Palaces by the Water - Venice, Verona and the Lakes of Northern Italy

Nine days from the Italian lakes to Venice, built around water and the buildings people put next to it. Three nights on Como, two on Garda, two in Venice.

Lake Como opens it with Villa Monastero, a lakeside house with terraced botanical gardens running down to the water, a ferry cruise, and a walk up to the Sacro Monte di Ossuccio, where fourteen Baroque chapels climb a hillside above the lake and are UNESCO listed.

Lake Garda follows with a private walking tour of Sirmione, which occupies a long thin peninsula sticking out into the lake. The Grotte di Catullo at the tip are the ruins of a very large Roman villa, and the thermal springs that drew the Romans there are still in use. Scaliger Castle guards the only road in. Verona comes next, with a private food tour through the medieval centre and the Melegatti Palace, where pandoro was invented. The balcony sold as Juliet’s is a twentieth-century addition to a medieval house, and the play was fiction, but the city is magnificent regardless.

Venice closes the trip, arriving by water taxi. The private walking tour takes in St Mark’s Square, the Doge’s Palace and the Frari, and the Gallerie dell’Accademia holds Venetian painting in depth: Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Bellini and Canaletto. The Rialto fish market and a gondola past Punta della Dogana complete it. Original Travel include the hire car, accommodation, the private tours, local concierge access, a 24-hour helpline and carbon absorption through their own programme. Flights and most meals are separate. Prices run from 2,900 to 4,000 pounds per person depending on season, booking window and choices.