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Italy

Under the Tuscan Sun: Italian Adventures With Your Family

Program No. 23580RJ
Under the Tuscan sun, you and your family will create memories that will last a lifetime as you discover amazing art, learn some Italian, and explore ancient ruins together.

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Prefer to enroll or inquire by phone? 800-454-5768
Age 13 - 17
ROOMING OPTION PRICING
The figures below indicate the rooming options available.
DATES
Jun 14 - Jun 22, 2024
Per Adult
3,099
Per Child
2,699
Select
Jun 14 - Jun 22, 2024
-
3,099
/ Adult
2,699
/ Child
3,399
/ Adult
2,699
/ Child
Select Date
Jun 21 - Jun 29, 2024
Per Adult
3,099
Per Child
2,699
Select
Jun 21 - Jun 29, 2024
-
3,099
/ Adult
2,699
/ Child
3,399
/ Adult
2,699
/ Child
Select Date
Jun 28 - Jul 6, 2024
Per Adult
3,099
Per Child
2,699
Select
Jun 28 - Jul 6, 2024
-
3,099
/ Adult
2,699
/ Child
3,399
/ Adult
2,699
/ Child
Select Date
Jul 5 - Jul 13, 2024
Per Adult
3,099
Per Child
2,699
Select
Jul 5 - Jul 13, 2024
-
3,099
/ Adult
2,699
/ Child
3,399
/ Adult
2,699
/ Child
Select Date

At a Glance

What comes to mind when you think of Italy? Spectacular cuisine? Rolling hills? Amazing artwork? If that’s the case, then chances are you’re thinking of Tuscany. Unlike the long lines of Rome and the crazy crowds of Venice, it’s way easier to feel like a true Italian in the small cities of Tuscany. Alongside your family, journey along the peaceful valleys to learn what makes Italy one of the best countries in the world. Discover priceless art, whip up some delicious Italian food, and learn what makes the Leaning Tower of Pisa lean as you explore la bella vita with your family.
Activity Level
Keep the Pace
Walking up to five miles a day; elective biking opportunity. Extended standing during site visits with limited or no public seating. Uneven terrain, limited public handrails, unavoidable stairs, marble and terracotta flooring, cobblestones, inclines, loose gravel, dirt paths, escalators. Elevator use is limited or restricted in historic sites. Expect crowded conditions in pedestrian centers and museums. Anticipate temperatures to reach 85-95°F consistently. Program-related travel and transfers will be via bus, regional train, and funicular. Pedestrian tunnels at train stations.
Small Group
Small Group
Love to learn and explore in a small-group setting? These adventures offer small, personal experiences with groups of 13 to 24 participants.

Best of all, you’ll…

  • Discover the famous scientific explorations of Leonardo da Vinci at the place he was born.
  • Become a pasta- and pizza-making pro during a fun cooking class and bring your recipes home to your parents.
  • Ride your bike on top of the medieval walls of Lucca to get a totally different perspective of Tuscany.
Featured Expert
All Experts
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Sabrina Lanzoni
Sabrina Lanzoni was born in Pisa and moved to the German-speaking area of Switzerland where she attended school. She also attended a school for foreign language secretary. Sabrina returned to Italy for university, earning a degree in foreign languages and German literature at the Università di Pisa. While still a student, she worked as a group leader traveling throughout Italy and Europe. She has been leading groups in Pisa since 1988. Sabrina speaks Italian, German, English, and French.

Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.

Profile Image of Sabrina Lanzoni
Sabrina Lanzoni View biography
Sabrina Lanzoni was born in Pisa and moved to the German-speaking area of Switzerland where she attended school. She also attended a school for foreign language secretary. Sabrina returned to Italy for university, earning a degree in foreign languages and German literature at the Università di Pisa. While still a student, she worked as a group leader traveling throughout Italy and Europe. She has been leading groups in Pisa since 1988. Sabrina speaks Italian, German, English, and French.
Profile Image of Marcella Toni
Marcella Toni View biography
Marcella Toni is a long-experienced English-as-a-second-language teacher in charge of the foreign exchange and internship department at a local high school. She has been successfully planning, organizing, and developing long-lasting relationships with schools in Europe and USA as she firmly believes that learning the language and the culture of a country gives a broader general knowledge helping students to enhance perspectives and self-confidence. Marcella also collaborates with Primavera Viaggi, a travel agency in Florence specializing in Summer English study programs for Italian students.
Profile Image of Emily Moloney
Emily Moloney View biography
Emily Moloney, who is originally from Buffalo, New York, first came to Italy over ten years ago. She holds a master's degree in Renaissance art history and is an officially licensed tour guide. In addition to working as a private guide, Emily lectures as a professor of art history and Italian culture at several study-abroad centers in Florence. In her free time, you can find Emily at the park with her growing family. 
Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop
You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.
The Art of the Renaissance
by Peter Murray
A classic, illustrated survey of the world of the Renaissance and its art. With chapters on Florence and its artists, the Netherlands, early illustrated books and many individual artists.
The Reluctant Tuscan: How I Discovered My Inner Italian
by Phil Doran
From Amazon: After years of working on a string of sitcoms, Phil Doran found himself on the outside looking in. Just as he and his peers had replaced the older guys when he was coming up the ranks, it was now happening to him. And it was freaking him out. He came home every night angry, burned-out, and exhausted. After twenty-five years of losing her husband to Hollywood, Doran’s wife decided it was finally time for a change—so on one of her many solo trips to Italy she surprised her husband by purchasing a broken-down 300-year-old farmhouse for them to restore. The Reluctant Tuscan is about the author’s transition from being a successful but overworked writer-producer in Hollywood to rediscovering himself and his wife while in Italy, and finding happiness in the last place he expected. In the witty tone that made him a success as a writer in Hollywood, The Reluctant Tuscan captivates those who simply love a good travel narrative as well as anyone who loves the quirky humor of Bill Bryson, Dave Barry, and Jerry Seinfeld.
The Renaissance, A Short History
by Paul Johnson
The history, background, literature, sculpture, paintings and architecture of the Renaissance in just over 200 lively, thought-provoking pages.
A Culinary Traveller in Tuscany
by Beth Elon
A Tuscany resident for 30 years, Elon presents 100 recipes from a hand-picked selection of favorite restaurants in this charming cookbook and travel guide. With 10 itineraries highlighting largely undiscovered regions of Tuscany, restaurants, trattorie, shops, wineries, olive oil producers, markets and food festivals.
Insight Guide Tuscany
by Insight Guides
An illustrated guide in the popular series, noteworthy for its maps and illuminating essays on history, art, food and culture.
Tuscany in Mind: From Byron and the Brownings to Henry James, D. H. Lawrence, Robert Lowell, and Penelope Fitzgerald--Two Centuries of Great Writers Seduced by Tuscany
by Alice Leccese Powers (Editor)
From Amazon: Tuscany in Mind assembles a glittering mosaic portrait of an unforgettable place: Kinta Beevor • James Boswell • Elizabeth Barrett Browning • Robert Browning • Lord Byron • Bruce Chatwin • Ann Cornelisen • Charles Dickens • Sarah Dunant • Lawrence Ferlinghetti • Penelope Fitzgerald • E. M. Forster • Laura Fraser • Paul Gervais • Barbara Grizzuti Harrison • Robert Hellenga • William Dean Howells • Henry James • Erica Jong • D. H. Lawrence • David Leavitt and Mark Mitchell • Robert Lowell • Frances Mayes • Mary McCarthy • H. V. Morton • Eric Newby • Iris Origo • John Ormond • Elizabeth Romer • John Ruskin • Mary Shelley • Percy Bysshe Shelley • Kate Simon • Tobias Smollett • Matthew Spender • Stephen Spender • Mark Twain • Edith Wharton
Architecture of the Renaissance, From Brunelleschi to Palladio
by Bertrand Jestaz
Originating in Florence, the flowering of architecture in 15th-century Italy revolutionized the look of European cities and the mindsets of their citizens. This lavishly illustrated pocket book presents the people, the time and its monuments in hundreds of color photographs and engravings.
Every Day in Tuscany, Seasons of an Italian Life
by Frances Mayes
20 years after "Under the Tuscan Sun," Mayes is still besotted by Italy -- her house, the tumbling geraniums, the people and the food -- all lovingly documented in her best memoir yet. With interludes in Portofino, Assisi and Rome and a focus on Renaissance master artist Luca Signorelli.
The Agony and the Ecstasy, A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo
by Irving Stone
From Amazon: Irving Stone’s classic biographical novel of Michelangelo—the #1 New York Times bestseller in which both the artist and the man are brought to vivid, captivating life. His time—the turbulent Renaissance, the years of poisoning princes, warring Popes, and the all-powerful de' Medici family… His loves—the frail and lovely daughter of Lorenzo de' Medici, the ardent mistress of Marco Aldovrandi, and his last love, his greatest love—the beautiful, unhappy Vittoria Colonna... His genius—a God-driven fury from which he wrested brilliant work that made a grasp for heaven unmatched in half a millennium... His name—Michelangelo Buonarroti. Creator of the David, painter of the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel, architect of the dome of St. Peter's, Michelangelo lives once more in the tempestuous, powerful pages of Irving Stone's towering triumph. A masterpiece in its own right, this biographical novel offers a compelling portrait of one of the greatest artists the world has ever known.
The Most Beautiful Villages of Tuscany
by James Bentley, Hugh Palmer (Photographer)
From Amazon: A celebration of one of the most rich and varied landscapes in Europe, here are thirty-six villages and towns from all over Tuscany chosen both for their intrinsic beauty and for the part they have played in Tuscan history. Stand at the edge of a Tuscan hill village and gaze across one of the most extraordinarily rich and varied landscapes in Europe. There are vineyards producing the finest wine, and miles of wild mountain scenery; almost any view will take in other villages, clustering around the upper reaches of some hill, or the russet roofs of a fortified town deep in a valley.
Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture
by Ross King
From Amazon: On August 19, 1418, a competition concerning Florence's magnificent new cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore--already under construction for more than a century--was announced: "Whoever desires to make any model or design for the vaulting of the main Dome....shall do so before the end of the month of September." The proposed dome was regarded far and wide as all but impossible to build: not only would it be enormous, but its original and sacrosanct design shunned the flying buttresses that supported cathedrals all over Europe. The dome would literally need to be erected over thin air.
La Bella Figura, A Field Guide to the Italian Mind
by Beppe Severgnini
Italians themselves love this guide to the Italian character, which addresses their never-ending passion for beauty, disorder and high emotion. The book opens with a snapshot of Malpensa Airport, then moves on to Tuscany, Rome, Naples and Sardinia.
Fodor's Florence's 25 Best
by Fodor's Travel Guides
From Amazon: Compact and affordable, Fodor's Florence's 25 Best is a great travel companion for travelers who want a light, easy-to-pack guidebook to one of Europe's most exciting cities. Recommendations, pull-out map, practical tips and phrases, gorgeous photos and maps, and trip-planning tools.





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