London to Rome and Athens by Train

Our trip begins this morning at London's St Pancras Station, the home of the Eurostar. Here you'll check-in for your Eurostar train and board your (unaccompanied) Eurostar train to Paris. You will have your tickets before you travel.

We meet our Tour Leader off the train at the Gare du Nord, and take the Paris metro together to the Gare de Lyon. Here we board our train to Turin, flying through the French countryside and saying 'buona sera' to Italy after arriving around 10pm this evening.

We'll need a good, strong Italian espresso this morning as we're taking an early train out of Turin, heading south to Rome. It's worth an early start, as the train journey takes us via the charming Tuscan city of Pisa, with ample time for a visit.

After storing our luggage at the station, we'll have some time to explore the narrow streets, pastel houses and wonderfully ornate churches of Pisa. It's a pleasant walk of around 30 minutes from Pisa Centrale station to the Campo dei Miracoli (the Field of Miracles), home to the famous Leaning Tower. We'll head up the tower, climbing all 293 stairs to the top for outstanding views over the Duomo and the rest of the city. After visiting the Leaning Tower, we're free to enjoy the afternoon in Pisa. Over lunch we'll have our first real opportunity to sample proper Italian cuisine, maybe enjoying a glass of locally-produced Chianti.

In the late afternoon, we head back to the station for our three-hour train journey to Rome.

Visiting Rome can be a daunting endeavour. This city, once the centrepoint of the western world, is an absolute feast for the senses. Gorgeous Baroque architecture, world-beating art and, of course, the most important sites of the entire Roman empire are all on display here, while the scent of fresh pasta will call you from the doorways of local trattorias.

We plan to spend our two days wisely, beginning with essential visits to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, on the Palatine Hill. These magnificent sites are practically a 'who's who' of Roman history. The Palatine Hill was the site of the founding of Rome by the brothers Romulus and Remus. Julius Caesar once lived there, and it was from the white marble rostra, within the Forum, that Mark Antony delivered a funeral speech in Caesar's honour, reimagined by Shakespeare in his 'Friends, Romans, Countrymen' speech. Emperor Nero built his enormous palace 'Domus Transitoria' on the Palatine Hill before allowing Rome to burn in the fire of 64 AD. The list goes on, and we'll walk in the footsteps of these giants today.

After a full morning visiting the Colosseum and the Forum with a local guide, we'll have free time this afternoon. It's not far from here to the Vatican, where you may wish to visit the Sistine Chapel or the Vatican Museum.

This evening we'll head to the Trastevere district, where we have a meal included tonight in one of the area's many locally-run, authentic restaurants offering traditional Italian fare. This medieval area has a vibrant nightlife, making it popular with Romans and tourists alike.

Our tour this morning seeks to introduce Italy's captivating capital through an exploration of one of Rome's lesser-known areas. At first glimpse, the residential district of Testaccio seems like nothing more than a pretty area of the capital. Without many tourists to speak of, you can really get a feel of the rhythm of daily life for Romans here, as the neighbourhood goes about its business.

But like in many other areas of Rome, just a little digging will bring up a vast well of history. We'll see the small hill of Monte Testaccio, which is actually a 45 metre tall ancient 'landfill' site, made up of Roman-era terracotta jars. We'll also see the Pyramid of Cestius from the 1st century BC, the only 'Egyptian' pyramid in Europe, as well as the legendary tomb of Remus.

The graves of Keats and Shelley are also found in Testaccio, at the beautiful 'non-Catholic' cemetery. Historically, citizens outside the Catholic faith (usually foreigners) would be siphoned off into this outlying cemetery for a quiet, unpublicised burial. However, as Rome's centre grew, the cemetery was enveloped within it, and it is now a peaceful place in the heart of the city.

After a morning's exploration, we'll have the afternoon free to Rome to spend at our leisure.

We'll take a morning train from Rome, speeding along through the Italian countryside on a Frecciargento high speed train, taking us down to Bari, on the Adriatic Coast, in just four hours. Home to one of Italy's largest ports, as well as an international airport, Bari gets a fair share of travellers blowing through without stopping, usually en route to somewhere else. Bari's loss is our gain, as the city retains an authenticity and liveliness that is well worth discovering.

Take the Bari Vecchia, for example. Bari's 'Old Town' is a tangled maze of old streets located right next to the harbour. Within it is the Basilica of San Nicola, containing the bones of Saint Nick himself - Santa Claus. And along the narrow Orecchiette Street, we'll see a line of old Italian signoras setting up their outdoor tables to make fresh orecchiette pasta, chatting to each other and passers by as they work.

Arriving around midday, we'll relax and take in the sea air over lunch (not included) before taking an orientation walk of the city, exploring the Bari Vecchia as well as the sea front. The late afternoon and evening will be free to explore at your own pace.

A visit to Puglia is all about incredible local food, and we'll be sure to eat our fill over the next two days. Try focaccia barese (typical Bari-made focaccia), a panzerotto (snack-sized calzone!) or sgagliozze - deep-fried polenta balls that are a popular snack here. As a port city, you'll also find some of the best seafood in the region. Welcome to paradise!

Today we'll take a trip through the rural heart of Italy's heel, which is more densely populated by olive trees than by people, and has some of the most superb cuisine in Italy.

Travelling by private vehicle, we'll drive first to Altamura, famous for being the only town in Italy with a DOP (standing for 'protected designation of origin') recognised bread. We'll visit a well-known DOP bakery to watch the bakers and their huge wood-fired ovens in action. Naturally our visit includes the chance to taste the freshly made bread!

We then drive to an organic cheese farm in Putignano, which has won several national and international prizes. We will see how mozzarella, trecce and nodini are made and have a chance to try them, as well as staying for a home cooked lunch on the farm. Continuing our gastronomic odyssey we'll visit an olive oil mill that produces oil using both a traditional and a modern press. We tour the mill and walk in the surrounding fields to see the ancient olive trees, followed by a tasting of the oils produced here.

Our final stop is the UNESCO World Heritage Listed town of Alberobello. The town is famous for its 'trullis' - unusual round houses particular to to Alberobello, with white-washed dry stone walls and pointed 'witches hat' tiled roofs. We'll take a stroll around the town to take in some of the history, before returning to Bari.

After a full day yesterday you have the day free to relax in Bari. You may want to head down to the old harbour, where fishing boats pull in regularly with their catches, and walk along the Lungomare - Mussolini's grand seafront, which is the longest in Italy. Studded with cafes and restaurants, it has some excellent people-watching opportunities, ending at one of Bari's city beaches.

Alternatively, if you'd like a day trip you can take the train or a taxi down the coast to Polignano a Mare or Monopoli. These two small coastal fishing towns are blessed with stunning azure waters, sandy beaches and historic white-washed buildings, perfect for experiencing another authentic slice of Puglian life.

For day trippers, our Tour Leader will give us clear instructions on what time to return to Bari, as we board our ferry this evening for our trip across the Adriatic to Greece. We'll be sharing a quad cabin (in bunk beds). All rooms have private bathrooms with a shower, with towels and bedding included.

We have a wonderful arrival onto the Greek mainland today, cruising past the Greek islands of Cephalonia (the setting of Captain Corelli's Mandolin) and Ithaca (legendary home of Odysseus) before sailing into Patras port.

Our ferry docks at 1pm, and we'll take a private coach from here just one hour along the Gulf of Corinth, to Diakofto, where we pick up the historic rack railway to Kalavryta. Now this really is a train journey to remember, climbing through the dramatic Vouraikos Gorge through tunnels, over heady ravines and past rushing waterfalls. The destination is Kalavryta, a small village with a gigantic history; it was here that the Greek revolution began in 1821. In more recent times, it was the setting of one of Greece's most tragic encounters in WWII. On December 13th, 1943, in retaliation against the Greek resistance guerrillas who had been fighting around the area, the German troops invaded Kalavryta. After looting and setting fire to much of the village, they rounded up the town's entire male population of 451 men and boys, and executed them. Only 13 survived, after hiding under the bodies of the dead.

This tragedy is still very much alive in Kalavryta's collective memory, and on our arrival we will take a walk to the poignant site of the town's WWII holocaust memorial.

We'll spend the morning here in this traditional town. You may wish to visit the Museum of the Holocaust, a poignant museum located inside Kalavryta's old school house. The town itself is a very tranquil place to while away the morning, with a pretty main square and artisanal shops selling local honey, hand-made Greek pasta (chilopites) and other local souvenirs.

The train departs just before 2pm, so there will be time to have lunch in a traditional taverna before leaving. Filo pies and lamb dishes are two mountain specialties that you may come across.

The epic descent begins after lunch, as we travel once more through the Vouraikos Gorge on this exhilerating train ride. We connect in Diakofto to Kiato and then to Athens, arriving in the Greek capital around 5.30pm this evening.

Athens is a fitting end to our whistle-stop tour through Europe's most enchanting classical cities. We'll set out on foot to the impressive Parliament buildings and Syntagma Square, the well-heeled home of Greece's modern capital. Wide, tree-lined roads give it a stately air, which contrasts with our next stop - the Plaka district. This area is one of the oldest in Athens, and it's labyrinthine cobbled streets, neoclassical architecture and maze of ancient churches and modern cafes are perfectly situated in the shadow of the Acropolis.

In the afternoon we'll visit the Acropolis itself. The Parthenon dominates the site, but we'll also discover the majestic ruins of the Temple of Athena Nike and the Propylaea during our visit.

This afternoon will be free to explore the city where a visit to the Acropolis Museum is highly recommended.

The trip ends after breakfast at our hotel in Athens.

There are no activities planned today, so you are free to depart from Athens at any time. If your flight is departing later in the day luggage storage facilities are available at our hotel. If you would like to receive a complimentary airport transfer today, you need to depart from Athens International Airport (ATH), which is about one hours' drive, depending on traffic.

Some dates of this tour correspond with our Greek Island Cruise. To spend a further seven nights relaxing on a traditional Greek caique, see the trip code GC.