The Grand Tour

For a full day, visitors can visit the beautiful Lazio and Umbria countryside with an excursion to the Grand Gardens of the high Renaissance families, who loved as passionately as they warred with their neighbors -- and used their homes for both.

You are met at Orte train station, a 30-minute ride from Rome. By special arrangement, you can be met at your central Rome or Florence hotel and escorted by car or train to Orte.

We board comfortable transport to gardens that are famous for hosting important guests for centuries. These grand gardens became an important export of the Italian Renaissance and their landscape plans, as eccentric as their owners, have been studied by architects for 500 years.

Grand Gardens visits the interiors of selected garden structures, too, where patrimonies were changed by day, and which entertained Mozart and Handel by night.

Lunch, transport, admissions and careful route choice through the beautiful area make this all-inclusive day a souvenir you will never forget.

We have many special places to choose from and we are able to customize each day’s itinerary based on conditions of weather and traffic.

Although we can’t promise any specific garden on any given day, multiple-day visitors will always see a 500-year old landscape riddle from a Renaissance Epicure; its colossal monsters and architectural follies carved in the bedrock were discovered by Salvador Dali just 50 years ago. We visit the castle of a family of scions and saints, the social mavens of Baroque. Its first princess engineered the castle's hilltop garden, of par terres and fountains, and the current princess makes sure that the music of Handel is played in it every year. Close by, heaven’s early reward for a loyal Cardinal was such a masterful water plan that the hydrologist became the signature designer for the other Renaissance gardens.
After a wonderful lunch, we visit our last and most magnificent palace and garden of the day, on the highest point south of Sienna, along an old Roman road. This frescoed jewel is dwarfed only by the grounds it sits on.

The Day Includes:
10 AM Comfortable Transportation from Orte Train Station
(30-minute train ride from Roma Termini)
Two guided visits in the morning
Lunch, with wine and local digestive
One or more guided visits after lunch
Farewell cocktail before departure from Orte train station
Return at Rome Termini in time for dinner

Price is inclusive of transport, lunch, and admissions. By arrangement, visitors can be escorted from central hotels in Rome or Florence.

For dates, availability and costs contact us here.

Should you chose to stay in in the Grand Gardens area: we stay at a medieval convent recently converted into a fine hotel situated in a medieval hilltop town in Umbria. Fresh, locally produced food and Sagratino wine is served at dinner.

Return to Full Day Tours

THE GRAND TOUR

Gardens of Rome

My Lunch in Umbria

Gardens of Umbria & Lazio