Destination Guide on Italy

Italy

Italy needs no introduction – being one of the most popular travel destinations in Europe. A country famous for its incredible food, rich historical sites, highly regarded art, beautiful small towns and equally picturesque cities. The north features stunning lakes with Alpine backdrops while the South offers beautiful sun-drenched beaches and dramatic active volcanoes. There is something in Italy to entice every kind of traveller.

Why Book Italy with Sun Island Tours?

Local operator with 30 years experience.

Most coach tours guided in English only.

Coach tours stay on Venice Island.

Guaranteed departures on all escorted tours.

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Italy Highlights & Experiences

Rome

Often referred as the Eternal City, Rome is a wonderful blend of historical sites, charming piazzas, world-class museums and icons of world culture. The city is packed with over 3,000 years of history in the form of ruins, art and architecture. Rome’s main sites include ancient attractions such as the Colosseum, Roman Forum and the Pantheon. The Vatican is well known for St. Peter’s Basilica, the Apostolic Palace and the Sistine Chapel.

Florence

The capital of Tuscany, Florence is often described as a colossal outdoor museum because of its mass of art and architectural treasures. Set either side of the River Arno, its centrepiece is the iconic Duomo, with its elegant Renaissance dome. Located in the region of Tuscany, it is the perfect gateway for exploring Tuscany’s smaller cities and countryside.

Venice

One of Italy’s top travel destinations, Venice is a unique city famous for its beautiful canals, gondolas and footbridges. Besides the canals and the gondolas, St. Mark’s Square with the Basilica and the Doge’s Palace is the true icon of the city and not to be missed. Taking a gondola ride is one of the best ways to see the city. Be sure to include a visit to the smaller islands of Burano, Murano and Lido.

Milan

A global capital of fashion and design, Milan is known for stylish shops, galleries, and restaurants and has a faster pace of life than most Italian cities. It also has a rich artistic and cultural heritage such as its Gothic Duomo, with its beautiful marble façade, Da Vinci’s painting of The Last Supper and La Scala, one of the worlds most famous opera houses.

Naples

Naples is one of Italy’s most vibrant cities, located on the west coast. The city features one of the world’s largest historic city centres with a high collection of monuments, Baroque churches and Roman ruins. Top attractions in Naples include the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, the 13^th Century Gothic cathedral and the vibrant Spaccanapoli district. Naples is also a great base for visiting Pompeii, Herculaneum and the famous Amalfi Coast.

Amalfi Coast

Situated in Italy’s southwestern region of Campania, the Amalfi Coast is known for its extraordinary beauty. It stretches for 50km along the Sorrentine Peninsula with green pastures and lemon groves cascading down to the turqoise sea. Amalfi, the biggest coastal town, features a gorgeous duomo and charming pastel buildings.

Cinque Terre

The Cinque Terre (Five Lands), is a string of five fishing villages perched high on the Italian Riviera in the region of Liguria. Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore make up the five towns of this UNESCO World Heritage Site. The hiking trails that thread between the villages are some of the world’s most scenic, taking you past vineyards and olive groves, with dramatic seascapes at every turn. While each village has something different to offer, you really can’t go wrong with any of them.

Sicily

Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean and one of the most culturally diverse parts of Italy, influenced by the many different cultures that have settled the island throughout its history. The island has earned seven places on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list, three for its ancient sites, two for natural wonders and two for architectural treasures. No trip to the island is complete without a visit to the island’s capital, Palermo, where you can browse the city’s famous market places or explore the fascinatingly diverse architecture before heading to the coast, where you can find archaeological sites, fishing villages, and volcanoes.

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Italian Lake District

Italy’s Lake District combines mountain vistas and crystalline lakes with medieval fortresses and beautiful lakeside towns. There are five major lakes and each one has its own flair and character. This area is popular year-round as you can hit the beach on a sunny day, participate in some exciting adventure sports, or visit in the winter for a ski trip in the Italian Alps.

Tours, Packages and Cruises in Italy

Choose from our extensive list of travel options and let Italy captivate your heart on your next trip.

Escorted Coach Tours: Take the hard work out of travelling and embark on our fully escorted coach tours. All tours are guaranteed to run and include touring, transportation, meals and entrance fees (as per itinerary).
Partially Escorted Package Tours: Enjoy the best of both worlds; a combination of independent and escorted touring. Packages are all guaranteed to run with a choice of either standard or superior class hotels. Transportation by air-conditioned vehicle with multi-lingual local guides are also included.
Partially Escorted Rail Package Tours: Rail packages are recommended for those who prefer exploring the country independently. The packages are partially escorted and include some transfers, accommodation, train passes between the cities and meals (as per itinerary).
Cinque Terre Packages: Consider a non-escorted package of the beloved Cinque Terre. Packages are fully independent a consist of accommodation in either standard or superior class hotels, meals (as per itinerary) and the Cinque Terre train cards.
Tailor Made Independent Packages: Let us tailor make your next holiday to Italy with a package that includes transfers, accommodation and day tours of your choice.
Day Tours: Choose from an extensive list of day trips from either Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan or Sorrento. Most tours depart several times a week and are all guaranteed to run. Some tours also include entrance fees and return transfers to your hotel.

Italy Tours, Packages & Cruises Selection Tips

Find some of our top tips for choosing the perfect trip for you!

Italy has an excellent rail network to get everywhere from the Alpine north to Sicily in the south. However, if going from Naples to Sorrento, the only rail option is the Circumvesuviana line which is a private rail network operating from Napoli Centrale station.

If you prefer to see as much as possible, we recommend our Escorted Coach Tours, which range from 3-12 days in length.

If coach tours aren’t your thing, join our partially escorted packages, which allow you to base yourself in one centre (for example Rome, Florence or Milan), and embark on day tours in and around the destination without having to pack and unpack your luggage every day.

Enhance your Italian experience with an authentic stay in either a self-contained villa apartment, or for larger groups, rent an entire villa. Our villa apartments can be rented nightly (minimum 3 nights) or weekly. Entire villas can be rented weekly (a minimum 3-night stay applies in lower seasons).

Open your mind to Italy’s relatively little-known gems such as the walled city of Lucca, the jagged coastline of Northern Sardinia, the Roman ruins of Lecce, marketplaces of Bologna and the quaint fishing ports of Calabria.

Travelling between the popular Cinque Terre can be hard. Be sure to book one of our non-escorted packages. Packages consists of a Cinque Terre Train Card which allows visitors second class travel with the regional fast trains (except for the IC/ICN/FB trains) on the Levanto – La Spezia (and vice versa) route, access to the Park area, Poetic Nature Paths at Parco Letterario Eugenio Montale and Pacro delle Cinque Terre, use of the bus services managed by ATC among the villages, WI-FI connection in the Park’s Hot Spots and reduced admission ticket to the Civic Museums in La Spezia.

Italy’s summer travel season is incredibly popular, to avoid the long queues and disappointment pre book some of our day tours so you don’t miss out of Italy’s major attractions.

Italy’s weather is usually hot from June to August and mild to warm during May, September and October making it a perfect destination to visit all year round.

How to Get to Italy

The major airports in Italy include Rome Fiumicino, Milan Malpensa, and Venice Marco Polo. Major airlines such as Emirates and Etihad fly from Australia to these airports, as well as Pisa Airport (near Florence) which is serviced by Qatar Airways. Many of the smaller airports have flights to regional European destinations. The closest airport servicing Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast is Naples Airport.

Contact our Italy Experts

Our team bring years of experience, and a true passion for travel.
Meet the team that bring your dream journey to life.

Britt

Reservations Consultant

Britt has travelled throughout Egypt, including Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor, Aswan, Abu Simbel, Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh; as well as cruising down the Nile.

Contact

Georgia

Reservations Consultant

Georgia loves Portugal. Whether you are looking at a short stay or touring around Portugal; contact Georgia for more info.

Contact

Olivia

Senior Reservations Consultant

Olivia has travelled throughout Croatia, both touring on a coach, as well as cruising throughout the Adriatic Islands.

Contact

Bianca

Business Development Manager VIC/TAS

Bianca has travelled multiple times to Turkey, visiting sites such as Istanbul, Gallipoli, Cappadocia, Ephesus, Izmir, Marmaris as well as cruising on traditional, Turkish Gulets.

Contact

Daniela

Touropa Reservations Consultant

This tour is operated by Touropa – our Flexible Coach Touring Range. Dani leads the Touropa division.

Contact

Zoe

Reservations Consultant

Contact

Reviews for Italy

Maria 23 Sep 2022

17 day tour great weather

Review for: Glorious Italy

We were lucky to have great weather from Rome to Rome taking in the sights of Assisi, Siena, Florence, Bologna, Padua, Venice, Montepulciano, Rome beautiful destinations and incredible history. Both Nancy our tour guide who was knowledgeable and Luigi our bus driver they were fantastic and worked great together. We had a different tour guide and driver from Naples to Taormina sights seen were great as well Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri then to Palermo, Monreale, Erica, Marsala, Agrigento, Armenian, Ragusa, Noto, Siracusa, Mt Etna not to forget the beautiful Taormina. We loved Sorrento full of life and Palermo great arancini and Sicilian canoli (was in heaven).

Elizabeth and Gordon Wood 10 Sep 2022

Fantastic quality of hotel and expertise of the guide

Review for: Highlights of Sicily

The quality of the hotels, the places visited, the knowledge and expertise of the guide and the experiences we had, were fantastic. Perhaps our only question would be that we were a group of over 30 and we were of the understanding that Sun Island Tours were for groups smaller than this. Our overall impression of Sicily was of a vibrant culture with so much history behind it.

Reply from Sun Island Tours

Hi Elizabeth and Gordon, Thank you for your review. The Highlights of Sicily is not a small group tour, and is listed as such. However we will review further to see why you had that impression. Great to hear you had a wonderful time. Regards, John @ Sun Island Tours

Elizabeth and Gordon Wood 01 Sep 2022

The standard of hotels and the level of guide expertise was excellent

Review for: Fantasy of Puglia

The standard of hotels and the level of guide expertise was excellent. The fact that breakfast and dinner were included in the pre-tour costs was of benefit to us. Our only concern would be the quality of the dinners presented to us during our 2 night stay in Alberobello. As the "dispersed hotel" did not have catering facilities, we ate at the same restaurant for 2 nights. This restaurant made little effort to give us meals comparable to the standard of the other included meals. On our first night the first course was a pasta with minimal sauce, the second course was 2 small Italian sausages with a small scoop of fried potato and the dessert was a chocolate sauce on ice-cream. Some of our group complained to Angela, our guide, who agreed that it was not satisfactory and rang the restaurant to ask for a higher quality meal the next night. On the second night, for the first course we were given a very similar pasta to the night before, then a small undressed tomato, mozzarella and lettuce salad accompanied by a small dressed tomato and lettuce salad. This was topped off by a slice of watermelon for dessert. We particularly enjoyed the final dinner at the 'Masseria le Stanzie' outside Lecce.

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