The best escorted tours to Italy from Ireland

What is an escorted tour?

An escorted tour is a group holiday led by a professional tour manager who travels with you from arrival to departure. Your flights, accommodation, transport between destinations and the main sightseeing excursions are arranged in advance and included in one price, usually with set departure dates and a planned itinerary.

The appeal of an escorted tour is its simplicity. Someone else takes care of the logistics, from airport transfers to guided walks, and a knowledgeable guide adds context that is easy to miss when travelling independently. Group sizes vary, and most itineraries build in free time alongside the planned excursions, so you can still explore at your own pace.

Escorted tours suit first-time visitors to a region, groups, solo travellers who enjoy company, and anyone who would rather relax than plan. Unlike a beach holiday, an escorted tour allows you to discover new places rather than staying in just one single resort.

The top escorted tours to Italy

Topflight runs escorted tours across Italy's regions, each based in one area with day trips to the surrounding highlights. The tours below are grouped by region, with the nearest airport and the character of each area noted, so you can picture the trip before booking.

Puglia

Puglia sits in the heel of southern Italy, a sun-baked region of olive groves, whitewashed hill towns and a long Adriatic coastline. Tours fly into Brindisi Airport, around 50 minutes from the countryside base near Ostuni. The area is best known for its trulli, the conical limestone houses unique to the Itria Valley, along with its seafood, burrata and unhurried rural pace.

The A Taste of Puglia with Alberobello, Matera, Lecce & Polignano tour spends a week exploring the region's highlights. Guided days take in Ostuni, the gleaming White City, and Polignano a Mare, perched above sea grottoes on the Adriatic.

Inland, the tour visits Matera, a UNESCO World Heritage Site famous for its ancient sassi cave dwellings, and Lecce, known as the Florence of the South for its ornate Baroque architecture.

The week also includes Alberobello and Locorotondo, a burrata tasting at a working dairy and an orecchiette cooking class, rounding out a trip built as much around food as sightseeing.

Tuscany

Tuscany lies in central Italy, a region of rolling hills, roads lined by iconic cypress trees, medieval towns and some of the country's most famous art and wine.

Tours fly into Pisa Airport, the main gateway for the region. Tuscany is known the world over for the Renaissance, for Chianti and Vino Nobile wines, and for hilltop towns that have changed little in centuries. For more background on Tuscany, make sure to read our guide to Tuscany.

Two escorted tours cover different sides of the region. The A Taste of Tuscany & Umbria tour is based in Arezzo and leans into food and wine. Guided days take in Pienza in the Val d'Orcia for a pecorino tasting, the thermal town of Bagno Vignoni, and Montepulciano for a tasting of its celebrated Vino Nobile.

The tour also crosses into neighbouring Umbria to visit Perugia, the region's chocolate capital, and Assisi, the hilltop birthplace of Saint Francis and home to the Basilica with its Giotto frescoes.

The Cinque Terre & Tuscany with Florence, Siena and San Gimignano tour is based in the spa town of Montecatini Terme and focuses on the great sights. It includes a full day on the Ligurian coast at the Cinque Terre, reached by boat past the cliffside villages, plus guided visits to Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance, and the UNESCO-listed medieval city of Siena. The walled town of San Gimignano, often called the Medieval Manhattan for its stone towers, completes the itinerary along with a Tuscan wine tasting.

The Italian Riviera

The Italian Riviera runs along the coast of Liguria in Italy's northwest, a string of pastel-painted towns set between the mountains and the sea. Tours fly into Nice Airport, just across the border in France, with the base in the seaside town of Pietra Ligure. The Riviera is known for its palm-lined promenades, its flowers and its easy proximity to the glamour of the French Riviera and Monaco.

The Italian Riviera with Sanremo, Montecarlo & Genoa tour pairs Italian and French coastal highlights over a week. Guided days take in Sanremo, the City of Flowers with its grand casino, and the medieval village of Dolceacqua, with its arched bridge once painted by Monet.

The tour also crosses into France for Menton and the principality of Monte Carlo, with a stop at the Fragonard perfumery in Eze along the way. On the Italian side, it explores the historic port city of Genoa and the old town of Albenga, balancing guided excursions with time by the sea.

Lake Garda

Lake Garda is Italy's largest lake, set between Lombardy, Veneto and Trentino at the foot of the Alps, ringed by resort towns, vineyards and olive groves. It enjoys a famously mild climate and a central position close to Verona, Venice and the wider lakes region. Depending on the tour, you fly into either Bergamo or Verona Airport. For planning, Topflight's guides on the Best time to visit Lake Garda and Lake Garda for families are worth a read.

Two tours explore the lake and its surroundings.

The Lake Garda, Lake Iseo, Verona, Bergamo & Brescia tour, based in Desenzano and reached via Bergamo Airport, focuses on the lake's western side and nearby cities. It takes in the historic centre of Brescia and the hilltop old town of Bergamo Alta, which is reached by funicular. On another day you can also experience a ferry to Monte Isola, the largest lake island in Europe, and spend time on the shores of Lake Iseo before travelling to Franciacorta for wine tasting. The week finishes in Verona, the city of Romeo and Juliet, with its Roman Arena.

The Lake Garda & Venice tour is based in Malcesine on the dramatic northern shore and flies into Verona Airport. It combines a boat tour of the lake, calling at elegant Sirmione with its Roman ruins and the town of Salò, with a day trip to Venice. The Venice excursion includes a private motorboat ride along the Giudecca Canal and a walk to the Rialto Bridge, leaving free time to wander the city's backstreets.

Sorrento & the Amalfi Coast

Sorrento sits on a clifftop above the Bay of Naples in the southern region of Campania, the gateway to the Amalfi Coast and its string of pastel towns. Tours fly into Naples Airport, with the base in Sorrento itself. The area is known for its dramatic coastline, its lemon groves and Limoncello, and its proximity to the ancient sites of Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius.

Topflight's guides cover the region in detail, including a First-time guide to Sorrento, a comparison of Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast, and the Best hotels in Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast.

The Sorrento, Amalfi Coast, Pompeii & Vesuvius tour brings together the highlights of the bay over a week. A guided walkabout introduces Sorrento, with its cameo workshops, Limoncello and lively Piazza Tasso. A full day follows the Amalfi Coast road, often called one of the most spectacular drives in Europe, with stops above Positano and in the town of Amalfi, then a ferry to Salerno.

Another day climbs Mount Vesuvius, the only active volcano on mainland Europe, before exploring Pompeii, the Roman city buried by its eruption in 79 AD. A boat trip to the island of Capri is available as an optional extra.

Lake Maggiore

Lake Maggiore stretches along the border of Piedmont, Lombardy and Switzerland in northern Italy, an elegant lake known for its island gardens and belle-époque resorts. Tours fly into Milan Malpensa Airport, around an hour from the lakeside town of Stresa, which serves as the base. The lake is famous above all for the Borromean Islands and their ornamental palaces and gardens.

The Lake Maggiore, Centovalli Train, Lake Orta & Turin tour combines lake scenery with rail journeys and a city visit. A boat trip calls at Isola Bella, with its grand Baroque palace and terraced gardens, and Isola dei Pescatori, a traditional fishing village. The tour rides the scenic Centovalli narrow-gauge railway across the border into Switzerland to the town of Locarno, and visits the quiet, picturesque Lake Orta with its island of San Giulio. A guided day in Turin, the former capital of Italy, rounds out the week, complete with a tasting of Bicerin, the city's signature coffee, chocolate and cream drink.

Sardinia

Sardinia is a large Mediterranean island off Italy's west coast, prized for its turquoise water, white-sand beaches and ancient archaeology. Tours fly into Olbia Airport in the north, with the base in the coastal town of Palau. The island is known for the glamorous Costa Smeralda, the Maddalena Archipelago and its prehistoric Nuragic sites, the stone structures left by an ancient island civilisation.

The Sardinia & Corsica tour pairs two Mediterranean islands over a week. A boat trip explores the Maddalena Archipelago and the island of Caprera, home to a museum dedicated to the Italian hero Giuseppe Garibaldi. A full-day excursion crosses the strait to Corsica to visit the clifftop town of Bonifacio. Back on Sardinia, the tour takes in the medieval village of Castelsardo, the stone village of Aggius in the Gallura region, the Nuragic sites around Arzachena, including the Tombs of the Giants, and the elegant resorts of the Costa Smeralda such as Porto Cervo.

The Dolomites

The Dolomites rise across Trentino in the northern Italian Alps, a UNESCO-listed mountain range of dramatic limestone peaks, green valleys and a culture that blends Italian and Tyrolean traditions. Tours fly into Verona Airport, with the base in the alpine village of Mezzana in the Val di Sole. The region is known for its scenery, its mountain air and its food and wine, from apple orchards to sparkling Trentodoc.

The The Dolomites & Flavours of Northern Italy tour pairs mountain landscapes with the region's tastes over a week. A scenic day in the Brenta Dolomites takes in the Nardis Waterfalls in the Val Genova and the smart resort town of Madonna di Campiglio.

One of the highlights is a journey on the Bernina Express, the panoramic railway that crosses the Alps into Switzerland and St Moritz. Guided visits to Trento, with a tasting of Ferrari sparkling wine, and to Bolzano, where Italian and Tyrolean cultures meet, complete an itinerary built around relaxed discovery.