the most magnificent glass-roofed arcades of 19th-century Europe, to reach the front of La Scala Opera House, opened in 1778. In our walk stretching from here to Via Manzoni, we follow with our guide's narrative the area where the American Red Cross Hospital, where young Hemingway received treatment after being wounded at the front in 1918, was located, and how this period is reflected in the Milan scenes in “A Farewell to Arms”. We complete our walk via Via Dante in the courtyards of Castello Sforzesco, the palace of the Sforza dynasty where Leonardo da Vinci worked in the service of Ludovico il Moro. In the afternoon, free time to individually explore Quadrilatero della Moda, the fashion district surrounded by Via Montenapoleone and Via della Spiga, or the art galleries of Brera. We meet at the time specified by our guide and return to our hotel. Overnight in Milan.
DAY 05 LAKE COMO – STRESA – LAKE MAGGIORE – MALPENSA – ISTANBUL
After morning breakfast, we complete our hotel check-out procedures and move with our luggage to the Alpine lakes region carved by glaciers. Our first stop is Como. In the city where Roman writer Pliny the Younger was born and inventor of the battery Alessandro Volta spent his life, we take a short walk in the historical center stretching from the Duomo, which brings together Gothic and Renaissance styles, to the lake shore, and watch the lake view opening to the Alpine silhouette. Lake Como, which frequently took place in 19th-century literature from Shelley's letters to Stendhal's novels, has turned into a lifestyle with the villas of European aristocracy. Afterward, we cross to Stresa on the shores of Lake Maggiore. With its elegant lake promenade, Belle Époque hotels, and view opening to the Borromeo Islands, Stresa also inscribed its name in diplomatic history with the Stresa Conference, where the heads of government of Britain, France, and Italy came together at the Borromeo Palace on Isola Bella in 1935. Young Hemingway, whose trace we followed in Milan a day before, came here for convalescence leave in the autumn of 1918; the lake scenes in the final chapters of “A Farewell to Arms” were born from these days. After lunch and free time by the lake, we meet at the time specified by our guide and transfer to Milan Malpensa Airport, which is about an hour away. After ticket and baggage procedures, departure for Istanbul with Turkish Airlines flight TK1876 at 19:45. Arrival at Istanbul Airport at 23:40 and the end of our tour. Hoping to meet on our next tour.
