There is a reason travellers have been coming to Rome for thousands of years and leaving reluctant to go. The Eternal City is one of those rare places where history is not something you visit in a museum — it is everywhere, woven into the fabric of daily life, visible in every piazza and fountain and cobblestone street. But Rome is also a living, breathing, thoroughly modern city, with world-class food, vibrant neighbourhoods, and an energy that is entirely its own. And Italy beyond Rome — from the rolling hills of Tuscany and the dramatic coastline of the Amalfi Coast to the ancient temples of Sicily and the quiet coves of Agropoli — offers a depth and variety of experience that no single trip can exhaust.

Our long stay programs are designed for travellers who want something more than a highlights tour. A week in one city, three weeks in another, or a full month moving between destinations at a genuinely unhurried pace — these are journeys that give you the time to stop rushing, to find your favourite neighbourhood café, to take the day trip you didn't plan, and to experience Italy the way Italians do. With flights from Canada, hotel accommodation, and the essentials taken care of, you are free to simply live in these extraordinary places for a while.

Rome

Rome rewards time above almost any other city in Europe. Its layers of history — ancient, medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and modern, all compressed into one endlessly walkable city — are impossible to absorb in a few days, and the travellers who know it best are those who have given themselves the luxury of returning again and again, or of staying long enough to move past the major sights and into the quieter, more local rhythm of the place.

The essential Rome is genuinely essential — the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, the Piazza Navona — and each of these places, seen properly and with a little time, is extraordinary. But the Rome that gets under your skin is the Rome of the neighbourhoods. Trastevere, across the Tiber, with its ivy-covered medieval streets and trattorias that have been feeding locals for generations. Pigneto and Ostiense, the creative and bohemian quarters where young Romans eat and drink and the city feels entirely contemporary. The Jewish Ghetto, one of the oldest and most historically layered neighbourhoods in Europe, with Roman ruins embedded in the walls of Renaissance buildings and some of the best food in the city. Testaccio, the old working-class market neighbourhood that is now one of the finest places to eat in Rome. Prati, near the Vatican, with its wide boulevards and elegant cafés. The Parioli and Prati neighbourhoods for a quieter, more residential experience. And the centro storico itself, which can be explored endlessly — every narrow street seems to open onto something remarkable, whether a medieval church, a Renaissance courtyard, or a fountain that has been running for four centuries.

A long stay in Rome gives you the time to visit the major museums properly — the Borghese Gallery, which requires advance booking and rewards every effort with one of the finest collections of Baroque sculpture and painting in the world, the Capitoline Museums on the Palatine Hill, and the extraordinary Museo Nazionale Romano, spread across several sites and containing some of the finest Roman antiquities anywhere. It gives you the time to take day trips — to the ancient port of Ostia Antica, to the hilltop towns of the Castelli Romani, to the thermal baths of Viterbo, or further afield to Orvieto and its extraordinary clifftop cathedral. And it gives you the time to simply be in the city — to sit in a piazza with a coffee and watch the morning unfold, to take a long Sunday lunch with no agenda, to visit a neighbourhood market and cook dinner in your apartment. These are the experiences that a long stay makes possible and a short trip cannot.

Italy Beyond Rome

Tuscany needs little introduction but never fails to deliver. The rolling hills of the Val d'Orcia, the medieval towers of San Gimignano, the shell-shaped Piazza del Campo in Siena, the wine country of Chianti and Montalcino, the hilltop towns of Montepulciano and Pienza — this is landscape and culture of the very highest order, and three weeks here barely scratches the surface. Florence, at the northern end of the region, is one of the greatest concentrations of Renaissance art and architecture in the world. A long stay in Tuscany gives you the time to move slowly through the region, to rent a car and follow roads that lead nowhere in particular, to eat and drink your way through the local traditions, and to find the corner of it that feels most like yours.

The Amalfi Coast, explored at a genuinely unhurried pace over three weeks, is a transformative experience. The combination of Sorrento's clifftop elegance, Positano's cascading beauty, Amalfi's medieval history, Ravello's hilltop tranquillity, and the extraordinary day trip possibilities to Capri, Pompeii, and Naples gives a long stay visitor more than enough to fill every day — and enough terrace sunsets and long seafood lunches to make the time feel genuinely restorative.

Agropoli, on the Cilento coast south of the Amalfi, is one of the most beautiful and least-visited stretches of coastline in southern Italy. A UNESCO-protected national park, the Cilento is a landscape of dramatic sea cliffs, ancient Greek temples at Paestum, medieval hilltop villages, and some of the finest and most authentic southern Italian cooking anywhere. Agropoli itself is a charming small town with a historic upper district perched on a promontory above a small harbour, a relaxed and genuinely local character, and the kind of beaches and clear water that remind you why southern Italy has been drawing visitors since antiquity. A long stay here offers a deeply restorative and authentic Italian experience that is quite unlike anywhere more heavily visited.

Sicily, Italy's largest island and one of the most historically layered places in the entire Mediterranean, rewards a long stay more than almost anywhere in the country. Its extraordinary Greek temples at Agrigento and Selinunte, the Roman mosaics of the Villa Romana del Casale, the Baroque cities of the Val di Noto, the Arab-Norman architecture of Palermo and Cefalù, the volcanic drama of Mount Etna and the Aeolian Islands, and a food culture that is among the richest and most distinctive in Italy — all of this makes Sicily a destination capable of absorbing weeks of exploration without ever feeling exhausted.

The Packages

• The Italian Trilogy: City Living, Long Stay is designed for travellers who want the freedom to choose their own Italy. Three consecutive week-long stays in the cities of your choice — whether that means Rome and Florence and Venice, or Rome and Naples and Palermo, or any combination that speaks to you — give you the time to settle into each place, find your rhythm, and experience something closer to living in Italy than passing through it. A full week in each destination means you can take day trips, discover neighbourhood life, revisit favourite places, and move at a pace that actually allows you to absorb what you are seeing.
• Rome and Beyond: Long Stay Escapes is the most expansive option — a 25-night journey that begins with an extended stay in Rome before continuing for 21 nights in your chosen Italian region: Tuscany, Agropoli, the Amalfi Coast, or Sicily. This is the package for travellers who have always wanted to truly live in Italy for a while, to get past the surface and into the texture of a place, to come home knowing a region rather than just having visited it. Rome provides the cultural and historical foundation; the extended regional stay provides the depth, the relaxation, and the sense of genuine discovery.
• Three Cities, One Love, Italy: Long Stay combines the energy and history of Rome with 21 nights split between two additional destinations of your choice. It is a journey of genuine contrasts and complementary experiences — Rome's urban intensity balanced against the pace of a Tuscan hill town, or the coastal life of the Amalfi, or the ancient drama of Sicily. The flexibility to choose your two additional cities means the itinerary can be built around your interests and the kind of Italy you most want to experience.

When to Go

Rome and the Italian regions covered by these packages are welcoming year-round, and a long stay gives you the flexibility to experience the rhythms of each season rather than simply catching a snapshot of one.

• Spring (April through June) is the most universally recommended season for Italy. The weather is warm and pleasant, the countryside is in full bloom, and the cities are lively without the full pressure of summer tourism. Rome in April and May is particularly beautiful — the gardens are flowering, the light is extraordinary, and the major sights are manageable with a little planning.
• Summer (July and August) is hot, busy, and exhilarating. Rome in August is a curious experience — the city empties of Romans who leave for the coast, which means quieter restaurants and neighbourhoods but also reduced local life. The Amalfi Coast and Sicily are at their most vivid and crowded. A long stay in summer rewards early mornings, long afternoon rests, and evenings that stretch well past midnight.
• Autumn (September and October) is the season that many experienced Italy travellers consider the best of all. The heat softens, the crowds thin, the harvests are underway in Tuscany and Sicily, and the light across every landscape takes on a golden warmth that is impossible to describe and unforgettable in person. A long stay that begins in late September and extends through October is one of the finest ways to experience Italy.
• Winter (November through March) is mild in Rome and the south, genuinely cold in Tuscany, and quieter everywhere. Prices drop significantly, the major sights are far less crowded, and the slower pace suits a long stay program perfectly. Sicily in winter is particularly pleasant — mild, green, and almost entirely returned to its own residents. Rome at Christmas has a warmth and festivity that is entirely its own.

A Final Note

The great gift of a long stay program is time — the one thing that standard holidays rarely provide in sufficient quantity. Italy is a country that reveals itself slowly and rewards patience extravagantly. The piazza you walk past on your first day becomes a place you return to every morning. The trattoria you discover by accident becomes the best meal of your trip. The hilltop town you visit on a quiet Tuesday afternoon becomes the memory you carry home longest. Our long stay packages are designed to give you the time and the freedom to find those moments — not just to visit Italy, but to live in it for a while. It is a very different experience, and one that travellers who have done it consistently describe as the best trip of their lives. Call 1-800-665-4981 to speak with one of experienced Travel Agents your dream Italy trip.