Rome and Split
Programme Overview
Duration: 8 days
This itinerary takes advantage of the five days a week scheduled air service between Rome and Split, offering the oportunity to explore two of the most interesting cities in each of Italy and Croatia on a 7 night break.
Highlights: Rome, Vatican City, Split, Hvar, Trogir
Arrive in Rome
Upon arrival into Rome Airport, you will be met by your local representative within the secure area of the airport, assisted with your luggage then your chauffeur whisks you straight to your hotel in central Rome. The Portrait Suites is a contemporary five star boutique hotel located close to the Spanish Steps and the fashionable Via Condotti.
The rest of the day is free to explore the local area at your leisure. Highly recommended is a stroll to the Piazza di Spagna to enjoy a typically Italian evening, people watching from one of the pavement cafes or restaurants.
Overnight: Portrait Suites
Imperial Rome
Today you will be met in your hotel lobby by your expert English-speaking guide and luxury chauffeur driven car for a half day sightseeing tour of Imperial Rome.
Your tour will include a visit to the famous Coliseum, scene of gladiatorial battles, and the Roman Forum and Palatine, the ancient center of Imperial Roman life. Your guide will explain how this fascinating site was the centre of Roman political, social and commercial life. Continue to the Pantheon, the best preserved of Romes ancient sites built under the rule of Emperor Hadrian in AD 119-128. The Pantheon is the resting place of various Italians, including the artist Raphael and Italy's first king Vittorio Emmanuele II.
Your tour will conclude here, where you may like to take lunch in the small square facing the Pantheon. The afternoon is then at your leisure for exploring Rome at your own pace.
Overnight: Portrait Suites
Meal Plan: B
The Vatican City
Your local guide awaits you again today for a tour of the world’s smallest State, the Vatican City. Explore the treasures of the Vatican Museums, including the Sistine Chapel with its famous frescoes by Michelangelo. Visit St. Peter's Basilica, the dominant structure of the Vatican that was erected on order by Emperor Constantine, over the tomb of the crucified St. Peter. The present structure is mostly Renaissance and Baroque, formed under the hands of masters such as Michelangelo, and the inside is an elaborate and detailed display of marble, mosaic, gilt and bronze. The magnificent baldacchino by Bernini is made from bronze stripped from the beams of the portico of the Pantheon seen yesterday.
Our Tour Consultant will ensure that your entrance is booked in advance so that you avoid the long queues for entrance into the musuems.
The afternoon is then free for you to continue your own personal exploration of Rome.
Overnight: Portrait Suites
Meal Plan: B
Rome as you wish
Today is free to explore Rome as you wish. From your hotel we can highly recommend taking a stroll down the Spanish Steps, into Via Condotti with all the famous Italian boutiques such as Prada and Gucci. From here continue on into Classical Rome with amazing highlights such as the Trevi Fountain and Piazza Navona with its many street artists, al fresco restaurants and Bernini’s famous sculpted fountains.
Venturing further north, you may like to stroll around the Borghese Gardens. The Villa Borghese is one of Rome's finest galleries, designed to house the collection of Cardinal Scipione Borghese. The Cardinal was a patron of the sculptor Bernini and the gallery houses several of his works, including perhaps his finest piece, Apollo and Daphne.
Overnight: Portrait Suites
Meal Plan: B
Depart Rome, Arrive Split
Today your chauffeur will be waiting to take you to Rome Airport in true comfort. Upon arrival into Split Airport, you will be met by your local representative and transferred the short distance to your hotel, just in time to watch the sunset from the terrace of your the hotel’s fabulous champagne bar.
Le Meridien Lav is beautifully situated on the seafront with spectacular views of the Adriatic Sea. For those not wanting to venture too far, the hotel boasts a number of activities, both relaxing and invigorating, from tennis and volleyball to a whole host of beauty treatments and relaxation therapies.
Overnight: Le Meridien Lav
Meal Plan: B
Explore Split and Diocletian's Palace
Enjoy a private half-day sightseeing tour of Split. This fascinating city was first settled at the end of the third century AD when the Roman Emperor Diocletian built his palace here. The importance of Diocletian's Palace far transcends local significance because of its level of preservation and the buildings of succeeding historical periods built within its walls, which today form the very heart of old Split. The palace is a city within a city where many locals still live inside its walls. Outside of the palace, the architecture of the city is a living story reflecting previous rules including the Venetians, Austrians, French, Ottomans and Byzantines.
The afternoon is yours to relax by the private beach, play tennis, luxuriate in the spa or maybe enjoy watersports in the Adriatic Sea.
Overnight: Le Meridien Lav
Meal Plan: B
Explore glamorous Hvar
Travel with your driver by ferry to the island of Hvar. The island is fast becoming the most fashionable of Mediterranean resorts attracting the jet set with its upmarket bars, restaurants and pretty marina. On arrival in Hvar Town meet your local expert guide for a tour of the town, best known for its medieval buildings which are the legacy of Venetian rule. The town is the site of the oldest municipal theatre in Europe which opened in 1612. Perched high on a hill overlooking the town, the gleaming white limestone walls of the medieval Spanjol Fortress afford breathtaking views for those who climb to their summit. Outside of Hvar Town, the island is extraordinarily green and lush, filled with lavender, pines and aromatic Mediterranean flora.
During the summer Hvar is a must stop destination for the European glitterati onboard their motor yachts – spend time over a lazy lunch people watching, admiring the views over the glistening bay and yachts before returning to the mainland.
Overnight: Le Meridien Lav
Meal Plan: B
Trogir & Departure
Mid-morning, your personal guide and driver will be waiting to show you one last special piece of Croatia, the town of Trogir. Trogir is set on a small island just off the mainland and is listed in UNESCO’s list of World’s Heritage Sites as the best preserved Romanesque-Gothic complex in the whole Central Europe. Trogir was first inhabited by Greeks from the nearby island of Vis and later developed by the Romans as 'Tragurium'. Attacked and destroyed by Saracens, the town was abandoned and later revived, seeing artistic growth under Hungarian kings and later under Venetian rule. Its rich heritage is still evident in its architecture today.
There is time to enjoy one last lunch relaxing by the pretty quayside in Trogir before continuing to the airport for your journey home. (Subject to fluight schedules)
Meal Plan: B