10 Day Northern Italy Private Tour

After arriving in Milan, your private driver will meet you at the airport and transfer you into the city to begin your Northern Italy journey. Once checked into your hotel, head out together for a relaxed first afternoon exploring Milan’s historic center and some of its best-known neighborhoods.

Walk through areas around the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Piazza del Duomo, and Sforza Castle while passing cafés, wine bars, designer stores, and busy city squares along the way. Your guide will also take you through the Brera district, where smaller streets, art galleries, restaurants, and local boutiques give a more relaxed atmosphere compared to the business areas of the city.

Milan feels very different from much of the rest of Italy, with elegant architecture, wide boulevards, and a faster pace throughout the center. The evening includes aperitivo and dinner in Brera before returning to your hotel for the night.

Start the day with a guided tour of Milan Cathedral where you’ll explore the huge interior before heading up onto the rooftop terraces for views across the city. On clear days, you can even see the Alps in the distance beyond Milan’s skyline. 

After time around Piazza del Duomo, continue through the La Scala area and nearby shopping streets while your guide introduces some of Milan’s historic buildings and neighborhoods. Stop for lunch in the city center before continuing into the Navigli district later in the afternoon.

The canals, wine bars, restaurants, and smaller streets around Navigli give a completely different atmosphere from central Milan. Spend the evening exploring the canal district, stopping for aperitivo and dinner beside the water before returning to your accommodation.

Leave Milan this morning with your private driver and continue north toward Lake Como. The drive gradually leaves the city behind as mountain scenery, lakeside roads, and smaller towns begin appearing along the route.

After arriving at the lake, head out on a private boat tour across Lake Como. Cruise past historic villas, lakeside gardens, waterfront hotels, and smaller villages while your guide points out some of the region’s best-known landmarks, including Villa Balbianello and Villa Carlotta. Seeing the lake by boat gives a much better feel for the region than staying only on land, especially as many of the towns are connected directly by the water.

Later in the afternoon, spend time exploring Bellagio, where narrow lanes, lakeside cafés, boutique shops, and waterfront walkways spread across the center of town. Finish the evening with dinner beside the lake before returning to your hotel.

Your private driver and guide will take you around more of Lake Como today beginning in Varenna, one of the lake’s prettiest villages. Spend time walking through the waterfront area and smaller streets lined with cafés, wine bars, colorful buildings, and lakeside terraces overlooking the water.

Continue by ferry across the lake toward Menaggio, where promenades, piazzas, restaurants, and quieter local streets give a slower pace compared to the busier areas around Bellagio. Along the way, your guide can stop at scenic viewpoints overlooking the lake and surrounding mountains.

The afternoon also includes time visiting villa gardens and historic lakeside estates before returning to your hotel later in the evening. There will also be time to enjoy dinner beside the water and explore more of the lakeside atmosphere after the daytime crowds begin to leave.

Your private driver and guide will collect you from Lake Como this morning before continuing east toward Verona. The drive takes you through Northern Italy’s countryside with smaller towns, vineyard areas, farmland, and local roads along the way before arriving in Verona later in the day. 

After checking into your hotel, begin exploring the city with your guide, including the Roman Arena, Piazza delle Erbe, and Juliet’s House. Verona is smaller and easier to walk around than Milan, with narrow streets, open squares, cafés, and restaurants spread throughout the center.

Spend time walking through some of the city’s quieter side streets and riverside areas before stopping at local wine bars and restaurants later in the evening. Verona has a relaxed atmosphere after dark, especially around the historic center and piazzas near the Arena.

Leave Verona this morning and head north with your private driver toward the Dolomites. Along the drive, the scenery slowly changes from vineyards and smaller towns into forest roads, mountain valleys, alpine villages, and towering peaks as you get closer to the mountains. 

Stop in Cortina d’Ampezzo for lunch and time exploring the town center where outdoor cafés, alpine shops, and chalet-style buildings sit beneath the surrounding mountains. The town has a very different feel from the Italian cities earlier in the trip and gives a good introduction to the Dolomites.

After lunch, continue toward Lake Misurina where mountain peaks rise directly behind the water. There’s time for lakeside walking, photo stops, and scenic viewpoints before continuing deeper into the mountains along some of the Dolomites’ best-known roads and passes before arriving at your hotel for the evening.

Your private driver and guide will take you deeper into the Dolomites this morning, beginning in Ortisei, a traditional alpine town in Val Gardena surrounded by forests and mountain peaks.

From Ortisei, take the cable car up toward the Seceda ridgeline where walking trails and panoramic viewpoints open across the surrounding mountains. The area is one of the Dolomites’ best-known viewpoints and gives wide open views across the valleys and jagged peaks.

After time on the mountain, continue toward Alpe di Siusi where open pastureland, wooden mountain huts, walking paths, and alpine scenery stretch beneath the surrounding peaks. There’s time for easier walking routes, lunch in a mountain hut, and photo stops before returning through smaller mountain villages and scenic roads later in the afternoon.

Leave the mountains behind this morning and continue south toward Venice with your private driver. As the route leaves the Dolomites, mountain scenery gradually changes into flatter countryside and smaller Veneto towns before reaching the Venetian Lagoon later in the day.

After arriving near Venice, transfer into the historic center by boat through the canals toward your hotel. Arriving in Venice by water gives your first real view of the city’s canals, bridges, churches, and old waterfront buildings.

Once checked in, head out with your guide to explore Venice through smaller canals, narrow streets, bridges, and busy squares before reaching Rialto Bridge and St Mark’s Square. Later in the evening, take a gondola ride through quieter canals away from the busiest walking routes before dinner beside the water.

Head out into the Venetian Lagoon this morning by private boat with your guide to visit Murano and Burano. Traveling across the lagoon by boat gives a different perspective of Venice and the smaller islands surrounding the city.

Begin in Murano where you’ll visit a working glass workshop to watch local glassmakers shaping and blowing glass using traditional Venetian techniques that have existed on the island for generations. Spend time exploring the canals and quieter streets around the island before continuing onward.

Later, continue to Burano where brightly painted houses line the canals throughout the village. Spend the afternoon walking through Burano’s quieter streets, cafés, bridges, and waterfront areas. At the same time, your guide explains more about the island’s fishing history and local traditions before returning to Venice later in the day.

Depending on your flight time, enjoy a final breakfast or coffee beside the canals before meeting your private driver for your airport transfer. If time allows, there may also be time for one last walk through the nearby streets and canals around your hotel before leaving Venice. 

You may also have time for a final coffee stop or short visit to one of the nearby squares before returning to collect luggage from your hotel.

Your private driver-guide will then transfer you to the airport, bringing your Northern Italy journey to an end.