Romantic Vacation: France, Switzerland, and Italy

Land in Zurich and it’s a quick transfer to Lucerne, a small old town set upon a lake. You can walk the cobbles and explore the shops but that’s for tomorrow. Today you ascend, a cable car the only way to reach your alpine resort. Check in and check out the views, mountain panoramas extending in all directions as you inhale fresh alpine air. On this two-week tour, there will be plenty of time to see the sights, but right now you escape the world and enjoy Swiss solitude. By staying halfway up the mountain, you have space just for two and the sort of privacy that’s necessary for the start of a romantic break.

A relaxed start today before you go up and down the mountain. First up, traveling towards the summit of Mt Titlis on the cable car, where the vistas are even more expressive. Snow covers the peaks nine months of the year up here. Ice fills the caves as well, so walk hand in hand on the Titlis Cliff Walk and delve into Glacier Cave. Now travel back down into Lucerne, strolling along the lake and beneath the painted ceiling of Old Chapel Bridge. Find yourself in the Old Town, a time-warped snippet of old Switzerland, where footsteps clop against the cobbles, and there’s many a cafe to warm you up after the alpine adventure.

Traveling deeper into the heart of the Alps, you continue to enjoy Swiss serenity. Later on this tour, there will be bustling cities and famous sights, so absorb these few days of alone time. After a transfer to Interlaken, the day is at your leisure. There are countless hikes around this area, some for a 30-minute walk in the wilderness, others for a more serious getaway into nature. Take a hike or a cable car to Jungfraujoch, where the views make it feel like you’re on the top of Europe. This evening, you indulge with a four-course Swiss fondue dinner, at a restaurant that’s become world famous for its Swiss fondue.

European trains are a way to relax, especially when you’re traveling first class and drinks are brought to your seat. After a short transfer to Bern, it’s a beautiful four-hour rail journey to Paris, first weaving out of the mountains then crossing the village-studded farmlands of eastern France. Arrive in Paris, and your hotel is very central, a proverbial stone’s thrown away from the River Seine. First impressions are magical as you wander along the river, street musicians strumming away as the Eiffel Tower looks down and 19th-century charm encompasses you on both banks. Over the next three days, you will explore with a local guide but for now, enjoy what the romantic city initially offers.

These three days have been left flexible so they can reflect your interest and mood. Every visit to Paris should look different because there really isn’t a standard itinerary here, other than the coach tour slog between world-famous attractions. Yes, there is the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Elysees, and with three full days you won’t miss out on the icons that most excite your imagination. Perhaps you’ll even dine in the Michelin-starred restaurant in the Eiffel Tower, enjoying sunset views out over the city. Paris is a city you must feel. It’s a city that comes alive down backstreets, a city that you smell and hear with every footstep you take.

It’s well worth spending a day outside Paris, with Versailles and its famous palace one of the options, Fontainebleau a less touristic alternative. A day trip can take you to Champagne, where Dom Perignon is the original place to pop a cork to future romance. Perhaps hot air balloon above the Champagne vineyards, maybe helicopter back from Versailles to Paris or do something more low key like tasting your way around a village farmers market. With a day out of Paris, you get the beauty of returning to the River Seine, and the beauty of coming home to a boutique hotel in a small Parisian neighborhood, where the smells and sounds guide you when walking hand in hand.

Paris’s art scene is also world famous and the guide can take you beyond the Louvre and Musee d’Orsay should you wish to private galleries and places where masterpieces hide behind closed doors. Food is another Parisian focus. Pair cheese and wine in a small bistro, learn the art of making a macaron, soak up the flavors of specific neighborhoods, and take a picnic to the banks of the Seine. For romantic dining, there really isn’t anywhere like Paris as you’re absolutely spoiled for choice. The guide can provide recommendations so you can easily look beyond the more tourist-focused restaurants to places where locals love to dine – usually those where the menu is only in French.

Now fly to Rome and what better way to immerse yourself in Italy than a hotel on the same street as the Pantheon. The smells and the sounds change, coffee aromas so prevalent in the heart of Ancient Rome. Meet with your guide and go out exploring, down the Spanish Steps and past the Trevi Fountain, then down underground into the Catacombs, where bones fill spooky chapels and the ethereal comes out from the walls. Now back above the ground, walking through ancient neighborhoods until the Colosseum comes into view. You stand and admire. You sense the history. Then you explore, delving into the time of empire and gladiator. Now relax on a Rome piazza. Recollect what you’ve just experienced – welcome to Italy.

Of all the piazzas none can rival St Peter’s Square, its grand porticos stretching out around St Peter’s Basilica and the home of the Catholic church. It’s a place where you must take a moment, must stop and consider where you really are. Like almost everywhere in the Vatican City, St Peter’s Square is a place that makes you feel humbled: so much of what you see was created before Columbus eyed North America. Spend this morning on a private tour of the Vatican, first the square and then all the art of the Vatican Museums. Like galleries of priceless sculptures, oil canvases from distinctive eras, Michelangelo’s ceiling and other decorated chapels. The afternoon is free, and Rome is great for people watching. Just take a walk and take it all in.

On a private transfer to Siena, you stop in a small Tuscan village looking out on a landscape carpeted with vines. First taste dainty Chianti wines to really get the day going. Then admire a live cooking demonstration showing the simple yet precise methods of Italian cooking. Sit down for lunch with a view, then continue the drive to Siena, a city that was well preserved long before its World Heritage status. Intricate carvings surround Siena Cathedral and when you look inside the murals are never-ending, every part of the wall narrating a biblical scene. Walking across Piazza del Campo you find a similar attention to detail, every townhouse emanating an old-world ambiance.

Siena is a place to unwind and the old city is completely pedestrianized (it was built before cars of course). Spend romantic evenings on the piazzas, walk the winding streets, and allow a guide to show you how the city has changed over almost 3,000 years. On day 11 you have two options for a half-day trip. Either continue the wine tasting with a more detailed exploration of the Chianti vineyards or head out to nearby Pisa, where the leaning tower is one among many memoirs to past glory. By staying in Siena you’re in the heart of Tuscany, a region where romance always has a place to blossom. And sometimes it’s the small pleasures that make the experience, like sipping on a cappuccino at an al fresco terrace, while looking out on Palazzo del Comune.

Now Florence, where Renaissance was born, and it’s hard to go a minute without admiring another dome or palace. Florence is a misunderstood city, and it’s easy to be swept away in the clamber to see Michelangelo’s David. There’s more to the art than one sculpture and more to the architecture than the style pioneered by Brunelleschi and Palladio. Meeting a local guide, you take a journey through the ages, starting with what came before the Renaissance like the lavish chambers of Palazzo Vecchio and the Roman bridge across the river. Florence Cathedral is from the 13th century and when going inside you find attention to artisanal detail that made Florence such a canvas for Renaissance ideas.

Day 12 hops between the core sights while day 13 has a focus on art, visiting a private gallery along with the world-famous Uffizi Gallery. In the afternoons, you can explore without a guide, just the two of you walking through Florence. Try the Boboli Gardens, where statues line the lake and fountains trickle as you drift to sleep on the lawns. Stop to see the tombs of Michelangelo and Galileo at Santa Croce, visit another of the art museums, and find a quiet cafe terrace for reflecting on this two-week journey through Switzerland, France, and Italy. By now you’ll be fully adjusted to the Italian rhythm; light, languorous, slow enough to appreciate all the small pleasures.

Coffee aromas wake you, as they have most days in Italy, Switzerland, and Paris. Cafes entice very close to your hotel. By now you have favorite places, not necessarily the places you photographed but those places you will always remember as a couple. Take your time and visit those places in Florence for a final time, before a private transfer takes you to the airport and your outbound flight.