Cruise & Rail: Venice & the Swiss Alps

Arrive at Venice Marco Polo International Airport, where you will be transferred to the ship. Unpack, relax and enjoy your first evening on the Venetian Lagoon. (D)

With your early morning arrival at Doge's Palace, you'll be able to marvel at the estate in total peace. Wander through a Venetian neighborhood and experience daily life in an authentic Venetian residential quarter. Later in the evening, cap the day off with a private once-in-a-lifetime experience at an after-hours lighting ceremony inside St. Mark's Basilica without the crowds. (B/L/D)

Featured Excursions: Choice of A morning walk in Venice with Doge's Palace visit OR Private after-hours visit to Saint Mark's Basilica

Choose between a full-day in medieval Padua, home to Italy's second oldest university, or a Venice walking tour and a choice of several exciting ways to see Chioggia: riding on a traditional bragozzo or biking through this authentic fishing town. (B/L/WD)

Featured Excursions: Choice of Venice morning walk with gondola shipyard visit OR “Let's Go” biking Chioggia with Ca' Zen visit and tasting OR Bragozzo ride with tastings at Ca' Zen OR Padua walking tour and "Drink like an Italian"

Note: A special Captain's Welcome Reception and Dinner will be prepared for you this evening. IMPORTANT: We are obliged to comply with Italian Maritime Authorities who require that only crew may be on the ship during the Adriatic Sea passage. Therefore, our guests must disembark the ship and partake in the featured excursions.

Explore Italy's culinary capital Bologna on a full-day tour packed with an exclusive pasta-making workshop and lunch or explore Ferrara on a half-day tour. (B/L/D)

Featured Excursions: Choice of Private pasta-making and Italian lunch in Bologna OR Ferrara: Renaissance, elegance and Italian lifestyle town walk

Today, you'll admire the greatest sites of charming and coastal Chioggia, including a stop at the local and lively market. Your ship will move to dock overnight in Burano, where you'll enjoy a lovely evening stroll through this multicolored island. (B/L/D)

Featured Excursions: Choice of Evening stroll in Burano OR Chioggia market visit

Note: IMPORTANT: We are obliged to comply with Italian Maritime Authorities who require that only crew may be on the ship during the Adriatic Sea passage. Therefore, our guests must disembark the ship and partake in the featured excursions. We thank you for your cooperation.

Spend the day exploring the northern lagoon of Venice and three of its captivating islands. Explore a basilica with an art historian in Torcello before heading to the peaceful, agricultural island of Mazzorbo. End the tour with a stroll through Burano's rainbow of colorful homes and visit a lace-making atelier. (B/D)

Featured Excursion: Magic Island Day: hidden treasures of the lagoon

As your water taxi glides past narrow side canals and the Canal Grande, you'll arrive in style at the Rialto Bridge and Fondaco dei Tedeschi. The iconic stone arch bridge sits at the narrowest point of the Canal Grande and holds numerous shops and restaurants. (B/L/FD)

Featured Excursions: Choice of Rialto walking tour with Casanova OR “Do as the Locals Do” Venice walking tour

Note: A special Captain's Farewell Reception and Dinner will be prepared for you this evening.

Disembark the ship. You will be transferred to the Venice Santa Lucia Station, where you will board the Golden Eagle Danube Express. You'll have time to settle into your new cabins as the train slowly threads its way out of Venice towards Trieste, a medieval port city that was once amongst the oldest and largest cities in the Habsburg Empire. After a tour of the city, re-join the train for dinner as you head over the border into Slovenia and stop at Postojna, where you can enjoy a private evening tour of the caves. (B)

After breakfast, arrive in the Slovenian Capital Ljubljana, where your morning tour of this lovely city includes a boat cruise on the Ljubljanica River. During lunch we travel up to Lake Bled, picturesquely situated in the Julian Alps. Following a traditional pletna boat ride to Bled Island, your train will take you to the medieval Austrian town of Lienz, where you can visit the 13th-century, hilltop castle of Schloss Bruck. During dinner, the train will take you back to Italy to spend the night in San Candido. (B/L/D)

In the early morning, your train leaves San Candido on a scenic line through Fortezza and over the Brenner pass to Innsbruck, Austria. Tour this charming town before lunch on the train, during which you will travel through the Arlberg to St. Anton for an afternoon in a year-round Alpine resort. (B/L/D)

Your train leaves St. Anton at breakfast time to travel through the Vorarlberg to Buchs, where you will visit Liechtenstein and its capital, Vaduz. Join the train for a scenic lunchtime ride along Walensee and the Lake of Zurich on the way to your final stop. Disembark at Zurich Hbf (Main Station), where you will be taken to your hotel to enjoy a leisurely evening. (B/L/D)

Check out of your hotel and head to Zurich Airport for your flight home. (B)