Classical Adventure
8 DAYS
Athens 2 • Aboard ferry 1 • Sorrento 1 • Rome 2
Basic Inclusions
Accommodations
Accommodations in centrally-located three-star or four-star hotels. Rooming on a triple basis. Double rooms: $50 per night, per person.
Meals
All breakfasts. All dinners. 'Zafiro Experience' interactive Greek dancing dinner show with Dora Stratou dancers on Day 3. Dinner aboard ferry on Day 4.
Transportation
Round-trip transportation on scheduled airline. Deluxe touring motorcoach. All public transportation tickets included where applicable.
Guide
Services of a specially-trained passports Tour Director throughout. All tips are included in the Program Cost. Whisper headsets included.
Travel Protection
Passports provides and pays for a Post Departure Travel Protection Plan that includes coverage for Trip Interruption, Trip Delay, Medical Expense and Evacuation and more.
Tour Summary
Itinerary Includes
Unlimited public transportation
Days 1-2: Arrival Athens
Arrival transfer
Day 3: Athens
Half-day city sightseeing in Athens: Local Guide, Visit to the Acropolis, Sightseeing stop at the Parthenon, Visit to the Acropolis Museum
'Zafiro Experience' interactive Greek dancing dinner show with Dora Stratou dancers: Round-trip transfers
Day 4: Athens - Aboard ferry
Visit to the archaeological site of Delphi, Visit to Delphi's Archaeological Museum, Crossing of the Gulf of Corinth via the Rion-Antirion Fixed Link Bridge, Overnight ferry Patras-Bari
Day 5: Bari - Sorrento
Visit to the excavated Roman city of Pompeii, Pompeii guide
Day 6: Sorrento - Rome
Hydrofoil Sorrento-Capri, Local Guide, Round-trip Capri funicular, Visit to Capri's Gardens of Augustus, Hydrofoil Capri-Naples
Day 7: Rome
Rome City Sightseeing: Local Guide, Visits to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, Visit to the Vatican Museums, Headset receiver for the Vatican sites, Visit to the Sistine Chapel, Visit to St. Peter's Basilica, Stroll on Piazza Navona, Visit to the Pantheon
Optional Dinner with music
Day 8: Departure
Departure transfer
UNPARALLELED STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE
Detailed Itinerary
Days 1-2: Arrival
A dream comes true as your wide-bodied jet thunders off the airstrip, Europe-bound. Time for a meal, a movie and a nap. It gets light again, first off the left-hand side of the airplane, then everywhere. It's morning, and Greece!
You may want to stroll in the lively Plaka district, or ride the steep funicular railway up Mt. Lycabettus for a fabulous view of the city.
Overnight: Athens
Day 3: Athens City Sightseeing, Athens, 'Zafiro Experience' Dinner and Show with Dora Stratou Dancers
Enjoy a coach tour of Athens, old and new.
See modern Athens, with the Greek Parliament, the 1896 Olympic Stadium, the Plaka district and Syntagma Square, where you may see the picturesque Evzones goose-stepping their way through the Changing of the Guard ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
A local guide, well-educated and specially-trained on the history and culture of Athens, will accompany your group.
Visit the awesome monuments built by Pericles on the Acropolis during Athens' Golden Age in the 5th century BC. On that hill, the goddess Athena reigned supreme. You'll see the Propylaea, the Temple of Athena Nike, and the Erechtheion with the Kore Porch, famous for its Caryatid columns.
Of course, you'll visit the centerpiece of the Acropolis, the 2,500 years old yet ageless Parthenon. For this huge temple dedicated to the goddess Athena, architects skillfully avoided straight lines and right angles to counterbalance the unsightly optical illusion called optical sagging, which deforms straight lines.
Delve deeper into antiquity at the contemporary archaeological museum open in 2009 at the base of the Acropolis hill, in the hope that it will one day house the superb and much disputed 5th century BC Parthenon Sculptures that were moved to England in the 19th century by Lord Elgin. For now, visitors can view a Permanent Collection with artifacts from the 7th century BC to the 5th century AD, and peer at excavations through a glass floor.
The afternoon is unscheduled.
Consider a visit to the National Archaeological Museum, a "must see" for its death masks and larger-than-life Poseidon. The museum displays an impressive and thorough overview of Greek art through the centuries. Beginning with early Cycladic figurines and continuing through the Greek Bronze Age, the exhibits end with the glories of Hellenistic period bronzes and a collection of busts of Roman emperors. The highlights of the exhibition include the numerous gold artifacts found at Mycenae, the elegant Archaic koúroi statues, and the many examples of fine Classical sculpture.
This evening, head to Zafiro, a restaurant located on top of Attica Park Hill, where you will discover an amazing panoramic view of Athens. Watch a short cooking demonstration before enjoying fine Mediterranean cuisine, Greek music, and traditional dances by Dora Stratou dancers. Then, be Greek for a night as you join dancers and instructors on the dance floor, enticed by lively bouzouki tunes. You may even break a plate, as custom dictates!
Overnight: Athens
Day 4: Delphi, Patras, Overnight Ferry to Bari
Travel to the ancient city of Delphi.
Discover one of the most beautiful sites of ancient Greece. Visit the Temple of Apollo, the foreboding Sanctuary of Earth and the Sacred Way, lined with the treasuries of the ancient Greek cities.
See artifacts and treasures on display at the Archaeological Museum, notably the celebrated bronze statue known as the Delphic Charioteer.
Listen to her predict late afternoon travel over rolling terrain and an arrival to your hotel before the sun sets.
Cross the Gulf of Corinth over the elegant Rion-Antirion Fixed Link Bridge. It was inaugurated in 2004 as the world's longest cable-stayed bridge, its continuous deck nearly 1,000 feet longer than the Golden Gate's suspended span.
In the port of Patras, board a Superfast ferry for a crossing of the Ionian and Adriatic Seas to Italy.
Cabins consist of 3 or 4 berths. Single and double occupancy is not usually available and not guaranteed.Overnight: Aboard ferry
Day 5: Pompeii, Sorrento
Board your coach and drive across the Apennine Mountains to the scenic Bay of Naples.
Walk through the Roman city recognized by UNESCO as a treasure of Western Civilization. See how well-to-do Romans lived 2,000 years ago, until Mt. Vesuvius all at once destroyed this city in one day and preserved it for all time.
A guide, well-educated and specially-trained on the history and culture of Pompeii, will accompany your group.
Continue to the fabled town of poets and sunsets, also renowned for its embroidery and intarsia (wood-inlay).
Overnight: Sorrento
Day 6: Isle of Capri, Rome
Board a fast hydrofoil for a crossing to the Isle of Capri, which rises over the blue Tyrrhenian Sea near the Bay of Naples.
A half-day local guide, well-educated and specially-trained on the history and culture of Capri, will accompany you today.
Transfer by funicular to the town of Capri's main square (Piazzetta), passing tropical gardens on the way. On the island stands Villa Jovis, the imperial residence from which Tiberius once ruled his empire. Recall tales of the Emperor Augustus, and of the mischievous Caligula.
From Capri's Piazzetta, it's an easy walk to the Gardens of Augustus, a magnificent public garden landscaped in the 1930s by the German industrialist Friedrich Krupp. Its terraces adorned with colorful and fragrant vegetation are perched atop a cliff with a sheer drop to the sea. The gardens face Capri's southern coast and provide splendid views of the 14th-century Charterhouse of San Giacomo, the Bay of Marina Piccola, down below, and the Faraglioni, the needle-like rocks that soar above the sea.
A fast hydrofoil takes you across the bay to Naples.
Board your coach and travel up the autostrada, all the way to Rome.
Overnight: Rome
Day 7: Rome City Sightseeing, Optional Dinner with Music
Set out on a sightseeing tour of Rome.
A full-day local guide, well-educated and specially-trained on the history and culture of Rome, will accompany your group.
Walk through the best known monuments of Ancient Rome, the Colosseo and the Foro Romano. Once the heart of a vast empire, the Forum was filled with extravagant buildings and crowded with people from all over the known world.
Discover outstanding masterpieces collected for the Vatican Museums since the early 1500s. See exceptional statues from antiquity, such as Laocoön and His Son and the Apollo Belvedere, as well as stunning Renaissance paintings, notably the The School of Athens fresco in the Raphael Rooms.
Marvel at Michelangelo's Last Judgment and brightly-colored ceiling frescoes in the Cappella Sistina.
Enter the sanctuary recognized as the world's largest church. The Basilica di San Pietro also houses priceless works of art, in particular Michelangelo's Pietà and Bernini's Dove of the Holy Spirit.
Walk through the plaza built on the site of Domitian's Stadium. Lined with grand buildings and trendy cafes, this oblong square is adorned with statues and fountains, notably Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers.
Inside the "Temple to All the Gods," you will understand why it has been called one of the better-preserved and most harmonious monuments of antiquity.
Tonight, enjoy dinner while local singers and musicians entertain you with O Sole Mio, Volare and other favorite Italian songs.
Overnight: Rome
Day 8: Departure
Ciao, Europa! Statistics show that visitors do in fact return to Rome, although it may not have anything to do with coins in a fountain. Race the sun and arrive home later today, eager to share your discoveries with family and friends.
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