Romantic Italian Holiday – Florence to Paris

Start your day with a sumptuous breakfast alfresco; an incredible buffet of Italian delicacies awaits you. It’s hard to pull yourself away from the gorgeous open-air restaurant, but you must try.

Today is for exploring Florence: Your car and guide will meet you at the hotel and are at your disposal for a personal, four-hour tour (either 9 a.m.-1 p.m. or 2- 6 p.m). Entrance fees not included.

Your guide is completely at your disposal; your touring program is limited only by your interests. Visit the Duomo, made of green, pink, and white marble; the Ponte Vecchio, bridging the River Arno, built in 1345; the Pitti Palace, Florence’s largest palazzo, and once the seat of the Medici family; the Uffizi Gallery, the world’s top repository of Renaissance masterpieces; Boboli Gardens or the adjacent, recently opened Bardini Gardens; or the Galleria dell’ Accademia, which houses Michelangelo’s “David.” The remarkable concierge Maurizio Ammazzini at the Villa can get tickets ahead of time for anything you wish and even arrange a personal shopper to take you to the neatest places. Please advise us upon booking: especially important are the Uffizi and the Galleria.

Spend the rest of your day wandering Florence’s narrow streets, shopping for jewelry or exquisite leather or paper goods; or simply taking in the sights with a cup of espresso and a fine Italian pastry in one of the city’s chic outdoor cafés.

Meet your complimentary shuttle back to the hotel right near the Duomo. It goes back and forth every 20 minutes.

Following breakfast, your private car takes you to Florence’s railway station, Firenze Santa Maria Novella. Your driver will assist you with your bags to the platform and help you validate your rail tickets in the machine (you are responsible for getting your luggage aboard the train, unless prior arrangements are made.).

Once on board the high-speed Eurostar Italia — ES9404 — relax in your reserved, first-class seat. The price of your ticket includes complimentary beverages and snacks from the trolley. Departing at 10:30 a.m., you can sit back, relax and gaze at the passing Tuscan countryside. Arrival at Venice’s Santa Lucia station is at 12:33 p.m.

A hotel representative will be waiting to greet you and other guests at the head of the platform next to the engine (porterage services are not available at the Venice station, so please ensure you take all your luggage with you when leaving the train.)

No matter how many times you’ve been to Venice, arrival by rail is always an event in itself. As you pass outside the station door, you’re greeted by the Grand Canal, in all its glory, with your private boat and driver ready to take you to your hotel, the legendary Belmond Hotel Cipriani.

One of the world’s most famous hotels, the Cipriani is situated on Giudecca Island, five minutes by the hotel’s motor launch from Piazza San Marco. Your hotel room is a double, with garden view and terrace or balcony.

As in Florence, your Venetian holiday starts with your hotel, an attraction in itself. The rest of your day is reserved for enjoying the Cipriani. The hotel offers several dining venues— our favorites were the formal Fortuny restaurant and the very popular and informal “Cips.” (Both overlook water — the lagoon or Grand Canal. Allow the IRT Society to make your dinner reservations as soon as you book at these fantastic restaurants.)

Enjoy the full-size, salt water, outdoor swimming pool, tennis courts and the Casanova Beauty & Wellness center offering a range of Babor massages and other relaxing therapies. Stroll in the gorgeous garden, blooming with roses. The only problem with staying here: it’s hard to peel yourself away!

Today is reserved for your prearranged, personal half-day tour of Venice, either in the morning or afternoon. You may request your guide take you on a walking tour of “La Serenissima”—the Most Serene Republic of Venice. Perhaps you’d like to include the city’s most famous sights: the Piazza San Marco, the Accademia Gallery, St. Mark’s Cathedral or the Doge’s Palace. Or maybe you’d prefer to travel further afield into the Venice where tourists rarely stray. Your guide will arrange the program to your liking.

The rest of your day is at your leisure. Nothing beats a ride on an ordinary “vaporetto”—water taxi—to take in the sights. Strolling along the city’s many canals and over its romantic bridges is endlessly fascinating. And be sure to leave plenty of time for a visit to the Café Florian, on St. Mark’s Square and founded in 1720. You’ll pay an extra 6 Euro per person for the privilege of listening to its orchestra, but the café’s gilded, mirrored, ornate interior resembles a ducal palace, and its espressos, pastries and light meals are meant for lingering over.

And when the crowds overflow Venice, you can pop right back to your hotel and its serenity in five minutes on the complimentary, 24-hour shuttle by vintage speedboat—another Cipriani plus. The hotel’s dock is right by San Marco’s Square. For five to ten minutes, you feel like a movie star. (We met several people on board this speedboat, who were coming to dinner at the Cipriani. They told us they rued the day they booked their hotel on the main island.)

Take breakfast today in one of the Cipriani’s restaurants, or, perhaps privately on your balcony or terrace.

Then a hotel representative will escort you by boat to Santa Lucia Station (please note that on occasions you may be transferred together with other guests). You will be met at the station by representatives of the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, who will take charge of your luggage and check you in for your 11 a.m. departure on one of the World’s Top 25 Trains.

As you settle in to your comfortable double compartment, the maitre ‘d will take your reservation for meals. We recommend asking for seating in each of the three gorgeous and very different diners. Soon, you will make your way to a sumptuous lunch. Enjoy your day on board as the train travels through the beautiful scenery of the Italian Dolomites and the Swiss Alps. Afternoon tea is served in your compartment. After a leisurely four-course dinner, you may want to relax in the lounge car, while conversing with other guests and listening to the strains of Cole Porter, George Gershwin and others, courtesy of the on-board pianist.

Today, breakfast is served in your compartment. The train arrives into Paris at approximately 1 p.m.