2007 Dream Italia Autumn Tours Now Available
From the Renaissance through the Twenty-First Century, Italy has long been associated with romance and passion, and for good reason. Experience for yourself the romance of Italy on a Dream Italia tour that you and your Valentine will never forget.

We are excited to bring you two new tours this autumn. We now offer a seaside tour, Alluring Amalfi Coast Tour, to one of the most beautiful resorts in the world, the Amalfi Coast, where we will be based in Capri and Positano.

We are especially pleased to announce a Dream Italia exclusive, Poetic Tuscany Photography Tour, a unique photography workshop and tour of Tuscany with famed Italian landscape photographer, Andrea Rontini. Don't miss this rare opportunity to learn and travel with an award winning photographer.

Our upscale wine tour, Castles & Vineyards Tour, takes you on a journey to 4 famous wine regions, and the charms of our Rustic Tuscan Cooking Tour will be relived each time you recreate the authentic Italian recipes at home.

Here, in honor of St. Valentine's Day, we retell a few of the stories of powerful love with an Italian connection.

Romeo & Juliet

Tragic Love in the 16th Century
Perhaps the most famous love story of all time, is the William Shakespeare tale of star-crossed lovers from Verona who must give their lives in order for the Montagues and Capulets to stop an ancient grudge. The language that Shakespeare used to communicate their love for each other was so poetically written. For example, in Act 2, Scene 2, Romeo says, "But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun." This brilliant tale juxtaposing the passions of love and hatred has been immortalized in art, film and song.

Pablo Neruda & Matilde Urrutia

Exile in Capri in the 1950s
Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet, was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1971. At just 19 years of age he published his first book: Crepuscolario. In 1927 he entered the diplomatic services. He lived through the experience of the Spanish civil war of '36-'37 which indelibly marked the poet's soul. Pablo Neruda came to Capri in 1952 with his lover and muse, the Chilean singer Matilde Urrutia, whose long-term love affair culminated in marriage years later. On the island he lived in the beautiful "Casa di Arturo" belonging to Edwin Cerio, writer and engineer. Neruda's exile was portrayed in the Italian film Il Postino. During his period in Capri, Neruda's collection of love poems, The Captain's Verses, was published. To see for yourself why Capri inspires such moving poetry, come with us on our Alluring Amalfi Coast Tour.

Dante Alighieri & Beatrice

13th Century Inspiration for the "Divine Comedy"
Dante and Beatrice first met in Florence when he was nearly nine years old (1274) and she was just turned eight. She was dressed in soft crimson and wore a girdle about her waist. Dante fell in love with her at first sight and thought of her as angelic with divine and noble qualities. He frequented places where he could catch a glimpse of her, but she never spoke to him until nine years later. Then one afternoon (1283) he saw her dressed in white, walking down a street in Florence. Accompanied by two older women, Beatrice turned and greeted him. Her greeting filled him with such joy that he retreated to his room to think about her. Falling asleep, he had a dream that became the subject of the first sonnet in his La Vita Nuova, one of the world's greatest romantic poems. Yet he felt that his love sonnets still did not do justice to honor the beauty and blessedness of his dear Beatrice. So he vowed to write a poem to honor his beloved that has never been written of any woman. Dante fulfilled this promise 27 years later just before his death, when he finished La Commedia (1321)- the greatest love poem about the soul's ascent from Inferno to Purgatory to Paradise. What's insightful about this journey is that the poet Virgil took Dante only up to the heights of Mount Purgatory. From that point onward, only Beatrice could guide Dante to Paradise.

Sophia Loren & Carlo Ponti

Enduring Love
Carlo Ponti, the film producer who discovered Sophia Loren, launched the movie icon's career and whose more than half-century romance endured threats of bigamy charges and excommunication, died on January 9, 2007. He was 94.