Lazio, Umbria & Tuscany

The tour starts at 6.00pm on Tuesday 16 April, at the Hotel Cesari, Rome.

The tour ends at 12.00pm on Sunday 28 April, at Rome Fiumicino Airport.

If you booked your air travel through Academy Travel, we will organise a transfer to our hotel. Please note that rooms may not be available until early afternoon. In the evening, meet your tour leader at the hotel bar for a welcome drink. Dinner follows in fine nearby restaurant. Overnight Rome (D)

Today we visit the Villa Giulia, built by Pope Julius III in the 16th century and now home to Italy’s most comprehensive collection of Etruscan artefacts. Assembled in the years after Italian unification as an expression of newly found patriotism and pride, the superb collection includes the incomparable terracotta Sarcofago degli Sposi, found at the Necropolis near Cerveteri. After lunch we make our way to the city centre for a guided visit of the ancient forum including the Cloaca Maxima, Rome’s earliest drainage system reputedly built by the Etruscan king Tarquinius Priscus and his grandson Tarquinius Superbus. The impressive collections in the Capitoline Museums are our final destination. Overnight Rome (B)

Cerveteri – ancient Caere – was the Etruscan city with whom the Romans were most friendly, and following the disastrous defeat by the Gauls in 390 BCE they seriously considered relocating there. This morning we drive to the site to explore its “Banditaccia” necropolis, a mini city of the dead with remarkable cylindrical tomb monuments, after which we pay a visit to the town’s museum where amongst other notable artefacts are two exceptional ceramic works by the Athenian painter Euphronio, in 2015 forcibly returned to Italy from the Getty museum in Malibu and the Metropolitan museum of New York. After free time for lunch we proceed to Sutri, once the gateway to Etruria on the Via Cassia with its noteworthy rock-hewn amphitheatre. Overnight Orvieto (B, D)

The old town of Orvieto sits high on a volcanic outcrop offering spectacular views across the Umbrian plains. Roman sources suggest the ancient city was the meeting place for the Etruscan’s principal religious festival, the Fanum Voltumnae. Our visit includes the Archaeological Museum which holds a fine collection of Etruscan artefacts. We also visit Orvieto’s magnificent Duomo which elegantly balances Romanesque and Gothic elements and is considered one of the most beautiful cathedrals in Italy. After a break for lunch, we venture below the streets to discover a hidden network of hand-dug tunnels, some dating back to the Etruscan era. An astonishing maze of some 1200 caves and underground passages, the Etruscans once used this for pressing olive oil, sheltering animals, and firing pottery. The afternoon is free to stroll the cobbled lanes of this lovely town before we meet for dinner together in an excellent local restaurant. Overnight Orvieto (B, D)

The well preserved Necropoli del Tufo site on the outskirts of Orvieto is our first destination today. Here the 4th-century BCE Etruscan family tombs, arranged along sepulchral “streets”, bear a striking similarity to modern Italian funerary architecture. From here we head to Bomarzo where we visit the Sacro Bosco, an extraordinary park of stone monsters, commissioned in the late 16th century by Pier Francesco Orsini, Duke of Bomarzo. According to an inscription on an obelisk in the park, the apparently random choice of subject is designed “sol per sfogare il Core” (just to set the heart free). After lunch nearby we visit the Villa Lante, another exceptional 16th-century estate where perfectly proportioned and richly detailed gardens are complemented by a harmonious choreography of cascading water. Overnight Orvieto (B, L)

We depart for Tarquinia and Tuscania, overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea. Tarquinia was one of the wealthiest and most important Etruscan cities. We visit the ancient necropolis at Monterozzi, where vivid frescoes and carved sarcophagi bring the Etruscan daily world dramatically to life. We also view the archaeological collection in the Tarquinia Museum, which includes an exceptional pair of Etruscan high relief winged terracotta horses that once decorated the Ara della Regina temple. After lunch we continue on to the picturesque town of Tuscania, founded by the Etruscans in the 7th century BCE. Badly damaged by an earthquake in 1971, the town has been beautifully restored and we visit the town’s key sites before returning to Orvieto. Overnight Orvieto (B)

Leaving Orvieto we make our way to Sovana via Lake Bolsena, an impressive crater lake formed over 600,000 years ago when a series of volcanic eruptions gave central west Italy its characteristic geomorphology. We stop at Civita di Bagnoregio, a beautiful village perched high on a slowly eroding hilltop, accessible only via footbridge from nearby Bagnoregio. We enjoy magnificent views across Lake Bolsena, before making our way to Bolsena itself. Here we have time for lunch and a visit to the Basilica of Santa Caterina, site of the 1263 Miracle of Bolsena which gave rise to the Catholic feast of Corpus Domini. Arriving in Sovana, we check in to our hotel and freshen up before a relaxed stroll followed by aperitivi in the town’s piazza and dinner in a nearby restaurant. Overnight Sovana (B, D)

Heading to the Parco Archeologico Città del Tufo near Sovana today we follow in the footsteps of the Etruscans along the “Vie Etrusche”, a fascinating network of ancient pathways cut up to 20 metres deep into the tufa stone, winding through the forest. The area is also the site of an Etruscan necropolis and we visit the impressive temple shaped “Tomb of Hildebrand”, named for Pope Gregory VII, born Hildebrand of Sovana. From here we make our way to Pitigliano where there is free time for lunch. The town’s Jewish population was established as early as the 16th century and our visit includes a tour of the synagogue and subterranean Jewish ritual baths. Overnight Sovana (B)

The ancient remains of Etruscan Vulci now lie in a picturesque natural park, and this morning we have a guided visit of the site, the associated museum and the extraordinary Necropoli dell’Osteria. After lunch together at the nearby Casale dell’Osteria, we move town and century to the wonderful Giardino dei Tarocchi at Capalbio. Here the surrealist creations of French-American artist Niki di Saint Phalle, inspired by Gaudi’s Parc Guell and based on exotic tarot imagery, can be seen as a 20th-century version of the Sacro Bosco we’ve seen in Bomarzo. We return to the hotel in the late afternoon. Overnight Sovana (B, L)

We leave Sovana today and make our way to Cortona via Chiusi through what was the inland region of ancient Etruria. Chiusi is built on the site of ancient Clusium, home to the fabled Etruscan hero Lars Porsenna who harried Rome in the early days of the Republic. According to Pliny the Elder, Porsenna was buried in the Labyrinth, a series of tunnels under the centre of Chiusi. After a break for lunch, our visit takes us through the tunnels and to the National Archaeological Museum which holds a fine collection of Etruscan, Roman and Lombard artefacts. In the afternoon we continue on to Cortona, perched high on the mountainside overlooking Lake Trasimeno. Dinner tonight is in a local restaurant. Overnight Cortona (B, D)

We explore our picture postcard base of Cortona this morning. Surrounded by stone walls and offering views across the surrounding valley, the city dates back to Etruscan and Roman times and the Etruscan Academy Museum has an excellent collection of artefacts found locally. We also visit the Diocesan Museum whose prestigious collection includes works by Fra Angelico as well as Luca Signorelli, who was born and spent much of his life in Cortona. After a break for lunch, we return to our hotel and spend some free time enjoying Cortona. Overnight Cortona (B)

A modern city with an ancient heart, Perugia is the capital city of Umbria and was one of the most important of the inland Etruscan centres. The Etruscan Arch, one of two surviving city gates embedded into massive city walls, is still in use today 2,000 years after it was raised. The gates bring us into the heart of the city where we visit the 3rd-century BCE Etruscan well, and admire the beautiful fresco cycle by the town’s favourite son, great Renaissance painter Perugino (assisted by the young Raphael) in the Collegio del Cambio. After lunch there is time to stroll the city walls before we return to Cortona. Tonight, we enjoy farewell drinks in the piazza before a celebratory dinner in a fine local restaurant. Overnight Cortona (B, D)

This morning we transfer by coach from Cortona to Rome Fiumicino Airport where the tour officially ends in time for international flights. (B)

Throughout the tour we stay in 4-star hotels. Where possible we have selected hotels that preserve the history and traditions of the region.

• Rome, Hotel Cesari (2 nights)

• Orvieto, Hotel Palazzo Piccolomini (4 nights)

• Sovana, Hotel Sovana (3 nights)

• Cortona, Villa Marsili (3 nights)