Grand Tour Welcome to the North - the 5 Senses 2026-27

The Scrovegni Chapel, a masterpiece of the 14th-century Italian and European painting tradition, is considered the most complete cycle of frescoes created by the great Tuscan master. Colour and light, poetry and pathos. Man and God. The sense of nature and history, the sense of humanity and faith fused together to tell, in a unique and unrepeatable way, the stories of the Virgin Mary and Christ. Giotto completed the frescoes of the Chapel within the first months of 1306. The chapel has a very simple architecture: a rectangular hall with a barrel vault, an elegant Gothic triple lancet window on the façade, tall and narrow windows on the south wall, and a polygonal apse later raised for the bell chamber. The pictorial cycle of the Chapel is developed in three main themes: the episodes from the life of Joachim and Anne (panels 1-6), the episodes from the life of Mary (panels 7-13) and the episodes from the life and death of Christ. Beneath these frescoes, a series of panels illustrates the allegories of the Vices and the Virtues.

Mantua and Sabbioneta “UNESCO jewels”. 
Rich in charm, art and history, Mantua and Sabbioneta were included on the UNESCO list in 2008. The two cities are linked by the legacy left to them by the Gonzaga family, which made them magnificent centres of the Italian and European Renaissance: Mantua embodies the evolving model of the Renaissance city, constantly renewed between the 15th and 16th centuries through hydraulic engineering, urban planning and architectural interventions; Sabbioneta, on the other hand, built ex novo, is one of the reference models of the ideal city proposed by Humanism.

The Church of San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore, built on the remains of Roman buildings and also known as the Sistine Chapel of Milan, was created in 1503 by two important 16th-century architects, Dolcebuono and Amadeo, who were also active on the building sites of the Milan Cathedral, Santa Maria delle Grazie, Santa Maria in San Celso and the Certosa of Pavia. Since the Carolingian age, the church has housed Benedictine nuns, a purpose made evident by the original arrangement of the interior spaces. It is in fact a rectangular plan divided in half by a frescoed wall: one half was for public use and was frequented by ordinary worshippers, while the other was accessible only to the nuns, who were not authorised to cross its boundaries. Today the monastery can be visited in its entirety and features beautiful 16th-century frescoes, many from the workshop of Bernardino Luini and others executed by Boltraffio, a pupil of Leonardo, by Vincenzo Foppa, the Campi brothers and Simone Peterzano, master of Caravaggio. The whole ensemble, embellished by a beautiful Serlian loggia and by a rare organ by Gian Giacomo Antegnati, is a perfect and almost intact example of the 16th-century Milanese school, and among the churches of Milan it is certainly one of the most distinctive and fascinating.

Villa Taranto in Verbania: the most beautiful garden in Italy and in the world
The terraced gardens of Villa Taranto, found between Pallanza and Intra near Lake Maggiore, are certainly one of the places to visit above all for botany enthusiasts. Villa Taranto is a true natural work of art with thousands of plants and flowers from all over the world which, during summer, offers a truly fairy-tale spectacle. Often included among the most beautiful gardens in Italy and in the world, they truly deserve a visit. In 2014, Villa Taranto was elected by the website Buzzfeed as the most beautiful garden in the world, surpassing very famous places such as Versailles, Mottisfont Abbey Rose Gardens (Hampshire, UK) and the Gardens at the Cloisters (New York City). With the arrival of spring these terraced gardens, which cover an area of 16 hectares, bloom and reopen to the public to be admired in all their splendour. The history of these wonderful gardens and of its villa is inextricably linked to the figure of Neil Boyd Watson McEacharn, a Scottish captain who loved botany and the Bel Paese. In 1931, Captain McEacharn decided to buy the property from the Marchesa of Sant’Elia in order to transform it into an English garden, located in a part of Italy that reminded him of his homeland, Scotland.
McEacharn turned the garden into a true work of art with thousands of plants and flowers from all over the world. Some specimens are very rare and embellish this “gallery of botanical art” which, every spring/summer, offers a unique and evocative spectacle. The name “Villa Taranto” was given by the captain himself in honour of one of his ancestors, Étienne Jacques Joseph Alexandre Macdonald, appointed Duke of Taranto by Napoleon.
Inside the gardens is a villa, built in 1875 based on a design by the Ticino architect Augusto Guidin. Unfortunately, the villa cannot be visited because since 1996 it has housed the Prefecture of the province of Verbano Cusio Ossola. Instead, it is possible to visit the beautiful Herbarium building, the former lodge in eclectic style where precious and refined “natural pictures” are displayed. During your visit to Villa Taranto, you should definitely not miss the Conifers Avenue (an incredible compact sequence of very rare conifer specimens from all over the world), the Putti Fountain (so called for the sculptures that adorn it, which in spring is surrounded by splendid blooms), the Dahlia Labyrinth (with over 1,700 plants in bloom), the Mausoleum (where, at his own wish, the creator of this wonderful garden is buried), and then also the greenhouses, the terraced gardens with their water features and much more.