Curated Itinerary
A September Week in Italy: The Grand Tour in Ten Heritage Cities
The old Grand Tour in ten heritage cities, north to south: Venice, Roman Verona and mosaic Ravenna in the north; […]
The old Grand Tour in ten heritage cities, north to south: Venice, Roman Verona and mosaic Ravenna in the north; Florence, Pisa, Siena and Assisi across Tuscany and Umbria; then Rome, Naples and the cave-city of Matera in the south. Every stop on this route is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the whole loop is timed for Italy’s Giornate Europee del Patrimonio, the European Heritage Days of late September. Each stop links to its full entry in the archive; download the GPX or KML for your own navigator.
Step by step
Venice — Grand Canal
Venice's Grand Canal winds for nearly four kilometres past more than 170 historic palaces, crossed by the Rialto Bridge and worked daily by gondolas and vaporetti.
Centro Storico di Verona
Verona's old town holds a working Roman amphitheatre, Scaligeri tombs, Sanmicheli's fortifications and Mantegna's altarpiece at San Zeno, all within a UNESCO-listed centre.
Basilica of San Vitale – Virtual Tour 360°
San Vitale is one of the most complete surviving examples of early Byzantine art in the West. The octagonal church was consecrated in 547, two years before…
Centro Storico di Firenze — Brunelleschi Cupola Uffizi Ponte Vecchio Palazzo Vecchio UNESCO 1982
The most complete surviving medieval and Renaissance city in Europe: Brunelleschi's dome, Giotto's Campanile, Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise, Palazzo Vecchio…
Pisa: Piazza dei Miracoli
Cathedral, baptistery, leaning tower and cemetery in white marble on a single lawn: Pisa's Piazza dei Miracoli is Italy's densest gathering of Romanesque architecture.
Siena: Centro Storico
Siena's historic centre preserves the medieval republic almost intact, from the shell-shaped Piazza del Campo to Lorenzetti's civic frescoes and the striped marble Duomo.
Assisi, Basilica di San Francesco
Two stacked churches in Assisi hold the tomb of Saint Francis and Giotto's fresco cycle, a turning point in the history of Italian painting.
Historic Centre of Rome
The most visited heritage city in the world and the physical foundation of Western civilisation — Rome, the “Eternal City,” contains within a day’s walk the…
Napoli: Centro Storico
Naples's historic centre keeps the Greek street grid of ancient Neapolis intact, its decumani and vicoli lined with churches, cloisters and presepe workshops layered across two and a half millennia.
Sassi di Matera
Two cave-cut districts carved into a limestone ravine, continuously inhabited from the Paleolithic to 1952 — one of the oldest living settlements in the…
Download for tour navigation
GPX for Garmin / Komoot / OsmAnd. KML for Google Earth and Maps.