10-Nights Bellissima Northern Italy - Land Journey

Venice

With a great historic past and incomparable art treasures, Venice is renowned as one of the world’s great cities. Its 118 islands are separated by more than 150 canals and spanned by 400 bridges. During Venice's artistic golden age many magnificent structures were erected to create world-famous masterpieces. One of the best sightseeing routes is along Grand Canal, with many palaces lining the famous waterway. St. Mark’s Square offers access to some of Venice’s most famed attractions - St. Mark’s Basilica and Doge’s Palace. From Piazza San Marco, a maze of narrow streets are lined with shops, cafés and restaurants. A popular pastime is sitting at an outdoor café facing the square while people-watching and letting the whole marvelous scenario unfold. Venice’s Murano, Burano and Torcello Islands comprise an area famous as home of Venice’s glass-blowing industry and known for their charm, skilled lace-making and medieval monuments. Relax on a gondola ride, see art treasures in museums, churches and palaces, and have a sumptuous meal - all in this incomparable city.

Bologna

Many people pass through Bologna, Italy, on their way elsewhere, which is a shame—it merits a stop of at least a day.

Sometimes called "Bologna the fat," this city 65 mi/105 km north of Florence is a great place to indulge yourself: Many consider it the gastronomic capital of Italy.

Verona

The city of the most famous lovers in history: Romeo and Juliet. But Verona has much more to offer. The city, also known as Urbs Nobilissima, is the second biggest city in Veneto (after Venice). It is one of the cities that has better preserved its artistic heritage in Italy.

Stresa

This summer and winter holiday resort in the province of Novara is situated on the west side of Lake Maggiore on the slopes of Mount Mottarone, looking out over the Borromeo islands. The lakeside is very attractive, with a wide avenue of trees and flowerbeds, lined with hotels and villas set amongst trees. From here you have a panoramic view of the Borromeo islands. The avenue opens out on to Piazza Marconi, overlooked by the neoclassical church of Sant’Ambrogio, designed by Zanoia and built in 1790. It has a single nave and contains seventeenth century paintings by local artists and nineteenth century sculptures by Somaini. Beyond the piazza lies the Villa Ducale which was built within a beautiful park in 1770 and at one time belonged to the philosopher Antonio Rosmini who died there in 1855. It is now a study centre dedicated to Rosmini and contains mementoes and rare editions. Rosmini College, founded in 1852, is in Viale Marconi. The church has Rosmini’s tomb and a monument to him by Vela. Stresa also hosts national and international conferences and congresses which are held in the modern Palazzo dei Congressi.

Bellagio

The lake of Como, or better lake Lario, is of glacial origin and occupies the cavity cut out by the glacier of the Adda that, in the quaternarian époque extended over the two southern branches of the lake before coming out in the Brianza leaving there morenic hills and other small lakes. Its passage is marked by erratic boulders which are frequently found especially on the central promontory of the lake.It is the third largest subalpine lake but the deepest of all of them having a maximum depth of 410 metres. Its form of an overturned “Y” with two branches of Como and Lecco and with upper basin of Colico gives it its perimeter of 170 Km. The peninsula of Bellagio extends with the town and its suburbs, on the banks, the false plain and on the hills which precede the northern extremity of the Larian promontory. For its position it has stupendous views of a large part of the lake with its mountains. Due to its excellent walks and its 800 beds for tourists Bellagio is one of the most famous resorts on the lake of Como ( Lario). About 150,000 visitors per year come to Bellagio to lose themselves in the characteristic little steep streets which house many shops or in the romantic gardens of Villa Melzi or in those of Villa Serbelloni. The particular fascination of Bellagio conquered poets and artists ever since the Renaissance and ever since the nineteenth century a great number of well known foreign visitors have visited it from Shelley to Longfellow and from Stendhal to Flaubert and Liszt. In ancient times we have references to paleovenetian and gallo-insubric colonies after which followed the roman conquests in the second century b.C. On the rear of the promontory where the Villa Serbelloni now stands Pliny the Younger had his villa built which was one of the two that he had on Lake Como and was called “Tragoedia”. It was on this site they say that Stilicone, when he defeated the Visigoths at Bellagio, built a fortress given its dominating strategic position. The vegetation is of Mediterranean, alpine and subalpine variety. On the banks we find cypresses and pines, on the sunbathed slopes vines and olive trees and on the mountainside chestnut trees, beeches, walnut trees and conifers. The calendar of flowering includes : narcissus and lily of the valley in March, the highly coloured azaleas, rhododendrons and camellias in April and May whereas roses. oleanders and hydrangeas decorate Bellagio from June to September. Notable also the wonderful range of autumn colours in the gardens and parks of Bellagio starting in September and October. The climate. The temperate and moderate climate favours the vigorous and varied growth of vegetation. The mean winter temperature does not fall below 6-7° C. whereas in summer the level is between 25-30° C. The summer temperature is mitigated by the “breva,”, a light breeze characteristic of the Lake of Como.

Milan

Milan is a city that arouses extreme feelings, just like the city lifestyle. A frenetic, restless rhythm is part of both work and leisure, so much so that it is difficult to stay unmoved and not get overwhelmed by all the cultural and social stimulus. Maybe for this reason, Milan makes itself indispensable, because it is impossible to feel so alive and full of energy when you are away from the city. Milan is always one step ahead: a laboratory of artistic experiments and a building site for social behavior that is continuously changing. City full of contradictions, ancient and modern, trends and counter-trends, fashion and underground, middle class and working class, but always simply “cool”.