Italy: Rome, Tuscany and Florence

Overview

This report follows a client’s trip, Sue’s Italian adventure, and the photographs are hers. Three stops in one trip: Rome for the ancient city and the Vatican, the Tuscan countryside for two winery cellars and a terrace above the valley, and Florence for the Duomo and its dining rooms. Eight nights in May 2026.

Getting there

Dallas to Rome on American Airlines, with a connection in Charlotte. Private transfers between the stops. The photographs run Rome, then Tuscany, then Florence, which is the order the trip took.

Rome

A guided tour of the Colosseum, the Forum and Palatine Hill: the Colosseum from the outside first, then from the arena level, where the hypogeum under the old floor is open to view. The Roman Forum is a short walk on, columns and inscribed stones standing in the grass, and Palatine Hill rises above it. The Vatican was the other day: the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica, with the museums’ gardens as the calm counterpart, a long lawn under an open sky. The Trevi Fountain is best seen after dark, when it is lit and the crowd has thinned. The hotel was Anantara Palazzo Naiadi, on Piazza della Repubblica, where Jeannie’s clients were upgraded to a suite.

Tuscany

From Rome they relocated north by private transfer to Hotel Parco Fiorito, a country hotel at Tuoro sul Trasimeno, outside Perugia, and stayed put for the countryside days. The first day was a cooking class at the hotel. The second was a private car and day tour to Montepulciano, with a tasting at Cantina de’ Ricci: De Ricci keeps its wine in a barrel-vaulted cellar dug deep under the town, the casks lined along a corridor that runs into the dark, and the tasting is set out on the wooden cases upstairs. The third was Cortona and Siena, private car again, with lunch on the Piazza del Campo. Baracchi is the Cortona cellar: bottles and small casks in racks, with the large wooden fermentation vats in the working end of the winery. Between the two, a terrace with a glasshouse and a single cypress, geraniums along the wall, and the valley floor below.

Florence

The move north was a private car and a day’s touring on the way from Tuoro to Florence. The Duomo at night, from the piazza. Giotto's campanile was under scaffolding on this visit, which is worth knowing before you plan a photograph of it. The hotel was the Helvetia & Bristol, on Via dei Pescioni between the Duomo and the Arno; the wing chairs and the marble table below are its lounge. From Florence, a private full-day tour of the Chianti hills, with lunch and a tasting at Poggio Amorelli in Castellina in Chianti, and a private tour of San Gimignano, the hill town with the towers.

Where they ate

Prosciutto with a burrata in Rome, and in Florence lunch at Gucci Osteria on Piazza della Signoria and dinner at La Giostra, the Medici-descended trattoria near Santa Croce. The focaccia with salami and cheese and the dining room with blue walls and red velvet chairs are below.

Pro tips

• Book the Colosseum arena level ahead. The arena floor and the hypogeum are a separate ticket from general admission.
• The Trevi Fountain after dark. Lit, and far quieter than at midday.
• Winery cellar visits are by appointment. Both cellars here were booked ahead.
• Take the guided tour for the Colosseum, Forum and Palatine. One guide, one morning, and you skip the lines at all three.
• Do the Vatican as its own day. Museums, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s together are a full day on your feet.
• Reserve Gucci Osteria well ahead. A small room on Piazza della Signoria; lunch is the easier booking.
• Book La Giostra for dinner before you leave home. It fills weeks out.
• May is the month. Warm, green, before the summer crowds and heat.

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