Morning Melbourne City Tour

Melbourne Museum is a natural and cultural history museum located in the Carlton Gardens in Melbourne, Australia.

Located adjacent to the Royal Exhibition Building, it is the largest museum in the Southern Hemisphere.The museum was opened in 2000 as a project of the Government of Victoria, on behalf of Museums Victoria who administrates the venue.

Melbourne museum is a rich response to Melbourne’s urban condition, and provides a place for education, history, culture and society to engage with each other in a contemporary setting. It is now an important part of Melbourne’s soft infrastructure and is consistently ranked as one of the most popular museums and tourist attractions in Australia, winning ‘Best Tourist Attraction’ at the Australian Tourism Awards in 2011.

In addition to its galleries, the museum features spaces such as Curious?, which is a place to meet staff and find answers relating to the collections, research and behind-the-scenes work of Museums Victoria; as well as a cafe and a gift shop. The back-of-house areas are home to some of Museums Victoria’s State Collections, which holds over 17 million items including objects relating to Indigenous Australian and Pacific Islander cultures, geology, historical studies, palaeontology, technology & society, and zoology, as well as a library collection that holds some of Australia’s rarest and finest examples of 18th and 19th century scientific monographs and serials. The world’s largest IMAX Theatre screen, which is also part of the museum complex, shows movies and documentary films in large-screen 3-D format.

Little Italy in Victoria, Australia (sometimes referred to as the “Italian Precinct” or simply “Lygon Street”), is a “Little Italy” cultural precinct of the Italian community of Melbourne. It is situated along Lygon Street in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Carlton.[1]

According to the 2006 Australian census, Victoria has the largest Italian-Australian population in Australia (around 200,000 statewide), with much of its inner-Melbourne population recorded in the suburbs of Carlton and nearby Brunswick.[2]

Lygon Street is home to a large concentration of Italian restaurants, and is the birthplace of Melbourne’s “cafe culture”.

Melbourne was also appointed as a sister city to Milan, Italy in 2004

The precinct’s renowned Italian restaurant district occupies a number of blocks between Queensberry Street in the South, along Lygon Street, to Elgin Street in the North. Restaurants can also be found along the streets intersecting Lygon Street, towards the Carlton Gardens in the East and the University of Melbourne in the West. The Lygon Street Festa is an annual celebration of Italian culture and cuisine and is Melbourne’s first and original street festival held in the district each November.

Towards the centre of the district, on the corner of Lygon Street and Argyle Place, there is a small Italian-inspired piazza named Piazza Italia – a joint-redevelopment by Melbourne and its sister city, Milan, in Italy.

During the annual Australian Grand Prix, the restaurant district is bathed in red and yellow banners in support of the Ferrari Formula One racing team and, in 1982 and 2006, it was also a major site of Australian celebrations when Italy’s national football team won the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Whether a first time visitor to Melbourne or not, you’re sure to be charmed by our vibrant city. Offering some of the finest coffee/café culture, stunning gardens and an active arts/sports scene, there’s something for everyone.

Join our Melbourne city tour and be treated to a morning of informative commentary and colourful atmosphere exploring Fitzroy Gardens, Queen Victoria Market*, a few of our laneways and arcades and a drive through Chinatown. At the conclusion of our city tour, take a little walk down to the riverside to join a scenic and relaxing cruise on the Yarra River. It’s also a great photo opportunity to capture Melbourne’s distinct and spectacular city skyline.

Collins Street is a major street in the centre of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was laid out in the first survey of Melbourne, the original 1837 Hoddle Grid, and soon became the most desired address in the city.Collins Street was named after Lieutenant-Governor of Tasmania (then Van Diemen’s Land) David Collins who led a group of settlers in establishing a short-lived settlement at Sorrento in 1803.

The eastern end of Collins Street has been known colloquially as the ‘Paris End’ since the 1950s due to its numerous heritage buildings, old street trees, high-end shopping boutiques, and as the location for the first sidewalk cafes in the city. As with all main streets in the Melbourne city centre, the Hoddle Grid is exactly 99 feet wide which would allow for the installation of trams in 1885. Blocks further west centred around Queen Street became the financial heart of Melbourne in the 19th century, the preferred home of major banks and insurance companies, a tradition which continues today with the most prestigious office blocks and skyscrapers found along its length.

look for a bargain, wander around the fresh produce and take in the vibrant cosmopolitan atmosphere

The Queen Victoria Market (also known colloquially as Vic Market or Queen Vic) is a major landmark in the central business district (CBD) of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Covering over seven hectares (17 acres), it is the largest open air market in the Southern Hemisphere.

Constructed in stages from the 1860s and officially opened in 1878, the Queen Victoria Market is the last remaining major market in the CBD, and along with Prahran Market and South Melbourne Market, the last of the city’s Victorian era markets still operating. It is listed on both the Victorian Heritage Register and the National Heritage List, and is one of Melbourne’s major tourist sites, attracting approximately 10 million visitors annually.