DAY 01 ISTANBUL – VENICE: ENTERING LA SERENISSIMA BY SEA – SAN MARCO – RIALTO
Meeting at Istanbul Airport International Departures Terminal at the time specified by our guide. After baggage drop, passport, and check-in procedures, departure to Venice with Turkish Airlines flight TK1867 at 06:50. Arrival at Venice Marco Polo Airport at 08:20 local time. We proceed to Tronchetto by our private bus and enter Venice by sea with our private boat, just as the Grand Tour travelers did. As we cruise along the Giudecca Canal, the lagoon itself tells us why the city did not need walls for centuries. After arriving at St. Mark's Square, we visit St. Mark's Basilica from the inside (entrance ticket is included in the package). This Byzantine-planned structure, built for the relics of St. Mark brought from Alexandria in 828, allows us to read the Republic's faith, diplomacy, and trade network under one roof with its gold-ground mosaics exceeding 8,000 m² and the story of the bronze horses brought from Constantinople in 1204 (those on the facade are replicas). In front of the Doge's Palace facade and the Bridge of Sighs, we discuss the 19th-century romantic image of Venice, born with Lord Byron's verses. Following the historic Mercerie axis that connects the political center of San Marco to the commercial heart of Rialto, we reach the stone Rialto Bridge, completed in 1591. Around Rialto, the way to understand Venice sometimes passes not through palaces, but through a bacaro counter; as we chat like Venetians, we taste two cicchetti with an ombra, a Spritz, or another sip for those who prefer non-alcoholic drinks. We make the most of this beautiful tradition while we are here. After free time for lunch and personal explorations, we meet and transfer to our hotel. Accommodation in the Venice / Mestre / Treviso region.
DAY 02 DOLOMITES: TIZIANO'S VALLEY OR THE PEAKS OF TRE CIME
Early morning departure to the high mountain region of the Dolomites. We reach Rifugio Auronzo at an altitude of 2,320 meters via Auronzo di Cadore and Misurina. From here, we take an easy and flat panoramic walk of approximately 45–60 minutes along the southern walls of Tre Cime di Lavaredo. Throughout the walk, we talk about the observations of the French geologist Déodat de Dolomieu, who gave his name to the rock, in 1791; how the layers deposited in the shallow tropical seas of the Triassic period turned into walls approaching 3,000 meters today; Paul Grohmann's first ascent of Cima Grande in 1869; and the Italian – Austro-Hungarian front line that passed through these ridges between 1915–1917. After the walk, we have our Alpine lunch included in the program at Rifugio Auronzo. After a panoramic break at Lake Misurina, we move to Cortina d'Ampezzo; we take a short walk in the center of the Olympic town and have a strudel dessert + coffee tasting. Return to our hotel at the end of the trip. Accommodation in the Venice / Mestre / Treviso region.
Access to Tre Cime is subject to weather, road, parking, and local authority regulations; a safe alternative Dolomites route will be applied if necessary.
DAY 03 FROM GARDA TO VERONA: FROM CATULLUS TO SHAKESPEARE – SIRMIONE – VERONA
After breakfast, we depart for Lake Garda, the largest lake in Italy. Our first stop is Sirmione, on a narrow peninsula extending into the water from the southern shore of the lake. We enter the town through the bridge of Rocca Scaligera, built by the Della Scala (Scaliger) family in the 13th century and considered one of the best-preserved lake castles in Europe with its own water port. Sirmione, which the Roman poet Catullus called the "jewel of peninsulas and islands," houses the remains of the largest Roman villa in Northern Italy at the tip of the peninsula. The Victorian poet Alfred Tennyson also came here in 1880 following in Catullus's footsteps and dedicated a poem to Sirmione. After our guided walk and free time for lunch by the lake, we depart for Verona. In our walk starting from the Arena and Piazza Bra, dating back to the 1st century AD, we pass through Porta Borsari, the gates of the Roman city, and reach Piazza delle Erbe, established on the site of the ancient forum. In Piazza dei Signori, we read the political history of the city leading up to its transition to Venetian rule in 1405, seeing the era of Cangrande della Scala, who hosted the exiled Dante, and the Arche Scaligere, the Gothic tomb monuments of the Scaliger dynasty. Juliet's House is seen as a brief reference to how fiction turns into a place of memory in this city, which Shakespeare is thought to have never seen; the famous balcony was added in the 20th century. We complete our walk with the aperitivo experience, the evening ritual of the Veneto, with our guests who wish to join. Return to our hotel at the end of the tour. Accommodation in the Venice / Mestre / Treviso region.
DAY 04 TREVISO: THE DAILY ELEGANCE OF VENETO – NOVENTA OUTLET – ISTANBUL
After breakfast, we complete our hotel check-out procedures and depart for Treviso. This city, woven with the branches of the Sile river and canals, represents the measured, daily elegance of the Veneto in contrast to the splendor of Venice. Treviso, which joined the mainland territories of the Republic of Venice starting from 1339, also shows the defense architecture of the Republic with its walls renewed at the beginning of the 16th century. In our walk starting from Piazza dei Signori, where the medieval municipal building Palazzo dei Trecento rises, we proceed along the Buranelli canal, named after the merchants from Burano, and reach Pescheria, the historic fish market built on an islet in the middle of the Cagnan canal. We discover tiramisu, known as Treviso's gift to world gastronomy, with our special tasting included in the program in the city where it is accepted to have been born. Then, we depart for Noventa di Piave Designer Outlet and give approximately 3 hours of free shopping time. Transfer to Venice Marco Polo Airport at the specified time. After baggage and passport procedures, departure to Istanbul with Turkish Airlines flight TK1870 at 20:00. Arrival in Istanbul at 23:35 local time and end of our tour.
