Cultural tours September & October 2025
CELEBRATING MUSIC AND PLACE
Martin Randall Festivals bring together world-class musicians for a sequence of private concerts in Europe’s most glorious buildings, many of which are not normally accessible. We take care of all logistics, from flights and hotels to pre-concert talks.
HANDEL IN MALTA
21–27 November 2025
EARLY MUSIC IN YORKSHIRE
6–11 May 2026
PIANO ALONG THE RHINE
22–29 June 2026
MUSIC ALONG THE DANUBE
15–22 August 2026
MUSIC ALONG THE RHINE
31 August–7 September 2026
THE J. S. BACH JOURNEY
September 2026
MONTEVERDI IN VENICE
11–17 November 2026
Contact us for more information or visit martinrandall.com/festivals
About us
Leaders in the eld. Martin Randall Travel is committed to providing the best planned, the best led and altogether the most ful lling and enjoyable cultural tours available. Operating in around 40 countries, our mission is to deepen your understanding and enhance your appreciation of the achievements of civilisations around the world.
First-rate speakers. Expert speakers are a key ingredient in our tours and events. ey are selected not only for their knowledge, but also for their ability to communicate clearly and engagingly to a lay audience.
Original itineraries, meticulously planned. Rooted in the knowledge of the destination and of the subject matter of the tour, the outcome of assiduous research and reconnaissance, and underpinned by many years of re ection and experience, our itineraries are second to none.
Special arrangements are a feature of our tours – for admission to places not generally open to travellers, for access outside public hours, for private concerts and extraordinary events.
Travelling in comfort. We select our hotels with great care. Not only have nearly all been inspected by members of our sta , but we have stayed in most of them. Hundreds more have been seen and rejected. We invest similar e orts in the selection of restaurants, menus and wines, aided by sta with a specialist knowledge of these areas.
Sept & Oct 2025
Small groups, congenial company. Most of our tours run with between 10 and 20 participants. Not the least attractive aspect of travelling with MRT is that you are highly likely to nd yourself in congenial company, self-selected by common interests and endorsement of the company’s ethos.
Travelling solo. We welcome people travelling on their own, for whom our tours are ideal, as many of our clients testify. Half the group is usually made up of solo travellers.
Care for our clients. We aim for faultless administration from your rst encounter with us to the end of the holiday, and beyond. Personal service is a feature.
Martin Randall Travel Ltd
10 Barley Mow Passage, London W4 4PH
Tel +44 (0)20 8742 3355 info@martinrandall.co.uk
From North America: Tel 1 800 988 6168 (toll-free) usa@martinrandall.com
Front cover: Aquileia, Basilica, early-20th-century watercolour. Image (left): Music in Bologna ©Benjamin Ealovega.
Sacred Armenia
Early Christian Monasteries & modern-day Yerevan
5–13 September 2025 (ml 774)
9 days • £4,240
Lecturer: Ian Colvin
Monasteries and other sacred buildings from as early as the seventh century.
Outstanding mountainous landscape.
Time to get to know Yerevan, with its squares, cafés and street-life.
Comfortable hotels and surprisingly good food.
Iti nerary
Day 1. Fly at c. 11.30am from London Heathrow to Yerevan via Paris (Air France), arriving c. 1.20am the following day. Transfer to the hotel in the heart of the city. First of three nights in Yerevan.
Day 2: Yerevan. A leisurely start this morning. e day begins with a visit to the comprehensive and fascinating State Museum of Armenian History. At the National Art Gallery see collections from Armenia, Russia and Western Europe.
Day 3: Echmiadzin, Yerevan. In the morning, visit the Matenadaran, a repository of 17,000 illuminated manuscripts. e Museum of the Armenian Genocide is all the more powerful for its simplicity. A er lunch, drive to Echmiadzin, the seat of the Armenian Apostolic Church, also a unesco world heritage site. e vast ruined cathedral at neighbouring Zvartnots tells of the extraordinary ambition of early architects.
Day 4: Amberd, Dzoraget. e ruins of Amberd Fortress, dramatically located on the southern slopes of Mount Ararat, date back to the 12th century, although it has been a stronghold since the seventh. In the a ernoon, drive to Dzoraget. First of two nights here.
Day 5: Akhtala, Alaverdi. e 13th-century frescoes in Akhtala are strongly in uenced by Byzantium. e monasteries at Haghpat and Sanahin, both unesco-listed sites, are both ne examples of Armenian sacred architecture.
Day 6: Vanadzor, Dilijan, Lake Sevan. Visit a stone-carver who continues the tradition of cutting khachkars (cross-stones), characteristic of Medieval Christian Armenian art. Drive to Lake Sevan, and the peerlessly situated Sevanavank monastery that overlooks it. First of three nights in Yerevan.
Day 7: Khor Virap, Noravank, Yerevan. Visit the Khor Virap monastery in the foothills of Mount Ararat, where St Gregory the Illuminator was imprisoned. Hidden from view in a remote valley, Noravank, the masterwork of the architect and sculptor Momik, is perhaps the most beautiful of Armenia’s 13th-century monasteries.
Day 8: Geghard, Garni. Much of the monastery at Geghard is carved out of the cli side. e Hellenic temple at Garni is the last remaining preChristian building in Armenia.
Day 9. e morning ight from Yerevan, via Paris, arrives London Heathrow at c. 4.30pm.
‘It was so good to see places o the beaten track which would have been very di cult to visit on my own. A really excellent tour.’
Image: Khor Virap Monastery, ©Masha Koko.
Habsburg Austria
Castles & churches, houses & palaces, town & country
6–13 October 2025 (ml 811)
8 days • £4,080
Lecturer: Dr Jarl Kremeier
Outstanding range of castles, abbeys, churches, houses, palaces and excellent art collections.
Picturesque towns and villages, and beautiful scenery.
Led by an art historian who specialises in Mitteleuropa and the Habsburgs.
Iti nerary
Day 1: y at c. 11.00am from London Heathrow to Munich (Lu hansa). Drive into Austria, via Kufstein. First of two nights in Innsbruck.
Day 2: Innsbruck. Surrounded by mountains, Innsbruck has a spectacular natural setting. Schloss Ambras just outside Innsbruck is a Habsburg palace of the 16th century; surviving here is a collection of curiosities which ranks as one of the rst museums in the world. An a ernoon walk includes the astonishing tomb of Emperor Maximilian, the 18th-century Habsburg state apartments in the Ho urg and the Baroque cathedral.
Day 3: Salzburg. e episcopal city-state of Salzburg once played a major role in European culture and politics, and the old town centre has scarcely changed since the days of its greatness two centuries ago. e mighty cathedral, the rst major Baroque building north of the Alps, and the Residenz, was the o cial residence of the prince-archbishops. Overnight in Linz.
Day 4: Linz, Wilhering, Artstetten. e Danube city of Linz, capital of Upper Austria, has an attractive historic centre with and several churches of architectural importance. e monastery church at Wilhering beside the Danube has the nest Rococo interior in Austria.
Schloss Artstetten was rebuilt in the 16th century and again for Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose descendants still live here. First of two nights in Dürnstein.
Day 5: Dürnstein, Melk, Altenburg. Dürnstein is backed by a hill with a ruined castle and fronted by a monastery church at the water’s edge. Perched on an outcrop beside the Danube, the vast Benedictine Monastery at Melk is one of the greatest creations of the Baroque era. Drive through idyllic hilly scenery north of the Danube. e Benedictine abbey at Altenburg ranks with the nest of Baroque abbeys.
Day 6: Grafenegg, Vienna. Schloss Grafenegg is a medieval country residence, augmented with one of Austria’s most amboyant and successful essays in Gothic Revival. Vienna, the Roman frontier settlement close to the Danube, became the principal seat of the Habsburgs and therefore centre of the Holy Roman Empire. Visit the Habsburg tombs in the Capucin crypt and the National Library. First of two nights in Vienna.
Day 7: Vienna. e Ho urg, the Habsburg Palace, is an agglomeration of buildings spanning six centuries with an incomparable collection of precious regalia in the treasury and magni cent Baroque library. Visit the Kunsthistorisches Museum, one of the world’s greatest collections of paintings, before some free time for independent exploration.
Day 8: Vienna. Built around 1700 for Emperor Joseph and modi ed 50 years later for Maria eresa, Schloss Schönbrunn became the summer palace of the Habsburgs until the end of their rule. One of the largest of royal residences, it contains some of the nest Rococo interiors in Europe and has extensive parkland and gardens. Fly from Vienna (Austrian Airlines), arriving Heathrow c. 6.45pm.
Illustrati on: Melk Abbey, lithograph by Alois Hänisch (1866–1937).
Bulgaria
Archaeology & art from prehistoric to modern
4–13 October 2025 (ml 808)
10 days • £3,970
Lecturer: Dr Nikola eodossiev
Six unesco World Heritage sites including remarkable racian tombs and Boyana Church in So a, with its stunning 13th-century frescoes.
Beautiful and varied landscapes provide a striking backdrop to the journey.
A country still largely untouched by mass tourism but unlikely to stay that way for long.
Iti nerary
Day 1: So a. Late-morning ight (Lu hansa) from London Heathrow to So a, via Munich. First of two nights in So a.
Day 2: So a. e church of St So a is an outstanding example of Early Christian architecture; Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, built 1882–1912, follows this tradition. Remains of the Roman city (Serdica) are entwined with the subway system. e archaeological museum, housed in a former Ottoman mosque, includes an impressive collection of racian treasure.
Day 3: Rila monastery, Plovdiv. Drive south into the scenic Rila mountains. Built on the site of its medieval predecessor, the monastery is a spectacular example of Bulgarian National Revival architecture and a unesco world heritage site. Journey through mountains and across plains. First of three nights in Plovdiv.
Day 4: Plovdiv. Walking tour of the remains of ancient Philippopolis: the forum, stadium and theatre, with the Rhodope mountains as its dramatic backdrop. A er lunch walk through the National Revival quarter, brightly painted and highly decorative. ere is time to visit the archaeological museum.
Day 5: Kazanlak. In the Valley of the racian Kings more than a thousand tombs have been unearthed. One of the most elaborate is the Tomb of Seuthes III, fourth-century bc ruler of the Odrysian Kingdom. e Tomb of Kazanlak is a Hellenistic masterpiece. Visit the full-size replica (the tomb is not open to the public).
Day 6: Nessebar, Varna. On the Black Sea coast the ancient city of Nessebar is described by unesco as ‘an outstanding testimony of multilayered cultural and historical heritage.’ Many civilisations le their mark, from the second millennium bc to the Middle Ages. Continue to Varna, where two nights are spent.
Day 7: Varna. Bulgaria’s third city, a major Black Sea port, was an important Roman and Byzantine staging post. See the glorious collection of gold jewellery dating to the h millennium bc. Visit the thermae of Odessus, a sizeable complex with a brick tower built in the middle of the second century.
Day 8: Madara, Sveshtari, Arbanasi. Carved into a 100m-high cli , the Madara Rider dates from the eighth century. Drive to the remote village of Sveshtari where a third-century bc tomb was discovered in 1982 carved with ten female gures, the only examples of their kind. Continue to Arbanasi for the rst of two nights.
Day 9: Arbanasi, Veliko Tarnovo. A walking tour of the village includes a traditional house and the Church of the Nativity. Drive a short distance to the former capital of Veliko Tarnovo and visit Tsaravets fortress. Lunch here before a guided walk through the narrow streets.
Day 10. Visit Nicopolis ad Istrum, the ruins of a Roman and Early Byzantine town. Boyana Church in So a has incredible 13th-century frescoes; visit the National History Museum, in the former residence of the dictator and last Communist leader, Todor Zhivkov. Fly to London Heathrow, arriving in the evening.
Illustrati on: Plovdiv, bridge over the Maritza, ©Anti qua Print Gallery.
Trecento Frescoes
The age and legacy of Giotto
9–16 September 2025 (ml 772)
£3,510 • 8 days
Speaker: Professor Donal Cooper
Encompasses almost all the major surviving fresco schemes in central Italy.
Based in Padua, Florence and Assisi, with visits to San Gimignano, Pisa and Siena.
Shines a light on Giotto’s great masterpieces and those of his numerous followers, showcasing some of the most potent images in Western art.
Iti nerary
Day 1. Fly at c. 4.30pm (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Venice Marco Polo and drive (c. 1 hour) to Padua, where the rst two nights are spent.
Day 2: Padua. Among the most illustrious of Italian cities, and a leading centre of painting in the 14th century. e great fresco cycle by Giotto in the Scrovegni Chapel is a major landmark in the history of art. Colourful and lively works by Altichieri and Giusto de’ Menabuoi are in the vast multi-domed Basilica di S. Antonio and the Oratorio di S. Giorgio.
Day 3: Padua, Florence. Start the day with a second visit to the Arena Chapel before boarding a fast train for Florence. e abundant frescoes in the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella include those by Filippino Lippi and Domenico Ghirlandaio. ey were nanced by the most important Florentine families to ensure themselves funerary chapels. e next three nights are spent in Florence.
Day 4: Pisa, Florence. Pisa’s Campo Santo contains an expanse of frescoes exceeding that of the Sistine Chapel. Nearly destroyed during World War II, vast restoration e orts – concluding in 2018 with the reinstallation of
Bu almacco’s Triumph of Death – have returned it to almost its original glory. e museum of under-drawings, the Museo delle Sinopie, is an essential destination in any fresco tour. Back in Florence, visit San Miniato al Monte to see frescoes by Taddeo Gaddi on the vault and by Spinello Aretino in the sacristy.
Day 5: San Gimignano, Florence. Morning drive to San Gimignano, the enchanting little city of towers. In the Collegiata there are Old and New Testament fresco cycles, respectively by Barna da Siena and Lippo Memmi. Memmi painted a Maestà in the town hall. Santa Croce in Florence is a vast Franciscan church and favoured burial place for leading citizens. Giotto’s great works in the Bardi and Peruzzi Chapels nd echoes in the several other frescoes by other 14th-century masters.
Day 6: Siena, Assisi. Leave Florence and drive to Siena. e Palazzo Pubblico is home to a large collection of secular frescoes, commissioned, unusually, not by the church but by the governing body of the city. e most notable cycle, e Allegory of Good and Bad Government by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, adorns the walls of the Sala della Pace. Simone Martini also created two works of exquisite beauty. Continue to Assisi for the nal two nights.
Day 7: Assisi. Spend most of the day at San Francesco, mother church of the Franciscan Order. Here is one of the greatest assemblages of medieval fresco painting, including the cycle of the Life of St Francis which may or may not be by Giotto. ere is an upper and a lower church –much more than a crypt – and many of Giotto’s contemporaries worked here, including Cimabue, Simone Martini and Pietro Lorenzetti.
Day 8. Drive from Assisi to Rome and y from Fiumicino Airport, arriving at London Heathrow c. 5.45pm.
Illustrati on: Assisi © Gary Walker Jones.
The Heart of Italy
Umbria’s
finest
art and architecture
15–22 September 2025 (ml 786)
8 days • £3,490
Lecturer: Leslie Primo
Celebrating the art and architecture of Umbria, heartland of the Renaissance.
Based in Perugia, one of the largest, loveliest and artistically well-stocked of Italian hill towns.
Led by Dr Michael Douglas-Scott or Leslie Primo, both specialists in Renaissance Italy.
Orvieto, Spoleto, Assisi and signi cant smaller towns away from the main tourist centres.
Iti nerary
Day 1. Fly at c. 11.00am (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Rome Fiumicino. Drive (3 hours) to Perugia (all seven nights here).
Day 2: Perugia. Capital of Umbria, one of the largest and loveliest of Italian hill towns and has both major works of art and architecture and the authentic, age-old liveliness of a prosperous market town. Morning visits include the Palazzo dei Priori and the medieval town hall housing the National Gallery of Umbria. An a ernoon walk includes an Etruscan city gateway, and the richly carved façade of the Renaissance church of S. Bernardino.
Day 3: Assisi. Drive to Assisi and spend much of the morning at S. Francesco, mother church of the Franciscan Order. Here is one of the greatest assemblages of medieval fresco painting, including the controversial cycle of the Life of St Francis. In the a ernoon, walk through the austere medieval streets and visit the church of Sta. Chiara and the Romanesque cathedral.
Day 4: Montefalco, Foligno, Spello. Drive to Montefalco, a hilltop community with magni cent views. In the deconsecrated church
of S. Francesco are frescoes by Benozzo Gozzoli. Known to the Romans as Fulginium, Foligno lies on the banks of the river Topino. See the restored palace of the Trinci family, lords of Foligno, and home to extensive frescoes now known to be the work of the greatest Italian master of International Gothic, Gentile da Fabriano. Return via Spello, which has ne Roman remains.
Day 5: Todi. Visit Sta. Maria della Consolazione in Todi, a centrally planned Renaissance church in uenced by Bramante’s ideas. Walk through the town, seeing the cathedral and the church of S. Fortunato, with its richly decorated central doorway and frescoes by Masolino. Return to Perugia at c. 3.00pm for some free time.
Day 6: Gubbio. O ering sensational views across Umbrian countryside, Gubbio is a beautiful and well-preserved ancient town. e Palazzo dei Consoli is an austerely magni cent medieval town hall; it houses the art gallery of the Museo Civico. Higher up, the Palazzo Ducale was built by warlord Federico da Montefeltro, one of the greatest patrons of the arts in the Early Renaissance.
Day 7: Orvieto. Spend the day in this entrancing hilltop town, with its glistening marble Gothic cathedral. Among its treasures are the low relief sculptures by Maitani and the apocalyptic Last Judgement frescoes by Signorelli (1505). Visit also the cathedral museum, richly endowed with art, sculpture and religious artefacts.
Day 8: Spoleto. A morning walk in Spoleto includes the Ponte delle Torri, a medieval aqueduct famously painted by Turner, and nishes at the cathedral square. One of the most imposing in Italy, it slopes like an auditorium towards the cathedral façade with its mosaics and rose windows; inside there are frescoes by Pinturicchio and Filippo Lippi. Continue to Rome Fiumicino airport for an late a ernoon ight arriving at Heathrow c. 6.30pm.
Illustrati on: Assisi, etching c. 1930.
Gardens & Villas of the Italian Lakes
Como and Maggiore
2–8 October 2025 (ml 807)
7 days • £4,340
Lecturer: Amanda Patton
Among the loveliest and most romantic spots on earth – the summer retreat of the aristocratic and intellectual since the time of Pliny.
Some of the nest gardens in Europe, glorious in their design and range.
Sublime mountain scenery, the inspiration of Bellini and Stendhal.
Iti nerary
Day 1: Bellagio. Fly at c. 10.30am (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Milan. Drive to Bellagio on Lake Como. First of three nights in Bellagio.
Day 2: Bellagio. e neoclassical Villa Melzi at Bellagio was built in 1810 for Francesco Melzi d’Eril, vice-president of Napoleon’s Italian Republic. It overlooks the lake in an undulating English landscape park, richly planted and decorated with ornamental buildings. e Villa Serbelloni, probably built on the site of one of Pliny the Younger’s two villas on Lake Como, occupies the high ground above Bellagio. e woods o er magni cent views to all parts of the lake. e medieval remnants, 16th-century villa and later terraces are the setting for planting schemes in a backdrop described by Stendhal as ‘a sublime and enchanting spectacle’.
Day 3: Lake Como. Villa Carlotta on the western shore of Lake Como, built as a summer residence for a Milanese aristocrat, combines dramatic terracing, parterre and grottoes with an extensive landscape park and arboretum. e house contains notable collections from the Napoleonic period. e Villa Balbianello occupies its own headland projecting into the middle of Lake
Como. is glorious site is terraced to provide sites for lawns, trees, shrubs and a chorus of statuary. e villa stands among groves of oak and pine.
Day 4: Renaissance villa gardens. At the Villa Cicogna Mozzoni at Bisuschio, north of Varese, the 16th-century house and garden are thoroughly intertwined; the courtyard of pools and parterres leads to a water staircase, grottoes and giochi d’acqua. Lunch is served at the villa. e Villa della Porta Bozzolo, tucked away in a mountain valley near Lake Maggiore, is a hidden treasure of a garden, shooting straight up a dramatic hillside from the village street of Casalzuigno. e beautiful 17th-century villa is unexpectedly set to one side to increase the visual drama. First of three nights in Pallanza.
Day 5: e Borromean Islands. Isola Bella is one of the world’s great gardens (and correspondingly popular), a wedding cake of terraces and greenery oating improbably in Lake Maggiore. e sense of surrealism is enhanced by the symbolic statuary and the ock of white peacocks. Isola Madre is the ideal dessert to follow Isola Bella: a relaxed, informal landscape garden around a charmingly domestic villa. Visual entertainments include the marvellous plant collection, revitalized by Henry Cocker in the 1950s, the chapel garden, puppet theatre and ambulant aviary.
Day 6: Pallanza, Brissago. e Villa Taranto at Pallanza is an extravagant piece of 20thcentury kitsch created by Henry Cocker for his patron, the enigmatic Neil McEacharn. e alarmingly gauche design is superbly planted and maintained with loving zeal by the present sta . In the a ernoon cross to the Swiss part of Lake Maggiore to visit the extensive botanical gardens on the island of San Pancrazio, home to c. 1700 di erent plant species.
Day 7. Fly from Milan to London Heathrow, arriving at c. 3.15pm.
Illustrati on: Villa d’Este, after a watercolour by Walter Tyndale c. 1910.
Basilicata & Calabria
Italy’s undiscovered South
10–18 October 2025 (ml 810)
9 days • £3,890
Lecturer: Dr Hugh Doherty
An area rich in ancient Greek sites, medieval buildings and enthralling townscapes.
A chance to explore the smaller centres of southern Italy with few other tourists.
Unknown and unspoilt – sparsely populated and beautiful landscapes.
Iti nerary
Day 1. Fly at c. 8.00am from London Gatwick direct to Bari (British Airways). First of four nights in Matera.
Day 2: Matera. Morning walk through the picturesque streets, whose ancient dwellings are crammed into a ravine. Set-pieces include the late Romanesque church of San Giovanni Battista and the recently restored cathedral, a ne example of southern Italian Romanesque. In the a ernoon, walk through the Sasso Caveoso to see a the frescoed cave churches.
Day 3: Venosa, Mel . Drive along the valley of the Bradano to the monastery of La Santissima Trinità at Venosa, built alongside an early Christian church. Walk to the archaeological collections in the castle. Continue to Mel , the centre of Norman power in the early phases of their conquest of southern Italy. See the Norman castle and the Romanesque cathedral.
Day 4: Matera. e discovery of the Crypt of the Original Sin a few miles south of Matera in 1963 brought to light one of the most accomplished cycles of Carolingian painting in Europe. Return to Matera to visit the archaeological museum. e a ernoon is free.
Illustrati on: Matera, ©Victor Malyushev.
Day 5: Metaponto, Santa Maria d’Anglona, Sybaris, Rossano. Metaponto was one of the most important Greek settlements on the shores of the Ionian sea. Isolated and o ering breath-taking views across the valley of the river Agri, the lovely Santa Maria d’Anglona is rich in 12th-century frescoes. Picnic lunch here. South-east along the coast are the ruins of the Achaean city of Sybaris. Overnight near Rossano.
Day 6: Rossano, Cosenza, Lamezia. Start with the beautifully sited Abbazia del Patire, founded under early Norman patronage just outside Rossano. ence to the city itself to see tiny medieval San Marco and, in the Museo Diocesano, the celebrated codex rossanensis, a superb sixth-century manuscript made in Constantinople. Drive across the Calabrian peninsula to Cosenza – visit the cathedral – and continue to Calabria’s western seaboard near Lamezia. First of three nights near Lamezia.
Day 7: Vibo Valentia, Reggio. In Vibo Valentia, an ancient Greek city famed as a tuna shery, visit the Baroque cathedral, 16th-century church of San Michele and the part-Norman castle on the site of the former acropolis. en drive to Reggio to see the Riace Bronzes, over-life-size male nudes associated with Phidias and Polyclitus. Discovered o the Calabrian coast near Locri, they are among the nest Greek sculptures to survive.
Day 8: Gerace, Locri. Gerace is a stunning medieval town, overlooking the Ionian sea above Locri. Visit late medieval San Francesco and an 11th-century cathedral built using columns from ancient Locri. A ernoon by the coast at Locri, where the archaeological site preserves the Greek theatre and a major sanctuary devoted to Persephone.
Day 9: Altamura. Drive to Altamura for a short visit and lunch before heading to Bari Airport to catch a direct ight to London Gatwick, arriving c. 8.00pm (British Airways).
Extremadura
Landscape, history and food in rural Spain
16–25 October 2025 (ml 826)
10 days • £3,620
Lecturer: Chris Moss
Remote and unspoilt: one of the most consistently beautiful regions in Europe.
Monumental cities of the Conquistadors: Trujillo, Cáceres, Plasencia, packed with palaces and churches. Mérida has excellent Roman remains.
Monasteries of Guadalupe and Yuste, both in splendid isolation in the hills.
Experience rural life with visits to the Sierra de Gata and a livestock farm.
Iti nerary
Day 1. Fly at c. 10.00am from London Gatwick to Madrid (Air Europa). Drive to Plasencia (c. 4 hours, including a stop), arriving in time for dinner. First of two nights in Plasencia.
Day 2: Plasencia, Yuste. In Plasencia, start in the arcaded Plaza Mayor and then visit the two cathedrals, Renaissance and Gothic backing into one another. Drive into the hills to the monastery of Yuste to which the Emperor Charles V retired in 1556, building a gent’s des. res. right up against the fabric of the Gothic monastery. Get a moving insight into the last days of the man who once ruled most of Europe and Latin America.
Day 3: Sierra de Gata. A taste of village life in the Sierra de Gata, a range of rolling hills that back onto the Portuguese border, dotted with pretty, unspoilt villages. A gentle stroll (2.5 km) takes us into the village of Hoyos for lunch. Drive to Cáceres for the rst of three nights.
Day 4: Cáceres. e historic town centre is enclosed within Moorish walls, a myriad of narrow streets and squares lined with Renaissance mansions. e Provincial Museum sits in the 17th-century Casa de las Veletas.
Day 5: Arroyo de la Luz, Finca el Vaqueril, Alcántara. A drive west of Cáceres takes us deep into the dehesa, the wooded pastures where pigs roam among the holm oaks grazing on acorns. e church at Arroyo de la Luz houses an altarpiece by Morales. Visit a livestock farm including a walk through the countryside, ham tasting and lunch. At Alcántara is a breathtaking Roman bridge over the River Tagus.
Day 6: Trujillo. Drive east to Trujillo, a hilltop conquistador town (birthplace of Pizarro). e magni cent, main square is surrounded by mansions and the grand church of S. Martín. Climb up to the Gothic church of Sta María and the castle with ne views of the surrounding countryside. First of two nights in Trujillo.
Day 7: Guadalupe. e tiny town of Guadalupe is hidden in hills. Columbus prayed here and gave its name to a Caribbean island. Morning visit to the monastery, with splendid church, Mudéjar cloister and sacristy with paintings by Zurbarán. e museum contains exceptional vestments. Optional short walk into the surrounding countryside or free a ernoon, a chance to rest or stroll around the town.
Day 8: Mérida, Zafra. e Roman legacy of Mérida includes architecture both grand and domestic: theatre, villas, temples, fortresses. See also Rafael Moneo’s outstanding National Museum of Roman Art. Continue south to Zafra for the rst of two nights.
Day 9: Zafra, Fuente del Arco. In Zafra begin with the two adjacent squares, the Plaza Grande and the (smaller) Plaza Chica, and the Collegiate Church with an altarpiece by Zurbarán. A ernoon excursion to the remote 15th-cent. mudéjar style hermitage of Nuestra Señora del Ara, known as the ‘Sistine Chapel of Extremadura’ for its remarkable frescoes.
Day 10. Drive to Seville for some free time and a late-a ernoon ight to London Gatwick (Vueling), arriving c. 7.45pm.
Illustrati on: Guadalupe ©Alexandra Salvado.
Calendar | Sept & Oct 2025 availability
September 2025
1– 5 e Age of Bede (ml 767) Imogen Corrigan
1– 5 Mr Turner (ml 792) Dr Jacqueline Riding
1– 8 Gastronomic Basque Country (ml 769)
Gijs van Hensbergen
3–10 Cave Art of France (ml 768) Dr Paul Bahn
5–12
Courts of Northern Italy (ml 770)
Prof. Fabrizio Nevola
5–13 Sacred Armenia (ml 774) Ian Colvin
5–15 Frank Lloyd Wright (ml 773) Tom Abbott
6–15 Classical Greece (ml 775) Dr Nigel Spivey
7–14 Art in Le Marche (ml 783)
Dr Michael Douglas-Scott
8–12 Castles of Wales (ml 781) Dr Marc Morris
8–14 e Imperial Riviera (ml 776)
Dr Mark ompson
9–16 Trecento Frescoes (ml 772) Donal Cooper
10–17 Emilia Romagna Unveiled (ml 777)
Dr R.T. Cobianchi
12–20 Great Houses of the North (ml 779)
Christopher Garibaldi
15–20 Gardens & Villas of Campagna Romana (ml 784) Amanda Patton
15–22 e Heart of Italy (ml 786) Leslie Primo
17–25 e Cathedrals of England (ml 788)
Dr Hugh Doherty
17–26 Albania: Crossroads of Antiquity (ml 787)
Carolyn Metkola (formally Perry)
17–26 Scottish Houses & Castles (ml 791)
Alistair Learmont
17–28 Walking to Santiago (ml 778)
Dr Rose Walker
18–27 Sicily: from the Greeks to the Baroque (ml 789) Dr Mark Grahame
19–26 Gastronomic Asturias & Cantabria
Gijs van Hensbergen
19–29 West Coast Architecture (ml 790)
Prof. Harry Charrington
21–27 Early Railways: the North (ml 793)
Anthony Lambert
29– 4 Pompeii & Herculaneum (ml 801)
Dr Nigel Spivey
29– 4 Friuli Venezia-Giulia (ml 805)
Dr Carlo Corsato
29– 9 Essential Andalucía (ml 803)
Dr Philippa Joseph
October 2025
2– 8
Gardens & Villas of the Italian Lakes (ml 807) Amanda Patton
2– 8 Piero della Francesca (ml 806)
Dr Michael Douglas-Scott
4–13 Bulgaria (ml 808) Dr Nikola eodossiev
4–13 Sailing the Aegean (ml 818) Dr Nigel Spivey
4–13 e Ring in Berlin (ml 817) Barry Millington
6–13 Habsburg Austria (ml 811) Dr Jarl Kremeier
6–19 e Western Balkans (ml 814)
Dr Mark ompson
7–12 Bauhaus (ml 812) Tom Abbott
7–13 Modern Art on the Côte d’Azur (ml 813)
Monica Bohm-Duchen
7–14 Fiesole to Lucca: Tuscany on Foot (ml 816)
Dr omas-Leo True
10–18 Basilicata & Calabria (ml 810)
Dr Hugh Doherty
13–17 Siena & San Gimignano (ml 780)
Dr Michael Douglas-Scott
13–17 Ravenna & Urbino (ml 815)
Dr Luca Leoncini
13–18 In Churchill’s Footsteps (ml 820)
Katherine Carter
13–20 e Douro (ml 823) Martin Symington
13–22 Castile & León (ml 825)
Gijs van Hensbergen
16–25 Extremadura (ml 826) Chris Moss
18–24 Gastronomic Piedmont (ml 828)
Cynthia Chaplin
18–26 Essential Jordan (ml 829)
Prof. Graham Philip
20–27 Footpaths of Umbria (ml 831)
Dr omas-Leo True
20– 1 Civilisations of Sicily (ml 832)
Dr Zoe Opacic
23–30 Istanbul Revealed (ml 835) Jeremy Seal
24–30 Roman & Medieval Provence (ml 836)
Dr Alexandra Gajewski
24– 3 Oman: Landscapes & Peoples (ml 837)
Dr Peter Webb
28– 2 Palladian Villas (ml 847)
Dr Michael Douglas-Scott
28– 1 Opera at Wexford (ml 838) Dr John Allison