Great Palaces of Italy - A selective Grand Tour from Turin to Naples

For much of the 17th and 18th centuries, Italy was the ultimate destination of the Grand Tour, a rite of passage in the education of young men and women of the upper echelons. For these fortunate travellers time was no object and months could be spent in pursuit of aesthetic discovery. They travelled beyond the obvious cultural centres to the great power houses that dominated the regions before the Risorgimento.

Such luxury of time is afforded to few. This tour presents something of a Grand Tour in miniature: a carefully curated digest of some of the finest stately homes in Italy, from north to south, where we can observe up close the art collections, architecture, and aristocratic history between the 15th and 18th centuries. Their glorious gardens, too, both intimate and enormous, form an integral element of the schemes designed to reflect the status of their inhabitants. Alongside palace architecture and landscape, we will celebrate the remarkable collections of paintings, sculptures and furniture that enrich their interiors.

The Reggia di Venaria, close to Turin, is an unexpected colossus that was carefully restored to its original splendour between 1996 and 2007. The Patrician Palaces of Genoa were built during the city’s 17th-century golden age, when the old Maritime Republic was one of the most important financial epicentres of Europe. In Lucca, the aristocratic residences nestle pleasingly in the verdant northern Tuscan landscape; just outside Florence, the Medici villa in Poggio a Caiano, was commissioned by Lorenzo il Magnifico in 1480, and is a highlight. We end our journey with the Reggia di Caserta, one of the largest palaces in Europe, set in extensive park and gardens. No historic Grand Tourist would have missed it – and neither should you.

This tour is particularly strenuous. Please read the advice under 'Practicalities'.