Kick off your trip in the birthplace of renaissance art, haute couture fashion and the Tuscan T-bone.

Meals:
-Dinner

Florence has more stories than Bilbo Baggins, more culture than a Shoreditch hipster, over 1,800 restaurants and it gave the world gelato. Get schooled on the Medici family, stroll the Ponte Vecchio (the only bridge not bombed in WWII) and get an in-depth tour of the city with a local guide. Then: learn about the art of leather craft from the city that brought you Gucci (new handbag, anyone?) and use the afternoon to meet a guy named David doing his best Blue Steel in the Accademia Gallery.

Included today:
-Walking tour of Florence with local guide

Meals:
-Breakfast

Start off with a tour of the walled town of Lucca, then on to Pisa for #thattower to get #thatshot (we won't judge). Final destination: the stunning Cinque Terre for another feast at a local restaurant.

Included today:
Walking tour of Lucca with local guide
-Visit Pisa & the famous Leaning Tower

Meals:
-Breakfast
-Dinner

The five cliff-side villages of Cinque Terre didn't end up on the World Heritage list for nothing. Each mini-town has a vibe of its own. Completely void of corporate development and full of old town quirks, this is a place where la dolce vita is not so much encouraged as enforced. And it comes with a world-class glass of red.

Included today:
-Train day-pass for the Cinque Terre area

Meals:
-Breakfast

Visit Lake Garda, the largest in Italy, then roll on to Verona, where that Romeo kid struggled for young Juliet's attention. Embark on a walking tour to get your bearings so that you can make the most of that free time. Tonight: a city on water and a local meal.

Included today:
-Lake Garda visit
-Walking tour of Verona

Meals:
-Breakfast
-Dinner

Optional activities:
-Personalised Topdeck group shirts & hoodies

100+ slowly sinking islands won't explore themselves. Get your bearings on this morning's walking tour, then get hopelessly lost. Your GPS won't save you here. Soak up St Mark's Square (then get far, far away if you don't want to drop $40 on a coffee) then a quintessential gondola ride on the Grand Canal. Corny smooching not included.

Included today:
-Walking tour of Venice
-Gondola ride

Meals:
-Breakfast

Southward and downward with a pit stop at the hilltop town of Orvieto to see the grand cathedral and dig into a wild boar panini. Next: Rome, where all paths must end. End your day in true Italian fashion: in a carb induced coma at a local trattoria.

Included today:
-Orvieto visit

Meals:
-Breakfast
-Dinner

Make it an espresso doppio this morning - you're on your own from here. Rome wasn't built in a day so why not spend a few more and get to know this ancient powerhouse a little better?

Meals:
-Breakfast