Best of Italy

Guests departing from Australia & New Zealand can choose to prepay gratuities for their Tour Manager, driver(s), cruise staff when applicable, and local guides including those on optional tours. Gratuities for airport transfers, Tour Extensions, and any services not purchased through Collette are the responsibility of the traveler. In select cases where partner cruise lines automatically charge gratuities for cruise staff to traveler staterooms, Collette does not collect or distribute crew tips on behalf of the traveler.

The Vatican Museums are not only home to one of the world’s greatest collections of art, but also to the world-famous Sistine Chapel. Priceless artifacts from ancient Egypt, Etruscan Italy, and cultures around the world are preserved in the Vatican’s palaces, galleries, halls, and rooms. Follow a local expert guide on a three hour, in-depth visit through this vast collection. Highlights include the Gallery of Maps, the Gallery of Tapestries and, of course, a visit to the Sistine Chapel. The chapel’s famous ceiling frescoes took Michelangelo four years to complete. His brilliant Last Judgment, which rests on the altar wall, was a topic of controversy for centuries. Other walls feature paintings by Pietro Perugino, Sandro Botticelli, Cosimo Rosselli, and Domenico Ghirlandaio. Your final stop will be at St. Peter’s Basilica, one of the most important churches in Christendom, and until recently, the largest in the world.