We can take you deep into the Dolomites to look for the Capercaillie, Black Woodpecker, Hazel Grouse and then go to Venice. In Sicily you can add the Purple Swamp hen and the Bonelli’s Eagle to your bird list in the morning, admire the Sicilian Rock Partridge at lunch, then visit a Greek temple or get acquainted with the masterpieces of Sicilian Baroque before dinner.
In the Po Delta Park, view the rare Ferruginous Duck, along with hundreds of migratory bird species, then visit the city of Ravenna with its revered Byzantine mosaics and UNESCO-classified heritage sites. In Tuscany you can admire the wonders of Florence and Siena and then look for the Montagu’s Harrier, Penduline Tit, the Great-spotted Cuckoo and the Roller.

What is even better – well-known destinations such as Venice or Florence are great starting point for tours that combine natural and cultural beauty, making it easy to alternate jaw-dropping views and art-packed cities with rare and beautiful birds to finally check off your list. Venice – a city of marble palaces audaciously built on a lagoon, a modern-day Atlantis – is no different: if you think all you can spot here are gondolas, think again.

Come and discover the unexpected side of Venice – from its lagoon, a varied environment of mud flats, tidal shallows, salt marshes and wet fields housing the Savi’s Warbler and Pygmy Cormorant among others, to islands where time seems to have stopped and skilled craftsmen work glass and lace following secular traditions; explore the Po Delta Park – home to the rare Ferruginous Duck along with hundreds of migratory bird species – and the lagoon of Comacchio, a small-scale Venice offering the perfect living conditions to shorebirds and Greater Flamingos.

Spot your favourite birds depicted in the brightly coloured mosaics of Ravenna – boasting eight UNESCO buildings and one of the largest collections of mosaics in the world –  and watch art coming alive as you explore the surrounding marshes looking for the same species; and learn about the production of sea in the Cervia Salt Pans – always on the lookout for birds.

Way better than gondolas, right?