THE TOUR INCLUDES: - Top category seats for all performances as listed - 4 nights accommodations at the Grand Hotel Florence (5-star), and 3 nights at the Albergo Villa Marta in Lucca (4-star) - Full breakfast daily, 1 dinner and 4 lunches (late pre-performance lunches in Torre del Lago) - custom (private) city tours of Florence, Uffizi, Accademia, Siena, Monteriggioni, San Gimignano, Pisa, Lucca, Torre del Lago, Chiatri and Viareggio - private Airport-Hotel transfers - Tour Direction by an Aria Tours director - a comprehensive tour handbook, containing travel info, performance synopses and a detailed daily itinerary Cost: $5625 US Single Supplement: $1000 US Deposit: $2500 Balance due: May 20, 2008 Prices include all taxes.

OPTIONS FLIGHTS Inbound flights should be booked to Florence, with returns from either Pisa or Florence (we include transfers to both). We will be happy to make any flight arrangements, including reward travel with your preferred carrier, for $75 per person. AIRPORT-HOTEL TRANSFERS We include airport-hotel transfers (group) on the published tour dates. Transfers are not included for early arrivals or extended stays, although we can easily make these arrangements for you. TOUR ADDITIONS The itinerary can be customized to meet your needs and desires. Please call us to discuss any changes or amendments you wish to make. INSURANCE We strongly recommend that all tour members purchase cancellation insurance upon registration. We can assist you with this, though you are welcome to purchase a policy at your own discretion. If you would like information on the policies offered by our supplier, please contact us for details, or click HERE for an insurance brochure and application.

When Giacomo Puccini discovered Torre del Lago, he was so bewitched by its charm that he described it with these words: “.. supreme joy… paradise… Eden… 120 inhabitants, 12 houses. A quiet village, with luxuriant, extraordinary sunsets..” After a century, Torre del Lago is still an earthly paradise: sunny beaches, fresh pinewoods, quiet lakeshores. This is where Puccini wrote most of his operas, and where, in his twilight years, he sought refuge between the rigorous demands of the worldwide tours which fame and success had thrust upon him. Here too is the open-air theatre where, since 1955, there has been an annual festival to celebrate the local boy who brought to a culmination the most Italian of the arts, lyric theatre.

Torre del Lago lies between the Lake of Massaciuccoli and the Tyrrhenian Sea, 4 kilometres from the magnificent beaches of Viareggio on the Tuscan Riviera, 18 kilometres from Lucca and Pisa. The Festival welcomes about 40,000 spectators every year to its open-air theatre, just a few steps from the Villa Mausoleum where Puccini lived and worked. His mortal remains are now in a small chapel inside the Villa.

The 2008 Festival Pucciniano features performances of the posthumously-completed Turandot, the ever-popular Madama Butterfly, and the heart-rending Tosca. We will stay just outside of Puccini's hometown of Lucca at a charming and peaceful Tuscan villa, the Albergo Villa Marta. Whilst here, we will tour the many sites associated with Puccini's life, and we will sample the cuisine and wine for which Tuscany is famous.
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Florentia ("the florid") was the name given by the Romans to this small settlement located at the foot of the ancient Etruscan Fiesole and founded in the first century BC. Despite the internal struggles, first between rival families and then between the Guelfs (loyal to the Pope) and the Ghibellines (loyal to the Emperor), Florence did flourish, from the thirteenth century onward, as a city of art, culture and international trade. It reached its zenith in the fifteenth century under the Signoria of Cosimo and Lorenzo de Medici. Today, Florence is the guardian of an exceptional art heritage, which we will explore in detail.

In Florence, we will stay four nights at one of Europe's best hotels, the Grand Hotel Florence, and enjoy private tours of the city including the major historic and architectural sites. We will visit the Uffizi, the Accademia (to view Michelangelo's David, amongst other works), and we will also spend a day touring Siena, Monteriggioni and San Gimignano. We will also have the opportunity to attend any yet-to-be-announced performances that may be worthwhile during our stay. On our way from Florence to Lucca, we stop in Pisa to see the famous Leaning Tower.

With Bayreuth and la Scala, Torre del Lago has become one of operas great pilgrimages, affording lovers of Giacomo Puccini an opportunity to hear his works where they were composed. Join us for the pilgrimage in 2008.

THE ITINERARY

Sunday, July 20...Departures
Individual departures for Italy.

Monday, July 21..Arrivals in Florence
Excellent flight itineraries are available for under $600 US (as of July, 2007) from North America to Florence with one stop in either Rome or Paris. Upon arrival in Florence you will be met and transferred to the Grand Hotel Florence, our historic hotel in the Old Town. Facing a Renaissance square overlooking Florence’s river Arno, the Grand is an 18th century former palace. It was recently named one of the “Top 75 Hotels in Europe" by Condé Nast Traveler. The afternoon is at leisure to settle in and rest. This evening we gather in the hotel lobby for introductions, after which we retire to the hotel's Restaurant InCanto for a Welcome Dinner. The restaurant offers splendid views of the Piazza Ognissanti, one of the most beautiful squares in Florence, overlooking the Ponte Vecchio, the Belvedere, and the Chiesa del Cestello.

Tuesday, July 22...Florence
After breakfast we gather in the hotel lobby and depart on a private guided walking tour of Florence. In the morning, we visit the important sites in the city centre: Santa Trinita, Ponte Vecchio, Orsanmichele, Piazza della Signoria, the Piazza Duomo, Baptistery and the Giotto Bell Tower. We will also visit the Franciscan Church of Santa Croce, where the tombs of Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Galileo and Rossini are located. Lunch is included at La Giostra, a hidden gem owned by a Habsburg prince and featuring Tuscan specialties. In the afternoon, by special appointment, we visit the Uffizi Gallery, home of the largest collection of Italian and Florentine art in the world, and doubtless one of the great art experiences anywhere. Among the highlights are Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus and Primavera, Leonardo da Vinci’s Adoration of the Magi, Michelangelo’s Tondo Doni, Masolini and Masaccio’s Holy Family with Saint Anne, Mary and Jesus, Raphael’s Pope Leo X and Madonna, Titian’s Venus of Urbino and Eleanora de Gonzaga delle Rovere, Giotto’s Madonna with Baby Jesus, Saints and Angels and Lippi’s Coronation of the Virgin. Following the tour, the evening is at leisure. There may be an opportunity to attend a performance (details in Autumn '07).

Wednesday, July 23...Florence — Siena Excursion
Today we offer a full-day excursion to Siena, through the countryside of the Chianti area, among delightful hills with an ever-changing scenery of vineyards and olive trees. Our first stop is in the medieval village of Monteriggioni, enclosed by its famous walls, still intact. The town was so well known even in the middle ages that Dante makes reference to its "round enclosure" in his Divine Comedy. On arrival in Siena, we take time for lunch at leisure before our guided tour of this magnificent city. We will visit the 12th-century Duomo, one of the great examples of Italian Romanesque architecture, containing important sculpture and other works by Duccio, Donatello, Ghiberti, Jacopo della Quercia to name but a few. We also see the Piazza del Campo, pictured above, one of the most beautiful squares in Europe and the site where the great horserace "the Palio" has been held every year since the dark ages. Here in the Piazza is the Palazzo Pubblico, itself a great work of architecture, housing another important art museum (Ambrogio Lorenzetti's series of frescos on good and bad government; frescoes of Simone Martini and Pietro Lorenzetti). We also visit the Gothic Palazzo Chigi on Via di Città, site of the Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Siena's conservatory of music.

On our return to Florence, we drive through the Sienese hills and stop briefly in San Gimignano, called the "Manhattan" of Tuscany for its fifteen medieval towers. After a short stroll through the Piazza della Cisterna and the Piazza del Duomo, where we peek at the local wares and wines in the shops that line the cobblestone streets, we return to our hotel in Florence, arriving late afternoon. The evening is at leisure (a performance may be possible. Details tba).

Thursday, July 24...Florence
Enjoy the full day at leisure in Florence. In our Guidebook for tour members, we will offer many suggestions on how best to spend your day.

Friday, July 25...Florence — Pisa — Lucca
After checking out of the hotel, we depart early by private coach for Lucca, stopping first at the Accademia for a brief viewing of Michelangelo's colossal David and the four unfinished Prisoners intended for the tomb of Pope Julius II. David was commissioned in 1501 by the Cathedral Works Committee (Opera Del Duomo). At the age of 26, Michelangelo was given a leftover block of marble that came from the mountains of Carrara (near Lucca), one of which had previously been worked on by various other artists. The piece was intended as a monumental work, a testament to the city's republican pride, not one for close confinement. It was moved to the Accademia in 1873 (from outside the Palazzo Vecchio, where a replica now stands ) to protect it from the ravages of time and weather. After the tour, we depart Florence and follow the Arno River west toward the Tyrrhenian Sea, stopping in Pisa to visit the Piazza dei Miracoli, home of the celebrated Leaning Tower, the Romanesque Cathedral (with inside visit), the Baptistery and other important monuments.

Afterward we drive north the short distance to the foot of Mount Pisani and the Albergo Villa Marta, our elegant Tuscan villa accommodation just three miles from the heart of Lucca. After check in, we transfer to Lucca for lunch at the superb Ristorante Giglio, housed in the 18th-century Palazzo Arnolfini. Following lunch, the afternoon is at leisure to stroll along the ramparts or along the Palazzo Pfanner in Lucca, or to rest at the Villa Marta. In the evening we transfer to the open air theatre at Torre del Lago for a performance of Turandot (cast tba; new production by Maurizio Scaparro).

Saturday, July 26...Lucca
After breakfast we depart by coach for guided tours of Lucca and the Villa Puccini in Torre del Lago. In Lucca, we visit the house where Puccini was born on December 22nd, 1858. The house is on the Corte San Lorenzo, near the central Piazza San Michele. Today it is a museum where many of the Maestro’s objects and mementos are preserved, among which are signed musical scores of his first works such as "Messa a 4 voci" and "Capriccio sinfonico". From Piazzale Verdi, walking through San Donato rampart, we go along Via San Paolino in the direction of Piazza San Michele. Here we visit the Romanesque church of San Michele in Foro, on the site of the Roman forum. We also visit the San Paolino where Puccini played the organ, and stop for a brief tour of the Palazzo Mansi, a Baroque palace with a noteworthy art collection and finely decorated apartments. After saluting the statue of Puccini in the Piazza della Cittadella, we make our way to Torre del Lago and the Villa Puccini.

In the Summer of 1891 Puccini sublet two rooms in the modest towerhouse on Massaciuccoli Lake from Venanzio Barsuglia, gamekeeper in the close Borbonis estate. Following the success of Tosca, Puccini purchased the house and set about having it completely restructured. Great artists and architects such as Luigi De Servi, Plinio Nomellini and Galileo Chini gave the building a significant Liberty taste. Therein delicate decorations by Nomellini and Pagni, a fireplace by Galileo Chini, Bugatti and Tiffany furniture, the Maestro’s Föster piano and a rich collection of weapons and hunting trophies, mementos of the passion Puccini shared with his friends of “Club de La Bohème”, can still be admired. This villa, where he composed many of his best known operas, is now a museum. A small chapel inside the villa treasures the composer’s remains and those of his wife Elvira and his son Antonio. The museum is directed by Mrs. Simonetta Puccini, the great composer's granddaughter. Following the tour, we stop for lunch at the Chalet del Lago, overlooking Lake Massaciuccoli. Return to the Villa Marta afterward, where the afternoon is at leisure. This evening we return to Torre del Lago to attend a Stefano Vizioli production of Madama Butterfly (cast tba).

Sunday, July 27...Lucca
Late morning we visit Chiatri, a nearby village situated between Lucca and Viareggio on Mount Quiesa. The village is in an extraordinary geographic position — on sunny days the vista embraces the entire coast from Livorno to La Spezia, the Arno and Serchio rivers, Corsica and some isles of the Tuscan archipelago, the pinewoods of San Rossore Migliarino and the Borbonis woodland around Lucca. In Chiatri we visit the Villa Puccini, the first house Puccini owned. It was rebuilt by Giuseppe Puccinelli who deeply transformed the ancient Samminatis’ villa which Puccini purchased in December 1898. The road was not carriageable at the time and building materials had to be carried by horse-back along the path connecting Chiatri and Farneta. Puccini carefully followed the construction, but he actually lived there only on rare occasions and for short periods, during which he could relax and go hunting as well as work. Here, in the summer of 1908, he composed most of the first act of Fanciulla del West. The villa and the wide garden are private property and cannot be visited, but we will observe from the outside.

We continue to Viareggio, a very popular resort destination spectacularly set on the Tyrrhenian Sea, where we see the villa at which Puccini resided during the last years of his life. The group will then have time to explore the shops and cafés in Viareggio (the Caffè Margherita was popular with Puccini and other artists and musicians, notably Toscanini) before returning to the Villa Marta early afternoon. Upon arrival, we will enjoy a special Farewell Dinner on the grounds of the Villa Marta (inside if the weather is inclement). This evening we attend our final performance, a Mario Corradi production of Tosca (cast tba), with sets and costumes by Igor Mitoraj.

Monday, July 28...Departures
Transfers are included to either Pisa or Florence for return flights.