Italy’s Great Libraries, Including the Pope’s

A private tour of the Vatican Library by the institution’s chief librarian, Father Leonard Boyle, is part of a 10-day tour Oct. 8 of Italy, sponsored by the Library Foundation of Los Angeles.

Boyle will lead the tour through the library’s Old and New Halls, where visitors will view ancient, handwritten manuscripts by Petrarch, Michelangelo, Martin Luther and Thomas Aquinas. While in Vatican City, an audience with Pope John Paul II is scheduled.

Participants will also visit the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale and Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence, and the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice. Among the treasures of these historic libraries are works by Galileo and Machiavelli and a collection of noteworthy opera librettos.

To experience the cuisine of Italy, a dinner is held at the Marchesa Bona Frescobaldi’s Florentine Palazzo, and a visit with author and culinary director Lorenza d’Medici. Time also will be provided for participants to follow their own pursuits. Cost: $2,300 per person, double, including hotels, some meals and sightseeing. A voluntary $500 contribution to the Library Foundation of Los Angeles is suggested. Deposits must be in by July 15. Not included: air fare to Italy. Contact: Fran Rafter at Windsor Travel; 11620 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 5000, Los Angeles, CA 90051; telephone (800) 535-1123.

Round the Big Bend

The Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff is sponsoring a seven-day trip to explore West Texas and Big Bend National Park Sept. 11. Guests will explore El Paso’s “Mission Trail,” three Native American-Spanish missions that date from 1681 to 1774, as well as Hueco Tanks State Park, where more than 2,000 pictographs were left on the geological formations more than 10,000 years ago. Participants will spend an afternoon in Juarez, Mexico, enjoying lunch and the traditional arts and craft galleries located along the trolley line. The McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis, one of the world’s 10 largest, has been reserved for a private “Star Party,” where guests can view the night sky using 14- and 24-inch telescopes. A private tour with the director of the Chihuahun Desert Research Institute will explore one of the largest cactus collections. Stops will be made at the Museum of the Big Bend in Alpine, which displays a collection of archeological artifacts, as well as at an Apache trading post. Two nights will be spent at a mountain lodge in Big Bend National Park, where hiking, bird-watching and wildlife sightings of species such as black bears are among the natural attractions. A full day will be spent on a 19-mile river raft trip to explore Santa Elena Canyon, famous for its sheer cliffs and views of nearby towering mesas. After lunch on the riverbank, a stop will be made at Fern Canyon, a spring-fed grotto of sculpted limestone pools and hanging plants. Cost: $1,395 per person, double, including hotels, several meals, ground transportation, tours, entrance fees and gratuities. Group air fare is available from Los Angeles. Contact Spectrum Tours, P.O. Box 50608, Santa Barbara, CA 93150; tel: (805) 969-9665.

Painting Provence

Artist Paul Havas will lead a watercolor tour to the villages and countryside of Provence, France. The nine-day tour will accommodate six participants, who may work in watercolors or pastels. The group will meet in Avignon on Sept. 20, and will visit scenic villages in four areas: the mountains known as the Dentelles de Montmirail to visit Gigondas and paint the hilltop towns of Seguret, Rasteau and Vaison-la-Romaine; the Luberon to see the hilltop villages of Gordes, Rousillon and Bonnieux (a visit to the Vasarely museum in Gordes is planned); Aix-en-Provence to see the Cours Mirabeau in this city of fountains, and to paint the dramatic Mont St. Victoire, a major inspiration for Gauguin; and the area around St.-Remy-de-Provence, the final stop. The profile of the fortress town of Les Baux provides a backdrop to the chain of mountains called the Alpilles, “little Alps.” The tour will end in Avignon. Cost: $2,895 per person, double, including tuition, local transportation, and eight nights’ lodging in country hotels with private facilities, breakfasts and dinners. Not included: air fare to France. Contact: France in Your Glass, 814 35th Ave., Seattle, WA 98122; tel. (800) 578-0903.

Renaissance Italy

An escorted 20-day voyage of discovery to many of the great cultural sites of Italy is being sponsored by Foundation for Italian Culture. A maximum of 32 participants will spend 12 days in Bologna, from where daily excursions will visit Ferrar, Padua, Venice, Verona, Lake Garda, Florence, Siena, San Gimignano, Modena, Reggio-Emilia, Parma, the 1,600-year-old republic of San Marino and Assisi. Then seven days are spent in the heart of historic Rome, visiting major sights in the Eternal City as well as classic Orvieto. Cost: $3,345 per person, double, including hotels, daily buffet breakfasts, regional dinners during the entire trip and all scheduled sightseeing. Contact: Foundation for Italian Culture, P.O. Box 807, La Jolla, CA 92038; tel. (619) 587-9138.

Tennis Camp

Two- to five-day tennis vacations with instruction and play are available through Sept. 3 at the Mt. Cranmore Racquet Club in North Conway, N.H., about 2 1/2 hours north of Boston. A typical day starts at 7 a.m. with breakfast. Morning clinics run until 11:15; singles and doubles play to noon. After lunch there are afternoon clinics, more play, special events and private lessons until dinner at 6. Players of similar levels are taught in small groups on the clay outdoor and indoor courts. Cost: two-day weekends begin at $340 per person, double, in court-side condos, with two meals daily; the five-day package starts at $775. Not included: air fare to Portland, Maine, the closest airport. Contact: New England Tennis Holidays, P.O. 1648, North Conway, NH 03860; tel. (800) 869-0949.

Castles and Gardens

Twenty-one estates, castles and gardens in England and Scotland are the focus of a 12-day trip Sept. 7. The tour starts in London, travels to Marlow for a three-night stay in a Victorian manor house, goes through Stowe and York to Edinburgh, Scotland. Participants will stay three nights at Airth Castle, then back to England to the medieval town of Chester and back to London. Hampton Court, Arundel Castle, the Stowe Landscape Garden, Clivedon, Fairfax House, Linlithgow Castle and Caernarvon Castle are some of the stately sites on the itinerary. The tour also features lectures by historians and expert gardeners.

Cost: $2,797 per person, double, including round-trip air fare from New York, all breakfasts, some meals and high teas, all tours, sightseeing and local transportation. Contact: Palladian Tours, P.O. Box 626, Tracy’s Landing, MD 20779, tel. (800) 322-5506.

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