SUGGESTED ITINERARY Especially prepared for

11 Day Evolution of the Renaissance Tour Florence, Provence, Shakespeares England

May 21-31, 2013

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Tuesday, May 21, 2013 Salt Lake City DAY ONE 8:05am Check in at Salt Lake City Intl Airport. 11:05am Depart Salt Lake City International Airport on Delta flt# 619 DAY TWO Wednesday, May 22, 2013 Florence 8:05am Arrive Amsterdam, Schiphol Intl Airport. 10:00am Depart Amsterdam on KLM flt# 1583. 11:50am Arrive Bologna, Guglielmo Marconi International Airport. Meet your Representative. English-speaking Contemporary Tours

Transfer by motor coach to Florence. The Renaissance was a rebirth that occurred throughout most of Europe. However, the changes that we associate with the Renaissance first occurred in the Italian city of Florence and continued to be more pervasive there than anywhere else. The city's economy and its writers, painters, architects, and philosophers all made Florence a model of Renaissance culture. Using your museum pass and public transportation visit the Bapistry, an elegant octagon with a glistening Ventian mosaic in the dome. The bronze doors are of different periods, the East Door was dubbed the door of Paradise by Michelangelo. Afterwards continue to the Duomo, which was completed by Brunelleschi; the Campanile; and the Ponte Vecchio, the oldest bridge in Florence and one of the only bridges in Italy
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to have survived allied bombing during World War II. Check in to the Hotel Kursaal & Ausonia for your three night stay in Florence.

Evening free. DAY THREE Thursday, May 23, 2013 Florence Breakfast at your hotel. Using your museum pass and public transportation tour of Medici Palace with your group leaders. Built in the mid fifteenth century by Michelangelo on commission from the Medici, the building became the prototype of Renaissance civil architecture. The robust and austere pile of the mansion, originally designed as a sort of cube, was for at least a century the most direct and efficacious symbol of the political and cultural primacy of the Medici in Florence.

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Next tour the San Marco Monastery all included with your Florence Museum pass. San Marco is now a museum housing many of the paintings and frescoes by Beato and Bartlomeo. Every one of the monks' cells on the upper floor has its own fresco.

The balance of the day as directed by your group leaders. DAY FOUR Friday, May 24, 2013 Florence Breakfast at your hotel. Visit the Uffizi Gallery with your group leaders. Tour the Uffizzi Galleries. The Uffizi is one of the world's great museums, and the single best introduction to Renaissance painting, with works by Giotto, Masaccio, Paolo Uccello, Sandro Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Perugino, Michelangelo,

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Raphael Sanzio, Titian, Caravaggio, and the list goes on. The museum is deceptively small. What looks like a small stretch of gallery space can easily gobble up half a day -- many rooms suffer the fate of containing nothing but masterpieces. The balance of the day free.

DAY FIVE

Saturday, May 25, 2013 Florence/Avignon Breakfast at your hotel. Check out of your hotel. Depart Florence by motorcoach. Stop in Nice for arranged lunch. Nice, Queen of the Cte d Azur, city of charm and international tourism. The capital of the Riviera, Nice is a delightful and important town in a beautiful setting on the Baie des Anges. The city has preserved its colorful old town, baroque churches and extensive flower market.

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Nice itself is an attraction: the rich blue-green sea, diverse shopping and lovely art-deco faades. But there are several spots that a visitor can enjoy, such as the Cours Saleya Flower Market, the Matisse Museum, ancient Roman ruins, the Russian Cathedral and more. Nice is second only to Paris in the number of museums and galleries. Lecture and discussion en-route on your motorcoach. Arrive Avignon. Check into Hotel Regina for your three-night say in Avignon. Avignon is a great city in the south of France and is home to the beautiful Pope's Palace. This enchanting historical city was built has a rich history with a large part of the city walls still in place. The walls offer a great impression of how magnificent the city one was.

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Evening free. DAY SIX Sunday, May 26, 2013 Avignon Breakfast at your hotel. Guided walking tour of Avignon. Begin with the Palace of Popes in Avignon. Avignon became the residence of the Popes in 1309, fleeing the violent chaos of Rome. The Palace was built between 1335 and 1364 on a natural rocky outcrop at the northern edge of Avignon, overlooking the river Rhne

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Visit the St. Benezet Bridge. The bridge was built between 1171 and 1185, with an original length of some 2950 ft, but it suffered frequent collapses during floods and had to be reconstructed several times. Several arches were already missing (and spanned by wooden sections) before the remainder was damaged beyond repair in 1660. Only four of the bridge's original 22 arches remain today. Afternoon free. Optional visit to the Petrarch Homestead at your own expense. Evening free. DAY SEVEN Monday, May 27, 2013 Avignon/Arles/Avignon Breakfast at your hotel. Transfer to the rail station.

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Depart Avignon on a morning train. Arrive Arles. Meet your local guide upon arrival and begin touring Arles. Arles was made famous in recent times by painters Van Gogh and Gaugin, but has been a center since Roman times, as evidenced by the wonderful Arena in the center of Arles, still used for bullfights. The area around Arles is famous for its natural beauty, especially in the Camargue. Visit the Roman Arena. The Arena was built around 1 B.C., or approximately 125 years after the Romans colonized Arles and the Rhne Delta. It seated 20,000 spectators on three tiers. Today, the Arena is used for bullfights concerts, operas, and theatre performances.

Afternoon free in Arles. Return to Avignon at your leisure by rail.

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DAY EIGHT

Tuesday, May 28, 2013 Avignon/Strafford-upon-Avon Breakfast at your hotel and check out. Morning transfer to the Pont du Gard. More than 1,250,000 tourists visit the Pont du Gard every year. The bridge is part of the aqueduct built around the year 50 to transport water from the Eure spring near Uzs to Nmes, a distance of over 30 miles. Continue on to the Marseilles Airport.

3:35pm Depart Marseilles on Ryan Air flt# 6542. 4:30pm Arrive Stansted, UK. Transfer by motorcoach to Stratford-upon-Avon. Check into the Stretton House (or similar) for your three-night stay in Stratford-upon-Avon.

DAY NINE

Wednesday, May 29, 2013 Strafford-upon-Avon Breakfast at your hotel. Tour of Stratford-upon-Avon. Enjoy a guided tour of this charming market town with crooked half-timbered 16th century buildings. Visit William Shakespeares birthplace and his wife Anne Hathaways cottage.

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In the evening Attend a performance of As you Like It at the Royal Shakespeare Festival. The aim of the Royal Shakespeare Festival is to keep modern audiences in touch with Shakespeare as our contemporary. That means that in addition to the work of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, the companys repertoire includes classic plays by international dramatists and works by living writers. DAY TEN Thursday, May 30, 2013 Strafford-upon-Avon Breakfast at your hotel. Visit Kenilworth Castle.

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Immortalized and romanticized by Sir Walter Scott in his early 19th century novel, Kenilworth is probably one of the finest ruined castles to be seen in Britain today. Dramatically portrayed amidst the gentle rolling countryside of Warwickshire, Kenilworth Castle is a memorable landmark of the powerful Normans, and a fitting memorial to the power games of Elizabethan England. The inner court contains a range of ruinous buildings dating from the 12th to the 16th century, including Leicesters Building. Remaining substantially intact are the great Tudor gatehouse and stabling block located in the outer court, both from Robert Dudleys time. From a 17th century plan, the Tudor gardens have been reconstructed in the form of a parterre. Lecture and discussion lead by Bernard Capp and Peter Marshall (subject to confirmation) Return to Stratford-upon-Avon. Evening free. DAY ELEVEN Friday, May 31, 2013 Strafford-upon-Avon/Salt Lake City

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Breakfast at your hotel and check out. Transfer to London Heathrow International Airport. 12:30pm Depart London on Delta flt# 041 3:40pm Arrive Minneapolis. (Clear US Customs and Immigrations) 5:17pm Depart Minneapolis on Delta flt# 2333. 7:08pm Arrive Salt Lake City International Airport.

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