THE BEST OF ITALY & FRANCE - 2010

12 days incl. travel, or 11 days from Rome to Paris (HH)

Return to France Vacations

Vacation Overview

This exciting vacation features 2-night stays in Rome, Venice, Florence, Nice, and Paris. Begin in Rome with guided sightseeing that includes the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s, the Colosseum, and the Roman Forum. Pause in Assisi to visit St. Francis’ Basilica, then to Venice for a private boat ride and guided walking tour that showcases St. Mark’s, Doges’ Palace, and the Bridge of Sighs. On to Ferrara to imposing Este Castle, then stop in Florence, the “Cradle of the Renaissance.” Here you’ll see Michelangelo’s David, the Cathedral, and Signoria Square. A scenic drive takes you to Pisa and its Leaning Tower, then along the Italian and French Rivieras to Nice for a stop at a local perfume factory and an included excursion to the famous artist town of St. Paul de Vence. Finally, board the high-speed TGV train and head to Paris, where guided sightseeing shows you the most famous sights: the Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Élysées, Notre Dame Cathedral, and a visit to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower.

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Things to see on your vacation: View Vacation Photo Slideshow

A Vacation Story Eiffel Tower

Imagining Paris without the Eiffel Tower is like London without Big Ben or San Francisco without the Golden Gate Bridge. But no sooner had the architect Gustav Eiffel beaten his 700 competitors in the design competition for the 1889 Centennial Exposition, celebrating a century since the French Revolution, than a vocal outcry began to halt construction of the edifice. Three hundred famous French artists and writers signed a petition in the newspaper “Le Temps” denouncing Eiffel’s radically modern design as “useless and monstrous,” a blight upon the elegant fabric of the City of Light. Others critics were even more vicious, describing the proposed tower as a “tragic street lamp,” a gymnasium apparatus…incomplete, confused and deformed,” “a giant ungainly skeleton,” “a half-built factory pipe,” “a carcass” and even “a hole-riddled suppository.” Nature-lovers argued that it would disturb the flight patterns of Parisian birds. Even as the iron lattice began to rise, Parisians continued to refer to it by the less-than-flattering nickname, “the metal asparagus.” Of course, no sooner had the tower opened in 1889 than the rabid criticism evaporated.