Here are the winning numbers: 8, 6, 3, 10, 24, 1040. No, not for the Lotto, but for CIT Tour’s Highlights of Italy package. The trip is an eight-day, six-night independent excursion that takes in three of Italy’s most popular cities: Rome, Florence and Venice. Best travel dates are Jan. 10-Feb. 24, when the air-and-land rate is $1,040. The price covers air from Chicago to Rome; First-Class train tickets from Rome to Florence and from Florence to Venice, return air from Venice to Chicago; two nights at a Standard-Class hotel in each city; daily breakfast; and city tours that are conducted by a multilingual guide. Take the Highlights of Italy Feb. 25-March 31, and pay $1,240. Hotel upgrades to First-Class and Deluxe are available at an additional charge. (800-CIT-TOUR)
IN THE AIR
You’ve got until Jan. 10 to purchase Swissair’s cheap tickets to Zurich. For $330, you can fly round-trip, Chicago-Zurich, between Jan. 10 and March 31. Tickets at this price are limited, non-refundable and subject to various restrictions. The money you save can go toward shopping for chocolates or watches in high style on Bahnhofstrasse or browsing for antiques along the banks of the Limmat. Or — just a suggestion — get out of Zurich altogether and take the rails to the ancient spa town of Baden. If you’d rather spend your money in the air than on the ground, you can purchase a full-fare Economy ticket (starting at $2,948) and upgrade to Business for another $660 round-trip, or purchase a full-fare Business ticket (starting at $5,888) and upgrade to First Class for an extra $660 round-trip. (800-221-4750)
FREE STUFF
Just try to waltz to this: the Vienna Jazz Festival in July. That’s Vienna as in Austria, where they turn everything from cinema and painting to ice skating and Sigmund Freud into some kind of festival. Get the line-up of events in ViennaScene 2000. And if you want to waltz, try the Opera Ball in March. (212-944-6880) . . . You’ll be hearing a lot about Lawrence, Kan., because of that new Civil War movie “Ride With the Devil.” The city’s official visitors guide will tell you all about the coffee houses, jazz jams, craft shopping and festivals that characterize the town these days. (888-LAW-KANS) . . . This small brochure tells what’s what about Michigan winter sports and ski packages in Petoskey, Harbor Springs and Boyne City. (800-845-2828)
FAMILY FARE
They’ve been harvesting the sweet sap from Michigan’s maple trees for a very long time. Native Americans perfected their own sugar-making process and passed it on to European settlers. Now, during most weekends in March, the people at the Kalamazoo Nature Center will pass along the ancient art to modern-day visitors when they give tours of tapping and boiling operations and demonstrations of the time-honored sugaring techniques. High point of the season will come on March 18 during the Maple Sugar Festival, with its brunch of pancakes, sausage and plenty of real maple syrup. Adults $4.50, seniors $3.50, children ages 4-13 $2.50. Cost of the pancake brunch is extra. (616-381-1574)
Tour prices generally are per-person, based on double occupancy.
