12-day LUXURY SOUTH ITALIAN

Passengers are greeted at Catania Airport in Sicily and transferred to our hotel. After our orientation dinner, our first days are spent traversing Sicily. Like celebrities, we will start the tour by strolling trough the streets of Taormina on a walking tour and finish with a sunset boat trip to have a postcard view of the historic buildings of the city from the sea. We will explore the island's second-largest town, Catania, before visiting important sites related to Operation Husky, through which the Allied forces liberated the island from the Axis Powers. These first days will dive deep into the initial steps of the Italian Campaign, and enjoy plenty of culture and history along the way.

Following our Sicily visit, we cross over to mainland Italy by ferry across the Strait of Messina, before heading to the ancient Greek town of Paestum. We'll spend the next day taking in the ruins of Pompeii, after learning about Operation Avalanche at Paestum. In order to relax after a long day, the group will stay at a luxury seaside resort on the Amalfi coast with a striking panorama of the sea and the terraces of the town. Then, we’ll travel to the historic Monte Cassino, where modern monasticism was born under the Rule of Saint Benedict, and where one of the bloodiest battles was fought during WWII. Along the way, we will stop at the ghost town of San Pietro also. Before we head to Rome to the last leg of our journey, we stop at Anzio beachhead, where the Allies began their amphibious landing codenamed Operation Shingle.

The last leg of our journey will focus on the Eternal City: Rome. In between taking in the cultural glory and ambiance of this ancient bedrock of modern society, we will also explore the 20th century history of the city: a guided tour of Rome in the footsteps of Mussolini will shed light on the role of architectural propaganda in fascist regimes. Our tour would not be complete without visiting the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery where we will remember thousands of American servicemen who paid the ultimate price for the liberation of Italy. The tour ends with a chance for reflection and community over a farewell dinner. The next day, our Passengers are brought to Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci International Airport for their return flights.