I left Toronto at quarter after four in the afternoon for the 8 1/2-hour overnight flight to the Eternal City. I once again failed to get any sleep whatsoever, and landed in Rome early in the morning, ready to start the day anew.

I arrived in Rome in the early morning and made my way to the hotel. I had arranged to meet some members of my tour beforehand, and we spent the afternoon in the city. We met the rest of our tour group for dinner and a welcome drink, and enjoyed a nighttime orientation tour of Rome and some of its famous landmarks.

Rome, the Eternal City, was home to one of the greatest empires the world has ever known. It began as a small village built on seven hills in the 8th century BC, and grew to control most of Europe and parts beyond, from the Iberian peninsula to Mesopotamia, and Britannia to Egypt.

Leaving Rome, our tour took us to Orvieto for some exploration of the town and the caves below, as well as a picnic lunch. Following that, we paid a visit to the deserted medieval town of Bagnoregio to enjoy the landscape and some homemade bruschetta and wine. We rounded out the day pulling into Siena for dinner and a night out on the town.

Civita di Bagnoregio was once a thriving Medieval town, but after the ridge that connected it to the rest of the plateau collapsed, it was left cut off and isolated, virtually locked in time. A pedestrian bridge now grants access to the old town, which now boasts only sixteen residents.

From Raddan, we got the opportunity to go cycling through the Tuscan hills, exploring the Chianti region, out to Castelo di Meleto for a spot of lunch and some wine tasting. Returning to Siena in the afternoon, we had time to explore the city and enjoy a drink in the Campo. We head out to the countryside for dinner to soak in the lovely Tuscan sunset.

Siena is most famous for the festival Palio and its bareback horse race. Every region of the city enters a horse, and racers spend months preparing not only to run a good race, but to sabotage other racers as well. Crowds pack the Campo to watch the race, which lasts a mere ninety seconds.

A brief visit to Pisa gave us the opportunity to see the Leaning Tower, take a photograph, and shop for souvenirs. We continued to Volterra for a demonstration in sculpting and manufacturing with alabaster. Our afternoon stop at the Tuscan coast provided the chance to experience the Mediterranean Sea. We returned to Siena in the evening for another night of Siena nightlife.

Pisa was once a powerful marine city, but numerous and extensive wars with Florence took their toll, and the city is now known for little more than its leaning tower, a stark symbol of careful plans gone wrong. The most famous Pisan was Galileo, who made many mathematical and astronomical discoveries, and gathered irrefutable evidence toward the Copernican theory that the Earth rotated around the Sun, a view that led to his unjust excommunication.