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
The most precisely canal-centred single UNESCO heritage city in the world and the only major European city built entirely on water — the Grand Canal of…
Centro Storico di Verona
The most architecturally layered city in northern Italy after Venice — Verona (UNESCO WHS 2000) accumulated in 2,000 years a Roman amphitheatre still used…
Basilica of San Vitale
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
La Piazza dei Miracoli di Pisa (UNESCO 1987) è il più importante complesso architettonico romanico d’Italia — la combinazione di Duomo (1063 CE), Battistero…
Siena: Centro Storico
Il Centro Storico di Siena (UNESCO 1995) è il museo vivente della pittura senese del Trecento — la città che negli anni 1280–1348 CE produsse Duccio di…
Assisi, Basilica di San Francesco
The Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi (UNESCO 2000) is the mother church of the Franciscan order, built over the tomb of Francis (1182–1226 CE) from 1228…
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
Il Centro Storico di Napoli (UNESCO 1995) è la più grande area urbana di origine greco-romana rimasta con struttura stradale intatta al mondo — le tre strade…
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.