Of the several exciting changes coming to Andrew Harper this year, the one most personal to me is the return of our Signature Tours. Helping plan these unique small-group explorations has been my great pleasure ever since I joined the company [cough cough] years ago. The pandemic put a stop to them, but they’ve been on hold long enough.

Signature Tours allow us to offer participants experiences that simply aren’t possible for most individual travelers to arrange. With more tourists circling the globe than ever before, it’s exclusive, insider access that can make the difference between an unforgettably fantastic day and one that’s memorable mostly for its queues.

Just as important, Signature Tours give Harper members the chance to connect with one another. Our travel advisors have developed long-standing relationships with many of you, and I always enjoy corresponding with those who send questions and feedback. We know what a sophisticated bunch you are, but members rarely interact with one another. These tours help rectify that.

For our first Signature Tour, planned for September, we turn to the country that Harper members travel to the most: Italy. It also happens to be a favorite of mine. Few places offer such a sensational combination of architecture and landscape. World-changing history feels immediate and palpable. And let’s not forget the food and wine!

Italy is no secret, which is why (perhaps counterintuitively) it’s so well suited to a Signature Tour. In our recent Members’ Choice Awards, numerous survey respondents complained about crowds, especially in Italy. With our small group, we can avoid the worst of them.

The 12-day tour starts in Rome, where most individual travelers — even those who skip the entry line — stand shoulder to shoulder with the masses in the Sistine Chapel. We’ve arranged for a completely private after-hours opening of the Vatican Museums, just for our group. That’s on the third day. We’ve also planned a cocktail party and dinner at the Forum, an exclusive cooking class in a stylish vaulted teaching kitchen on Tiber Island and a private tour of the vast Domus Aurea, Emperor Nero’s “Golden House.”

To get to Venice from Rome, people generally take the train, and so will we. Except we’ll be aboard Accor Group’s glamorous new La Dolce Vita Orient Express (see my review of it in the November 2025 Hideaway Report). The train spends the evening just outside Portofino, where the bar car will surely be lively long into the night. In the morning, continue on to Venice.

La Serenissima can be rather less than serene these days, but we’ll keep the tourist hordes at bay. Your home will be one of my all-time favorite urban resorts, set on the still-untrammeled island of Giudecca, across a broad canal from Piazza San Marco. St. Mark’s Basilica is a notoriously busy attraction, thanks to its extraordinary interior of domes and arches all clad in gold mosaic. Here, too, we’ll arrange for a private after-hours tour.

Nearby, we’ll also have the famous Peggy Guggenheim Collection to ourselves. Its small rooms can be positively claustrophobic during regular hours, making it difficult to enjoy the masterpieces of modern art they contain. If there are just 20 people inside, the experience is totally different! We’ve also planned visits to some of the lagoon islands, including an exclusive surprise or two.

From Venice, we turn inland (sort of) to the Italian Lakes. From our resort on the shore of Lake Garda, we visit a chic winery hidden in underrated Lugana and hop in a little fleet of vintage cars to drive ourselves around the scenic waterside roads.

After a stop to sample Franciacorta, Italy’s answer to Champagne, we finish the tour beside iconic Lake Como. The magnificent gardens of Villa del Balbianello open early just for us, and we have private motor launches to take us there. We’ll cruise over to Bellagio for some free time, and for our farewell dinner, we’ll gather at one of Como’s most splendid palaces.

I’ve planned this itinerary with experts in our Travel Office and our partners in Italy, and it is my ideal exploration of the country. Hosted by the managing director of Andrew Harper and his wife, the tour offers unique access that makes it appealing to both longtime Italophiles and first-time visitors. We have space for just 16 Harper members to take part.

Contact us at [email protected] or (630) 734-4622 for more information and to register for the tour before it sells out.

I speak for all of us at Andrew Harper when I say that we’re thrilled to be offering these Signature Tours again — there are no other small-group journeys like them.

See the full Italy Signature Tour itinerary.

---

Transform the way you travel. Become an Andrew Harper member today. Join here.

---