TOUR FOOD, WINE AND A TOUCH OF MYSTERY IN TUSCANY AND UMBRIA
This tour is the innovative and involving tour experinece to visit Tuscany and Umbria.
These two regions have incredible and mysterious stories to tell you. You cannot absolutely feel bore. Then excellent food and routes off tourism beaten paths.
- Narni immortalized by the novel "Chronicles of Narnia”
- Narni Underground mysteries
- Mystery tour of Perugia
- The most mysterious canvas in the world: Trionfo dell´Ordine dei Benedettini, paint by Antonio Vassilacchi
- Siena and San Galgano, the mysterious abbey
- Sounds, unresolved symbols and legends in Lucca
- J.F. Kennedy murder: something mysterious happened in Tuscany about that
- A day tour completely dedicated to the singular life and unique art of Leonardo Da Vinci, in the village where he was born.
Please consider that we can adjust and customize the mystery tour plan in Tuscany and Umbria following your travel expectations and personal interests.
Find below the pdf itinerary.
PLACES & SITES OF INTEREST
– Narni
– Perugia
– Siena, Lucca and Pistoia
– Florence and Vinci
WHAT IS INCLUDED
- 4 stars Hotels; B&B treatment
- Local private guides
- 1 wine tasting with light lunch
OPTIONAL
- Private Tour Escort whole tour
- Car/van with private driver
- Renting car instead private driver
- Other tailored services (to book previously), the services requested on site will be quoted apart
WHAT IS NOT INCLUDED
• Everything not mentioned in “the tour includes”
• Entrance fee to Rocca di Albornoz in Narni and Leonardo Da Vinci Museums
• Flight tickets
• Tourist accommodation taxes
• Medical-luggage and cancelation insurance
• Optional tours/experiences
TOUR ITINERARY
PERUGIA | 3 nights
DAY 1 | NARNI AND PERUGIA
Arrival at Rome (Fiumicino Airport or Rome centre) and meeting private driver car/van. Transfer towards Umbria – Stop in Narni.
Narni immortalized by the novel "Chronicles of Narnia” written by C.S. Lewis. A small hilltop village in the almost exact geographical center of Italy. It sits in a rugged landscape, Jerusalem pines, oaks, hornbeams and maples, with outstanding views over the Nera river valley.
Found in the narrow gorge of the Nera river and dominated by the brooding Albornoz Fortress, Narni grew up in importance with the construction of the Via Flaminia (during the ancient Roman domination) from Rome to Rimini. The town was favored by the Papal State in the Middle Ages, and much of its most picturesque architecture – small stone houses, arched roads, towers – remains from this time. It also heralded an era of busy artistic development as a school of painting and gold-smithery grew up and reached its peak in the Renaissance when artists such as Rossellino, Ghiriandaio, Gozzoli, Vecchietta, Antoniazzo Romano and Spagna were commissioned to produce amazing masterpieces. You can see some of their work in the 12th-century Cattedrale di San Giovenale, on Piazza Cavour, and the 13th-century Palazzo dei Priori (Town Hall), which is formed from three medieval tower houses and flanked by a beautiful loggia.
Guided visit “Narni Underground” mysteries. A really impressive story to tell about Inquisition and Medieval age.
One of the most interesting tours in town takes you into the subterranean rooms of the antique Convento di San Domenico. From this monastery cellar, an underground route leads into a Pre-Romanesque church with frescoes added in the 13th and 15th centuries, the remains of a Roman cistern, a cell decorated with graffiti by prisoners kept here in the Middle Ages, during the holy inquisition history.
Lunch at leisure
Afternoon, Narni walking tour, Rocca Albornoz (Albornoz Castle) and its Medieval museum.
Entrance to pay on the spot. Crossing 14 rooms you will be suddenly wind up in a medieval world, an era that filled also our imagination. The true face of the Italian Middle Ages through the reconstruction of environments such as the bedroom or the great hall of ceremonies, and much more. You will have the chance to discover the weapons that were used in battles and tournaments, the way they dressed, fashions and standards of beauty of that time; the best way to discover myths, legends, truths and secrets of the Middle Ages in Italy.
Optional Private guide to quote on request
Transfer to Perugia
Check in, unique 4 stars Hotel in central area in Perugia.
Dinner in a typical restaurant in Perugia centre. We will suggest the most authentic restaurants in each destination of the tour
DAY 2 | PERUGIA ANCIENT MYSTERIES
Breakfast and departure with your private guide to explore the magnificent and fascinating mysteries of Perugia.
The mystery tour of Perugia will start in the center of the city at Piazza Grande (now also known as Piazza IV Novembre). Perugia historical centre walking tour.
The city of Perugia is the capital city of the entire region of Umbria. The town is placed between Lago Trasimeno and the Alta Valle del Tevere (Upper Tiber Valley), an untouched land of abbeys and monasteries and flowers filled hills. Piazza IV Novembre has been the center of civil and religious power in the city since it was established by the Etruscans, before the Romans. In the center of the square stands the impressive Fontana Maggiore, the city symbol and one of the finest medieval fountains in Italy. It was completed in the late 13th century to welcome the water of the Monte Pacciano aqueduct and was considered so important that Nicola and Giovanni Pisano were commissioned to design and decorate it. A walk around the lower basin takes you past paneled scenes from the Old Testament, the story of the founding of Rome, an astrological calendar that appears to relate to local farming practices, and a representation of the seven arts.
The 14th-century Palazzo dei Priori, leads off from the left of the fountain along the main street Corso Vannucci. It is a remarkable palace built of local white and red travertine and fronted on the fountain side by a large semi-circular staircase.
Light lunch and wine tasting. In a nice and renowned cellar in Perugia countryside.
You will taste the best local DOC and DOCG wines: monocultivar grapes as the famous Sagrantino and Grechetto. The unique and enchanting location will amaze you.
Afternoon
Meeting with your private tour Escort in Perugia centre around 16:00 for an exclusive cultural local adventure: the “slow craft street adventure in Via dei Priori” one of the most characteristic street of Perugia.
We will escort you to visit the Foundation of local artisan ateliers of Perugia and their life and artistic enchanting stories: you will meet Maria Antonietta, Andrea, Giuditta and other enchanting locals: ceramics, sculptures, gold, wood craft. Finally a co-working atelier in an ancient palace, where a group of different native young artisans are developing incredible craft projects even innovative. They will lead you in their dreamlike world.
The tour will last around 2 fascinating hours.
The final will be incredible. An evening aperitivo in a place you absolutely cannot image. A day adventure you won’t miss to tell to your friends and colleagues next party at home…
Or alternative option:
Visit to an art laboratory of glass, one of the oldest workshop in Umbria. An authentic experience in a unique atmosphere.
The laboratory is run by two women that belong to the seventh generation of artisans/artists of their family. The stained glass windows masterpieces of the family are exposed into important churches: Santa Maria degli Angeli (Assisi) and in Orvieto Cathedral.
Dinner at leisure
DAY 3 | THE MYSTERIOUS CANVAS
Breakfast and ready for the third day discovering the mysteries of Perugia. Meeting with your private local guide to discover Rocca Paolina and Saint Peter’s church.
In Saint Peter we will study one of the most mysterious canvas: Trionfo dell´Ordine dei Benedettini, paint by Antonio Vassilacchi called “l’Aliense”.
Despite its fascinating characteristic this canvas is almost unknown, but this painting is documented as the biggest canvas ever painted in the Middle Age. It represents the triumph of the Benedictine Order, it depicts saints, popes, cardinals, bishops and abbots founders of Religious Orders that surround St. Benedict of Norcia. It occupies the entire top of the entrance wall of the church. Why this canvas is so special to deserve to be mentioned in a mystery tour? The countless characters larger than natural dimensions make us imagine the magnificence of the painting, but the strange detail is that the subject was severely imposed to the painter, so he took a revenge worthy of a great artist and a precursor of contemporary digital techniques. The best place to observe it is towards the main altar, but, if you do not know what´s hidden on it you only see the numerous characters.
In reality all these outline a single demonic image. If we focus on St. Benedict and the two patches of sky where appears a haunting figure, demonic: St. Benedict is the nose, the glimpses of heaven are the eyes , St. Peter and St. Paul at the top at the far ends are the ears and the two central tufts are the horns. The figures of Benedictine seen from behind are formidable tusks, fortunately Antonio Vassilacchi did not painted the mouth otherwise it would have been even more impressive. The colors and postures of the various characters stand out even more lines of the hidden entity.
We must also consider that this canvas was not for the priest nor the people, the rule of reciting the Mass watching the people was approved recently, but not in 1592 indeed.
The picture is quite descriptive and hearing its story is really impressive.
The mysterious canvas: Trionfo dell´Ordine dei Benedettini, by Antonio Vassilacchi called “l’Aliense”
Lunch at leisure
Time for shopping at leisure in Perugia in the afternoon
Dinner at leisure and overnight stay
TUSCANY | 5 nights
DAY 4 | ENIGMATIC SAN GALGANO ABBEY in the heart of Tuscany
Breakfast and meeting with your private driver and departure by van/car towards Siena.
Check in in your hotel in Siena centre or countryside
Private guided walking tour in the historical centre of Siena.
With curved old palaces, brick arches, lively caffè-terraces and a vast redbrick sloping square that leads the eye and the feet down to the Palazzo Pubblico (the town hall), prepare to be enamored by Siena’s Piazza del Campo. For those lucky enough to arrive in season, 2nd July and 16th August (plus four days of pre-race trials) see the outer perimeter of the square fenced off and covered with sand for the famous Palio bareback horserace. A dazzling spectacle of local culture, in which 10 of Siena’s 17 contrade (neighborhoods) compete in a merciless horserace held since Medieval Age.
Visitors arriving fall fascinated under the charm of Siena’s gracefully winding medieval streets.
Lunch at leisure
Departure towards Abbazia di San Galgano in the heart of Tuscany.
Surrounded by trees and fields, the 13th-century Abbazia di San Galgano the “abbey without a roof.”
The skeleton that remains (with grass floor and sky roof) is a fascinating example of Cistercian Gothic architecture, the shapely windows create an atmospheric shadow. Arthurian legends are reversed with the “sword in the stone” taken from the abbey and displayed at the nearby Romanesque Chiesa di Montesiepi. Rather than St. Galgano pulling the sword from the stone, he plunged it in, creating with the hilt the shape of the Cross. While you’re here, there are also some lovely Andrea Lorenzetti frescoes to enjoy.
St. Galgano was born in 1148 in Chiusdino from a family of small local nobility, and died December 1181. Galgano lived as libertine knight and addicted to wildest entertainment, until something changed his life and turning it into a true Knight of God. It happened that one day dedicated to lust and debauchery, suddenly Galgano had a vision of the Archangel Michael. Galgano followed the
Archangel, crossed a bridge and a flowery meadow, reaching Monte Siepi, finding a round building
and the Twelve Apostles. This event converted him permanently.
The tradition tell a second episode. In a quiet day his horse led him back again to Monte Siepi, in the
same place where he had previously met the Twelve Apostles. Galgano had no doubt, it was a sacred place and, as such, deserved a Cross. He decided to take his sword and drive it into the rock. Then he heard a voice that invited him to stay in that place, Galgano accepted the invitation, and began his real life as hermit. Four years after his death was sanctified by Pope Lucius III.
The atmosphere of the places where this legend is magical, fascinating, full of energy. The story of Saint Galgano is very similar to that of St. Francis, both abandon a world of entertainment empty and corruption, to devote himself to the next and to prayer.
There are several points in common with the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, in which the protagonist is just the sword in the stone, as well as the knight named Gawain, very similar to Galgano. Probably the author of the narrative of King Arthur had been in Tuscany and absorbed the legend.
Dinner at leisure and overnight stay
DAY 5 | LUCCA
Breakfast and departure with your private driver towards Lucca, an enchanting old town full of Italian mysterious places.
Situated in a fertile plain between the Apennines and Monte Pisano, Lucca is a delightful city to explore. Inside its 4 kilometer (2,5 miles) stretch of city walls, narrow streets lead onto irregularly shaped squares revealing pleasant gardens, 16th-century palazzi, jutting medieval tower-houses and
half-hidden churches.
Walking private guided tour, Duomo - Cattedrale di San Martino
A place that preserves unresolved symbols and legends. The labyrinth, the Last Supper painted by Tintoretto with the presence of a woman among the characters, the sculpture of Ilaria del Carretto (called the sleeping beauty), the Volto Santo, the two legends of the poor Jolly and Giovanni di Lorenzo di Arras.
Visit Torre Guinigi and Torre delle Ore
Lunch at leisure
Walking at leisure in Lucca
Piazza Anfiteatro a place known for its perfect acoustics, it is nice to play with sounds and noises in the middle of the square.
Departure to Florence and hotel check in
Dinner at leisure and overnight stay
DAY 6 | GENESIS AND GIANTS FRESCOS IN PISTOIA
Breakfast and departure with your private driver by van/car towards Pistoia. One of the richest art cities in Tuscany with a fascinating cathedral square often missed on Tuscany’s well trampled tourist circuit.
Private guided visit of Pistoia underground.
Lunch at leisure in Pistoia
Transfer to Campo Tizzoro, SMI Museum
Until now we lived experiences regarding ancient mysteries, but today you will discover some detail more related to J.F. Kennedy murder. Right in Pistoia. Incredible, isn’t it?
In brief: the SMI is an old weapon factory in Campo Tizzoro (among Tuscany mountains) was one of the major munitions factories of Europe and has been NATO supplier for many years. Now it is an interesting museum focused on II World War weapons. Recently has been found a sniper rifle, excellently preserved, similar to the one used to kill JFK. It seems that has been left there by the Warren Commission during the inquiry. The commission members visited the factory because two of the JFK murder bullets were produced right here. The theory is that this sniper rifle could be the "second" one used in Dallas and it seems more similar to the one held by Oswald in photos than the one that was actually recognized as the murder weapon.
The museum guide will involve you in one of the greatest mysteries of contemporary times!
Dinner at leisure and overnight stay in Florence
DAY 7 | VINCI, LEONARDO’S BIRTHPLACE
Breakfast and departure with your private driver by car/van towards Vinci. A day tour completely dedicated to the singular life and unique art masterpieces of Leonardo Da Vinci, in the village where he was born.
Meeting with your private guide
Museums entrance to pay on the spot.
The birth house of the greatest genius of all time is reached along an ancient path through the hills and groves of Montalbano olive trees in the heart of Tuscany. An immersion in the landscape that is in itself an experience and gives the visitor a clear perception of the unbreakable bond between Nature and Genius. The figure of Leonardo gives suggestion to the birthplace, but it is also true: the scenarios surrounding Anchiano, almost unchanged over time, evoke creativity and the genius of Leonardo da Vinci. The striking simplicity of the place, combined with an art museum exhibition that
invites you to know more about the history of this character, thanks to the innovative technology called "Leonardo Touch", a sophisticated interactive system that allows you to interact with the famous fresco The Last Supper. And to know a little more about his private life, Leonardo himself will welcome visitors in the Birthplace of Anchiano in the form of life-size hologram.
Lunch and dinner at leisure
DAY 8 | SEE YOU SOON ITALIAN MYSTERIES !
Breakfast.
End of the services and private driver transfer to Rome Fiumicino Airport (or Pisa or Florence airport).