Making a Grand Circle of Italy’s Old Favorites

Santa Monica College is sponsoring a tour of Italy from July 28 to Aug. 12 that covers many of the country’s important sights. Professor Richard Robinson will lead the group to Rome, Florence, Venice, Pompeii, Capri, Agrigento, Palermo, Pisa, Ravenna, Assisi, Sorrento and Taormina. Boat trips will be taken in Venice and across the Bay of Naples and the Strait of Messina. An overnight cruise in two-berth cabins with private facilities on the Tyrrhenian Sea is also included.

Cost: $2,499 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, airport transfers, baggage handling, hotels, air-conditioned motor coach, 14 buffet breakfasts, eight dinners and a special welcome dinner with wine in Rome.

Contact: Richard Robinson, Santa Monica College; telephone (310) 434-4731.

Spain: Gardens

The Global Garden Project is offering a tour May 3 to 12 led by Yale-educated Alvaro de la Rosa Maura, one of Spain’s top gardening and landscape experts. Among the gardens visited are Madrid’s 1636 Retiro Park and Real Jardin Botanico, which gathered flora of the New World in the 18th century; private landscapes in Toledo and Segovia; the Florenia Floral Park just over the border in France; and the Laberinto d’Horta garden in Barcelona.

Cost: $3,995 per person, double occupancy, including eight nights’ lodging, daily breakfast, six lunches and two dinners. Air fare is extra.

Contact: Global Garden Project of Washington, D.C.; tel. (202) 244-1448.

Britain: Spring Blossoms

Giant white cow-parsley blossoms nod along the byways of Cornwall and Devon during one of the “Savoring Springtime” tours in Britain offered by Cross-Culture of Amherst, Mass. The blossoms (called Queen Anne’s Lace in America) are among the attractions during the trip May 5 to 13. Others include Padstow, a Cornish fishing port and base for the tour; Bodmin Moor; the Furry (flora) Dance, a regional springtime rite; and the Eden Project geodesic conservatories at St. Austell.

Cost: $2,650 per person, double occupancy, including air fare from Newark, N.J., three meals a day, seven nights in a Padstow hotel and leadership by an author of one of Britain’s Blue Guides. There’s also a “Savoring Summertime” version--$2,750 from Aug. 4 to 12.

Contact: Cross-Culture; tel. (800) 491-1148, Internet https://www.crosscultureinc.com.

Turkey: Archeology

The Collectors’ Council of the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana is hosting a 24-day archeological history and cultural arts tour of Turkey, starting June 2. An archeologist guide will lead the trip into Greek, Hellenistic and Roman cities including Troy, Ephesus, Halicarnassus and the ancient Roman spa of Pamukkale.

Highlights include the Festival of Bergama with drama in the ancient theater, traditional folk dancing and a handicrafts bazaar in the ruins of Pergamum. Three days are set aside to explore the ruins along the Mediterranean “Turquoise Coast” in a traditional Turkish yacht, including a day on the Greek island of Rhodes and Turkish beach resorts of Antalya, Bodrum and Marmara. Guests will also visit the Anatolian carpet, jewelry and pottery centers of Cappadocia; see Konya, Ankara and Bursa; and have three days in Istanbul.

Cost: $3,100 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, most meals, sightseeing and an in-country flight from Ankara to Istanbul. International air fare is not included. Group size is limited to 22.

Contact: Mark Gumbiner; tel. (949) 830-9005, https://www.adelphia.homestead.com.

France: Wine

The Grass Valley Branch of Cultural Homestay International is sponsoring a wine tasting and cooking tour to Provence, France, from May 19 to June 2. The host is Richard Scammell of Grass Valley, Calif.

Five cooking classes featuring regional cooking of southern France will be held in a cha^teau that was built in 1680. There will be tours of local wineries around Aix-en-Provence and city tours of Ni^mes, Avignon, Toulon and other local villages and Roman ruins. The tour is limited to 12.

Cost: from $3,235 per person, double occupancy, including air fare, accommodations (choice of staying in a hotel or with a French family), some meals and transportation in France.

Contact: Richard Scammell at Homestay International; tel. (530) 272-3419 or CHI at (800) 395-2726.

Holland: Tulips

“Holland at Tulip Time” is a two-hotel holiday that wends its way through the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. The 10-night tour leaves Los Angeles on May 2. Travelers spend five nights in the southern Netherlands in the Limburg Hills with day tours to Trier, Germany, and Bastogne, Belgium, to visit the Battle of the Bulge Museum. The second five nights are in the northern Netherlands with stops at Keukenhof Gardens and a flower auction. Participants will tour Amsterdam, the miniature village of Madurodam and a Delft pottery factory.

Cost: $2,398 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, hotels, all breakfasts and dinners, and entrance fees.

Contact: Gadabout Tours (ask for Geoffrey Evans), 700 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way, Palm Springs, CA 92262; tel. (888) 530-0604, https://www.travelanderson.com.

Mexico: Colonial Gems

An architectural and culinary tour into the cities of old Spanish Mexico is available from April 20 to 28. Participants will visit several private colonial homes and haciendas for receptions. Dinners will be hosted each night in a different historic colonial patio restaurant.

Participants stay in a monastery-turned-hotel in the hillside town of San Miguel de Allende for six nights and take side trips to Guanajuato, Dolores Hidalgo and Queretaro.

Guests will also stay in Morelia in a 250-year-old hotel. A trip to Lake Patzcuaro is planned.

Cost: $1,695 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, airport transfers, hotel accommodations, daily breakfast and dinner, and all sightseeing and entrance fees.

Contact: Frank Tysen Private Adventures, 15012 Del Gado Drive, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403; tel. (818) 501-4100.

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