ROME Renaissance and early Baroque in the Eternal City

Morning flight with BA from London Heathrow to Rome Fiumicino. We will drive up the Janiculan Hill to admire a view of the Eternal City, and to study Bramante’s small but perfectly formed Tempietto at San Pietro in Montorio, an icon of High Renaissance architecture. From there walk down the hill through the mediaeval district of Trastevere across the Ponte Sisto — constructed under Pope Sixtus IV who also built the Sistine Chapel — to your four-star hotel.

In the morning we will walk through the Renaissance and Baroque heart of Rome to see Raphael’s little-known frescoes in the churches of S. Agostino and S. Maria della Pace. S. Maria del Popolo, the smallest of Rome’s great basilicas, is abounding with Renaissance and Early Baroque masterpieces, from Raphael’s Chigi Chapel to paintings by Annibale Carracci and Caravaggio. After lunch we will continue with an afternoon visit to colossal St Peter’s, and in the evening experience an exclusive private visit to Raphael’s Stanze and the Sistine Chapel with Michelangelo’s matchless frescoes.

In the morning we will visit the Galleria Borghese, Rome’s most famous collection of Renaissance and Baroque art, featuring several works by Caravaggio and Bernini’s breath-taking Apollo and Daphne. After lunch we will walk down via Veneto to Palazzo Barberini, one of the earliest Baroque palaces, built for Pope Urban VIII, Bernini’s greatest patron. We end the day with an exclusive visit at the privately owned Casino Ludovisi with a fresco by Caravaggio, Jupiter, Neptune & Pluto, the only painting in this medium ever done by the artist.

All-day coach excursion to Tivoli to visit the splendid frescoed apartments and magnificently terraced gardens of Villa d’Este with its many spectacular fountains. After lunch in a restaurant famous since the Grand Tour, located in the shadow of the Temple of the Tiburtine Sibyl, we will wander through the expansive grounds of the villa of Emperor Hadrian.

In the morning, we travel to Villa Medici beyond the Spanish Steps on the Pincian Hill, where we will visit the garden and casino of Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici.  In the villa’s garden is an exceptional open-air sculpture gallery, while a small studiolo in the grounds is embellished with delightful frescoes. We reconvene after lunch at the Roman Pantheon with its famous coffered dome, where Raphael is buried. Around the corner stands the Dominican church of S. Maria sopra Minerva, final resting place of Fra Angelico and home to Filippino Lippi’s dazzling frescoes in the Carafa Chapel. Finally, a short walk will take us to San Luigi dei Francesi, the church of the Roman French community since the 16th century, with works by Caravaggio and Guido Reni.

In the morning, visit Baldassare Peruzzi’s suburban Villa Farnesina, created for the Sienese banker Agostino Chigi. Its famous loggia and apartments were lavishly decorated with sophisticated trompe-l’oeil frescoes by Peruzzi himself, Raphael, Giulio Romano and the Venetian Sebastiano del Piombo. After lunch, we will transfer by coach from the hotel to Rome’s Fiumicino airport for a late afternoon flight to London.