Italy Holidays From Kerala, the Country That Invented the Holiday
A city built on water, a coast of cliffside villages, ruins where gladiators fought, and a plate of pasta that ruins every other plate of pasta. The most beautiful country in Europe, and it knows it.
More to See Than Any Country Its Size.
Italy holds more UNESCO World Heritage sites than any other country on earth, and it never feels like a museum. Rome still lives around its Colosseum and Pantheon, Venice is a city of canals with no cars at all, Florence keeps the Renaissance in walking distance, and Pisa's tower leans exactly as advertised. South of Naples the Amalfi Coast stacks pastel villages up cliffs above blue water; north of Milan, Lake Como sits under the Alps. Between them lie Tuscany's cypress hills and vineyards. The trains are fast and cheap, the food is honest everywhere, vegetarians eat magnificently, and one Schengen visa opens it all. A single Gulf connection from Kochi lands you in Rome or Milan, and we plan every step of it.
The Regions That Fill an Italy Trip.
Most journeys run north to south, or south to north, and rarely both ways. These are the pieces.
Rome and the Vatican
The Colosseum and Roman Forum
The Pantheon's open dome, coins in the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and across the river the Vatican with the Sistine Chapel ceiling and St Peter's Basilica, plus the Wednesday Papal Audience when the Pope is in the city.
Florence and Tuscany
Brunelleschi's dome above Florence
Michelangelo's David, the goldsmiths' shops on Ponte Vecchio, and beyond the city the cypress-lined hills of Chianti and Val d'Orcia, the towers of San Gimignano and Siena's shell-shaped square.
Venice and the North
A city on 118 islands with gondolas instead of taxis
St Mark's Square and the Doge's Palace, glassblowing at Murano, Verona's Roman arena and Juliet's balcony, Milan's Duomo, and Lake Como under the Alps.
The Amalfi Coast and the South
Positano falling down its cliff to the sea
Amalfi and Ravello above it, Capri's Blue Grotto offshore, Pompeii frozen by Vesuvius in 79 AD, and Naples below, where pizza was invented and still made best.
Italy, in brief.
Ancient ruins, Renaissance cities, a cliffside coast and food worth the flight, all on fast trains. The essentials first.
A Morning in Venice
The Only City of Its Kind Anywhere
Venice was built on wooden piles driven into a lagoon, spread across a hundred and eighteen small islands, and it has no cars, no buses and no scooters. Everything moves by water or on foot: the vaporetto ferries down the Grand Canal, the delivery barges, the gondolas that have carried people through the side canals for eight hundred years. St Mark's Square holds the basilica and the Doge's Palace, with the Bridge of Sighs beside it and the campanile above. By eleven the cruise crowds fill the square, and by evening they have gone again. The city belongs to early risers: mist off the water, deliveries clattering, and the light coming up gold on the palazzi with the canals almost empty. Stay a night on the island rather than day-tripping from the mainland, and Venice at dawn and after dark is a different city altogether. That is how we schedule it.
Send Us Your Dates
Vegetarians Eat Better Here Than Almost Anywhere.
Italian food worries Kerala travellers unnecessarily. This is a cuisine built on wheat, tomatoes, olive oil, cheese and vegetables, and every menu carries margherita and marinara pizzas, pasta al pomodoro and pesto, risotto, minestrone, caprese and grilled vegetables as standard, not as an afterthought. Ask for senza carne, without meat, and nobody blinks. Add gelato twice a day, coffee standing at the bar for a euro, and the fact that pizza was born in Naples, and Italy quietly becomes the easiest country in Europe for a vegetarian family. We still map Indian restaurants in Rome, Florence, Venice and Milan for those who want them.
A Week for the Classics, Ten Days to Reach the Coast.
Italy plans run in one direction, never back and forth. A classic week lands in Rome for three days of ruins and the Vatican, takes the fast train to Florence for Tuscany and a hill-town day, and finishes in Venice, roughly ninety minutes apart by rail each time. Ten days adds the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii below Rome, or Lake Como and Milan above Venice, and honeymooners usually want the coast. Longer trips reach Sicily or Puglia, or cross into Switzerland and Austria on the same visa. Send your dates and your party, and the full plan comes back, flights from Kerala included, shaped until it fits.
Start PlanningThe Most Beautiful Country Deserves the Right Order.
20 Years of Experience
Two decades of journeys from Kerala, with Europe among our most planned and most loved.
Routes That Avoid the Crush
One-way north to south routing, Venice with an overnight rather than a day trip, and August left to the Italians.
Tables That Taste of Home
Italian food is the most vegetarian-friendly in Europe, and Indian dinners are arranged in Rome, Florence, Venice and Milan for those who want them.
One Booking, Door to Door
Flights, visa file, hotels, fast-train seats and skip-the-line tickets for the Colosseum and Vatican held together by a single Fortune team.
Two of our Europe group tours run deep into Italy.
Italy is the longest single stretch on both, five days apiece, but one route opens with it and the other ends with it. That changes the trip more than it sounds.
Grand Europe
15 DAYS | KOCHI TO KOCHI · NINE COUNTRIES
EXPERIENCES:
Emirates Flights | Eurostar London to Paris | UK and Schengen Visas | 4 Star Hotels | All Meals
Excellent Europe
13 DAYS | KOCHI TO KOCHI · EIGHT COUNTRIES
EXPERIENCES:
Oman Air Flights | Schengen Visa | 4 Star Hotels | All Meals
FAQ
Questions with useful answers
A single smooth Gulf connection takes you from Kochi or Trivandrum to Rome or Milan, usually landing the same day. We choose the entry city by your route, since flying into one end and out of the other saves a full day of backtracking.
Yes, a Schengen visa, and the same visa covers Switzerland, France, Austria and the rest of the zone on a combined trip. Fortune prepares the complete file, forms, appointments, hotel proofs and insurance; start 45 to 60 days before travel and the process stays unhurried.
April to June and September to October are the sweet spots, with mild weather and manageable crowds. July is hot and busy, August is best avoided in the cities when the heat peaks and many Italians close shop, and winter is quiet, cheap and atmospheric.
Comfortably. Italian menus are full of vegetarian pizza, pasta, risotto and vegetables everywhere you go, and the major cities also have Indian restaurants that we pre-arrange. Jain travellers should tell us in advance so we can brief the kitchens.
It is the classic choice. A gondola in Venice, a terrace above Positano, sunset over the Tuscan hills, and dinner that lasts three hours; we pace the route for two and put the coast at the end.
A good portion of it is. Excellent Europe covers Rome, the Vatican, Pisa, Venice and Padua, and Grand Europe adds Milan on top of those, both with the Colosseum and St Peter's Basilica included. This customised trip is for the Italy those days cannot reach: Florence and Tuscany, the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii, Lake Como, and Venice with a night on the island instead of an afternoon.