ITALIAN
JOURNEYS
The Marches
is a secret paradise because of its geological terrain


TOURS
2009
The Secret
Heart of Italy -
The
Marche
(itinerary 2)
June 7 - 13 2009
2009
Insiders' Venice
Eighteenth Century Venice
(itinerary 2)
Oct 11 - 16 2009
THE 2009 TOUR
SECRET ITALY    
The Heart of the Marches 
Itinerary 2 June 7 – 13   2009

WARNING !   KNOW IN ADVANCE.

Walking.  There is inevitably some steep walking up cobbled streets.

Daily Coach Journeys.  There is inevitably considerable time each day in the coach. Distances up and down dale are much more than as a crow might fly. But we will make regular stops en route.
Above: Entrance of the Sferisterio, Macerata

The Hotel Claudiani is a small hotel in a quiet narrow back street about three minutes walk from the historic main piazza of Macerata. It is a modernized building, all rooms are up-to-date with en suite facilities (showers) tv, air conditioning. Dinner will be in nearby local trattorie.  The up-side is being able to stroll out on a summer evening into a buzzing university city centre with plenty of attractive bars, cafés and shops. The down-side is that to get to our bus for daily excursions, we need to take an escalator starting about 15 yards from the hotel, down through the city walls to the road below.
Lunches  and Dinners . We have lunch each day (included in the cost) in restaurants chosen for their attention to traditional cuisine, whether it be home-made pastas and grilled meat inland, or fresh fish on the coast.  Antipasti are followed by a pasta and then a main meat or fish course, with salad or vegetables, and then fruit or a pudding, and espresso coffee.  Including regional wines, lunches are not a fast-food occasion.  Included in the cost is dinner on the first and last evening in a local trattoria, of which there are plenty to choose from on the other evenings – good food at a very reasonable price. Those on their own will be looked after.

Flights and Advance Booking.. We do not arrange flights.  Ryanair from Stansted may not be everyone’s idea of convenient travel but it is the only line which flies direct from England into our area, to Falconara/Ancona airport.  There will be a private coach from the airport to the hotel, meeting the daily flight.

Those who have booked to come on this tour will be told as soon as the minimum number has been reached to guarantee that the tour will run.  A decision will be made at the latest on January 31, 2009.  After that, the sooner you book, the cheaper the cost of the Ryanair flight.  Flights booked many months in advance, well before that date, can be so very much cheaper than later bookings that you may think it worth booking well in advance even at the remote risk of the tour being cancelled.

Usually the Ancona flight leaves Stansted at 9.50 and arrives at 13.00: returning, it leaves Ancona 13.30 arrives Stansted 14.50.

COST   £ 1745 per person in double room, to include transfers from and back to Ancona airport, private coach travel, entrances, 5 lunches, 2 dinners. 

Single room supplement £170.  It does not include the flight. The cost includes a contribution to Venice in Peril.

The Tour is accompanied by an Art Historian and a Tour Manager.


RECOMMENDED READING

There are no books in English specifically on the history of the Italian Marches, although there is a new Guide to the Marche and San Marino by Ellen Grady.  The following books supply interesting general historical background to the development of cities in Medieval Italy.

Daniel Waley: The Italian City Republics.

John Larner: The Lords of Romagna. (not in print).  This refers to specific towns in the Romagna, which is the region north of the Marche.  It includes some towns in the Marche.  Excellent on the emergence of the signorie, on condottieri and power politics.