Introduction from Eric Knowles

It gives me great pleasure to be heading up Arena Travel’s antiques and fine arts tours for the fifth time. As specialists in the field, Arena have everything covered and with such a variety of tempting tours on offer, the 2010-11 programme looks set to be as popular and enjoyable as ever. Come September we fly south to the sun, to sample the pleasures of picturesque Lisbon and take in the magnificent Lalique collection at the famous Gulbenkian Foundation. In November all roads lead to The Potteries on a fascinating quest to discover the origins and riches of Britain’s wonderful ceramic heritage. Or if you’d prefer, you can join me on this tour the following March instead.

Our spring destination is Italy for an enticing mix of historic Umbrian hill towns, ancient cities and great museums, where majolica, mosaics and the watery delights of Venice are all on the agenda. In early summer we’re back on home soil and off to the beautiful Worcestershire countryside for a long, relaxed weekend of serious antiquing and some equally serious gastronomic delights at The Elms luxury hotel.

And for our final trip we cross over to France by Eurostar, where the striking cities of Strasbourg and Nancy provide our twin bases for looking at the very best in France’s strong tradition of glass making. Whatever your interest, I do hope I can tempt you to join me!

Eric Knowles
Antiquarian, Writer & Broadcaster