"Every time I describe a city, I am saying something about Venice,” said Italian novelist, Italo Calvino in his book, Invisible Cities. In this intimate, scholar-led program in Venice, you will experience a side of the city that few see: unhurried, uncrowded and gloriously serene. Artist, author and architectural historian, Yale`s own Adam Van Doren will lead you down hidden pathways and quiet piazzas to masterpieces of art and architecture that comprise this miraculous city on the sea. Get to know Adam Van Doren by watching his lecture: An Artist`s Hidden Venice, which inspired this travel learning program.

Starting with several days in the Italian countryside, you`ll take excursions to the Palladian villas of Vicenza and Verona. Arriving in the floating city, you`ll explore the most precious of its treasures, from the galleries of the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, the 18th century palazzo home of the famed heiress and art collector; to lesser-known gems like San Giorgio Maggiore, designed by Andrea Palladio. This program offers participants the unique pleasures of walking through history with illuminating scholarly guidance, enlightening lectures, and exclusive receptions with local friends of Yale. A visit to La Biennale di Venezia rounds out a week of activities that few visitors discover, including a private day-cruise on the lagoon where you`ll search the horizon for flamingos and stop at the storied islands of Torcello, Burano, and Murano. You`ll stay in a luxurious quiet corner of the city, at the five-star Palazzo Venart, with its own dock on the Grand Canal, tucked away in a private piazza. Tapping into hidden sites that only Venezia`s insider`s know, you`ll feel this magical place is all your own.