Romantic in Italy

Italy's romantic section is made up almost entirely of private programmes, and its main point is Venice. A half-hour gondola in private format costs 894 dollars and remains the catalogue's most expensive short entry: you pay not for the crossing but for the fact that nobody else is in the boat. The forty-minute shared version costs 176 dollars; the difference between them is a question of company, not of route.

Rome works on speed. A Vespa sidecar with a driver runs ninety minutes at 142 dollars — the passenger sits alongside and steers nothing. Those ready to drive themselves take a three-hour Vespa rental at 63 dollars or a full day at 85: an ordinary car licence is enough. A private golf cart along the Appian Way with a stop at the catacombs takes two and a half hours at 210 dollars.

The south plays on distance. A Vespa tour along the Amalfi Coast from Positano lasts six hours at 412 dollars: the road there is all hairpins, and most of the impression comes from the road itself. A Sicilian wine and cheese tasting in Palermo is two hours at 394 dollars. GetExperience lists 34 romantic programmes in Italy, from 63 to 894 dollars, and almost none of them require joining a group of strangers.