Consider our Arrival Transfer: Option: PRIVATE EXCLUSIVE BOAT TRANSFER — 

Our exclusive Venice Arrival package includes Meet & Greet by a Story Land & Sea® Representative upon clearing customs who is with you from airport to hotel onboard our private boat from Venice Train Station or Airport (VCE), across the Lagoon of Venice to the Canal Entrances to our Hotels. Includes baggage handling upon boarding the boat, and check-in assistance with our representative. Standard gratuities for the representative, driver and porters are included. 

Regular Rate: $248/person, 2 Guest Minimum. Inquire for parties of 3 to 10 guests.  Solo Traveler: $396

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Self-Transfer: OR MAKE YOUR OWN WAY — 

Simply hire a Water Taxi or take the Alilaguna Line (Water Bus).  

Note: We strongly suggest our recommended option to limit complications.

Your Journey Adventure Leader welcomes you to Venice with a toast for your arrival.

Today's Optional Adventure: Secrets & Treasures

You may want to consider our optional Walking Tour of Venice's Secrets & Treasures ($155/person). This is Journey's unique touring experience through the dramatic and historic port city with our Local Guide. Learn of Venice's fascinating and colorful past, including everything from Napoleon to an exploration of her many back alleys and streets (called calles). Venice's character springs to life as we make our way through her nooks and crannies and mysterious alley ways.

Journey's professional Local Guide provides expert commentary as we enter the fascinating and colorful Basilica San Marco (St. Mark's Basilica). Then we go back in time with our visit to the Doge's Palace, the Old Prison (and yes, you will learn about the gentleman Casanova), and the famous Bridge of Sighs.

Sightseeing Included in this Option:

• Doge's Palace: Skip-the-Line Entrance to the Doge's Palace (meaning Duke or Governor's Palace), the seat of the Republic of Venice's historic power.
• Venice's Old Prison: The Prisons of Venice: Found inside the Doge's Palace, are the older and new prisons.
• Bridge of Sighs: The bridge made famous for its window and last view of blue sky and freedom as prisoners are marched to their sentence.
• Basilica San Marco: Enjoy the beautiful mosaics and how they reflect and dance in the light. Your Tour Captain "paints the picture" of the history and opulence that is the Basilica San Marco prior to entering. Once inside, enjoy 'silence' as you observe its beauty encased in Byzantine architecture.
• Piazza San Marco: and our "Secret Treasures of Venice:"
• Walking Delights: Learn about the Clock Tower (Campanile), Caffé Florian, Napoleon and the Winged Lion
• Enjoy included admission/entrance to Museo Correr, Museo Archeologico Nazionale and Monumental Rooms of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana at your leisure.

Optional Adventure: Venetian Gondola Experience
Just before sunset consider enjoying our Gondola ride ($145/person) through the canals of Venice with our professional musicians to make the ambiance perfect. On occasion inclement weather will prevent the gondola ride. In this scenario you will be refunded.

This morning enjoy a leisurely start with breakfast and free time before you meet our Journey Transport Team and transfer by boat to the Venezia Santa Lucia Train Station for the included Fast-train passage to Florence.

You zip along the Italian countryside and arrive in Florence at the Santa Maria Novella Train Station where you will de-board the train for the short walk to our hotels in the very heart of Florence.

Meet the Journey Adventure Leader this afternoon for the Discovery Walk where we will orient you to the very heart of historic Florence. You will see many of the major sites including Giotto's Campanile (Bell Tower) and the Baptistery, the Florence Cathedral, also known as the Duomo.

Today's Optional Adventure: Secrets & Treasures

Consider Journey's Florence Secrets & Treasures tour ($155/person) which boasts a variety of fine sights to see including Santa Maria del Fiore, the Baptistery's Bronze "Gate of Paradise," Giotto's Bell Tower, Signoria Square, and the Galleria dell'Accademia, where Michelangelo's David is housed. We will take our time walking through the Piazza della Repubblica, the famous Piazza Signoria with her old palace, Palazzo Vecchio, and make our way through the portico of the Uffizi complex before arriving at the Arno River and a visit to the "old bridge," or Ponte Vecchio. This was the only bridge in Florence to survive the World War II bombing raids.

Sightseeing Included in this Option:

• Galleria dell'Accademia: Skip-the-Line admission to experience Michelangelo's David in the Academy Gallery.
• Galleria dell'Accademia: The first art school of Europe.
• Our tour includes the historic city center which is a World Heritage site that comprises the Baptistery, Campanile, and the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore – also known as the Duomo. The 14th-century dome was created by Brunelleschi.
• See the magnificent Gates of Paradise on the Baptistery, so called by Michelangelo. Our Local Guide will comment on these impressive doors to the Baptistery created by Lorenzo Ghiberti. Until the 19th century, most Catholic Florentines were baptized here. The Baptistery and Giotto's Campanile whose perspective we enjoy from ground level are all part of the Duomo of Santa Maria del Fiori complex.
• Entrance and tour of Orsanmichele: This church was originally built as a grain market in 1337 by Francesco Talenti, Neri di Fioravante, and Benci di Cione. Then converted into a church between 1380 and 1404.
• Walking Delights: We explore Piazza della Repubblica, Piazza della Signoria and the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge), the only bridge to survive World War II bombing.

This morning after a leisurely breakfast you will have some time in Florence before meeting our driver who will swiftly take you to the Tuscan hill town of Cortona. Under the Tuscan Sun comes to life as you slowly make your way to this amazing village on a hill. Frances Mayes' Bramasole is found on this hill and often Ms. Mayes and her husband is seen walking, visiting and shopping in town.