Italy at Leisure

This is the perfect 11-day LeisureStyle vacation to see Italy’s highlights in the most comfortable way. Three nights in Rome with a special welcome dinner and with sightseeing including St. Peter’s, the Sistine Chapel, the Colosseum, and the Forum. The centrally located hotel gives you the opportunity to also explore this fabulous city on your own. On the way to Florence visit the Piazza del Campo in Siena and picturesque San Gimignano. The three nights in Florence, again with a centrally located hotel, do not only feature sightseeing including a visit to the Academy of Fine Arts to admire Michelangelo’s David, but also allow visits to the Leaning Tower of Pisa and splendid Verrazzano Castle where you will taste the Chianti wines and enjoy lunch. Two nights in Venice, again in the center, include not only visits to St. Mark’s and Doges’ Palace with the Bridge of Sighs, but also an unforgettable Venetian Lagoon Cruise to the islands of Murano and Burano. Stop in Verona, to take pictures of Juliet’s Balcony, before ending in Milan with a visit to the magnificent Gothic Duomo.

The third largest Christian church in the world and the artistic apex of the Flamboyant Gothic, Milan's Duomo was begun by the first Duke of Milan in 1402, but the spot was a holy place long before. In a Paleochristian Baptistry on that site, St Ambrose baptised St Augustine in 387.

In the first of the elaborately decorated side altars, the bishop’s sarcopagus is an outstanding example of 11th-century stone carving. The cathedral’s oldest windows -- 15th- and 16th-century stained glass – are in the first chapels on this side.

In the transept (the crossing, where two major side altars face each other), the tomb of Gian Giacamo de'Medici is by the 16th-century sculptor Leone Leoni. Continue following the outer wall, past the almost too realistic sculpture of St Bartholomew, into the semi-circular ambulatory (the aisle that curves around behind the altar)

An elevator and a stairway lead to the rooftop, one of Milan's highlights. You can inspect the delicate spires and statues eye-to-eye, get a dizzying perspective of the streets below and on a clear day see the Alps, which look startlingly close.

The Duomo is open daily from 7am to 6:45 pm.