Sandman, how are the Young Travelers' dynamics? Unfortunately it took until Day 7 to be comfortable with each other to then be able to say good bye by Day 8 :-(
I wish i added 1 more day in Venice.
There was a better interaction among the "young travelers" on a prior Bridges Alps tour. They seem more comfortable with each other as we move along with the tour. Today, almost all the kids hung out in the back of the bus coming back from Pisa. Joseph, our TD, is doing a good job of creating harmony among the kids. For anyone reading this who will be taking the tour, I recommend "Il Profeta" for your free dinner night in Florence. It is only a short walk from the Excelsior Hotel and Claudio, the owner, will welcome you like a lost friend.
Sandman, just checked website of restaurant II Profeta. There are no reservations available during June or July. Did you make a reservation or “walk in “? We begin this tour on Friday June 17. Our free dinner night in Florence is next Monday June 20.
Thanks very much for your tour experiences updates.
I’ll Profeta is a small restaurant and is one of the restaurants the Classic Italy groups has dinner at while in Florence. It doesn’t surprise me there are no reservations. Wonder if you told them you’re on a Tauck tour if that might help? I don’t think you can have a bad meal in Italy. All the little restaurants you pass by walking around are all good. Best tomatoes in the world.
Johnwvu, if you get back to me today, I can call the restaurant directly. Just tell me what time and how many. If I don't hear back from you, email Claudio, the owner. at info@ristoranteilprofeta.com and tell him you are with Tauck and that the group he had last night from Florida recommended you.
I'm sure many places look very similar, but Il Profeta looks like the place we ate during Classic, Small Groups in 2016, but it is farther from the Brunelleschi Hotel than I remember. Where we ate was so small that we had to split our small group in two, with half going one night and the other half the next. But, as many have said, it is hard to go wrong anywhere in Italy.
Good morning. Just got back yesterday from our Italia Bella trip. We had our 15 year old grandson with us. Our tour guide was Christina. She continually added surprises and she and our whole group were all very pleasant. Everything ran like clockwork(even when a 2 1/2 hour bus ride turned into a 5 hour bus ride due to traffic conditions). The young adults got together in the back of the bus and played cards and games.
The young travelers on our tour ranged in age from 8-19. Everyone bonded and a great time was had by all.
It was very hot and there was A LOT of walking. Comfortable footwear and a hand fan are important. Of course be prepared to drink LOTS of water.
I’m half asleep now but will try and add more later. Be prepared to have an informative and
Wonderful trip😊😊
Wanted to make sure that whoever gets Christina should know that she was GREAT and you are in for a FANTASTIC trip
We are back for a week now and reflecting upon the trip, it was great; to sum it up. Joseph was or TD and he was young and related to the kids very well. Anyone that has joseph on a future trip, say hi from the family with the Gluten-free traveler. Joseph went out of his way to ensure our GF grandchild was accommodated at every food stop. The trip moves quickly and there is little downtime. Not that happy with the San Clemente Palace as I would have preferred a hotel on mainland Venice, but the tour works with this place and it was good for our farewell dinner. We skipped the morning walk in Florence in favor of our own walk and shopping; much more appealing to our two teenage grandkids. Look for "Subdued" in Rome or Florence if you have teenage girls and they will go crazy for this Italian-only brand. Their stuff is appealing to the teens; not available in the US, and reasonably priced. (One in Rome and three in Florence.) My advice is to just go with the flow as it goes by so fast. Enjoy!
We, and most of our tour, group totally were not happy with being off Venice mainland.
We had to catch the last boat back to San Clemente at 11:30pm which meant stopping whatever lovely things we were doing in Venice.
We also had to follow the times of boats leaving San Clemente and returning to San Clemente spending about half an hour each way in traveling.
We have stayed on mainland Venice previously and what a pleasure to just walk from your hotel.
Also, the farewell dinners were beautifully done at the hotels we were at (every bit as nice as at the San Clemente).
I haven’t been to Venice for over forty years and that was a day trip. Of course, we should have been in 2020! So I have no idea about the hotels or their quality or where they are. What I constantly read here is that people want to stay in super luxurious hotels that basically they only have time to sleep in….so that is what Tauck are now providing. We have found ourselves in these hotels a couple of times now at the end of tours when we stay on at the end of the tour and it is an absolute pain both to do more site seeing and costly. Our most recent tour was a $50 ride into town to go to dinner. When we first started touring with Tauck, it was not like this. A first Italy tour for example, we stayed mostly in charming family run hotels that made you know you were in a foreign country, that is not what most people traveling with Tauck appear to want these days so Tauck gives them what they want and so have to charge more for the tours.
We have done this exact tour twice before and both times we stayed IN VENICE in luxurious hotels. Did not have to sacrifice one for the other.
The adult tours to Venice (not Bridges) still stay in Venice and still include a gondola ride.
We were told they switched the bridges because the San Clemente has a pool for the young adults. That is nice but not enough reason to be 30 minutes off Venice mainland. And the pool closes at 6 or 6:30!
In 2016 our tour stayed in the Bauer Hotel which was nice. The best part- it was on a canal (what hotel isn't?!? ), actually the intersection of a smaller canal (rio di San Moise) and the Grand Canal, just a few blocks from St. Marks Square.
At the end of the Tauck Adriatic tour, we stayed at the Metropole. My wife loved the hotel, me, not so much. They kept the hotel dark - I mean really dark. I think they were trying to make it like it was before electricity. The lobby was so dark they had to put a reading light over any notices and the restaurant menu. The hallways were dark enough that you could trip over something because you didn't see it. They had physical keys for the rooms, so you had to go to the desk and request your key when you came back to the hotel. I object to this because of safety. Someone could ask for my key, and a woman traveling alone has to announce her room number at the desk.
The rooms were well lit, but the bathrooms were very small, with only a tub shower. And they only had a partial glass on the tub so a significant amount of shower water would get on the floor.
The hotel did face the Giudecca Canal (the canal the cruise ships use), but there were only a few rooms that had a view of it. They did have fast Internet access.
I would certainly choose some other hotel if we went back.
MikeHenderson
10:18AM edited 10:21AM
"At the end of the Tauck Adriatic tour, we stayed at the Metropole. . . .They kept the hotel dark - I mean really dark."
Your hotel appears to be about the same distance from St. Marks Square, in the opposite direction, as the Bauer which was also a bit dark, though not as much as you describe. The breakfast room overlooked the Grand Canal. Our room was at the opposite end of the hotel from the canal, but had a nice balcony that overlooked a small piazza (Campo di Moisè), the adjacent Chiesa di San Moisè (we could almost reach out and touch it!), and a gondola station. Across the piazza was one of the narrow streets that lead to St. Marks. The opposite side of the Piazza and the street were lined with shops selling the cheap stuff- Versace, Prada, Cartier, Jimmy Choo, Louis Vuitton I'm lucky my wife is not a shopper!
I've stayed at both the Danieli and the Metropole with Tauck. I prefer the latter. The Danieli was so spread out, it was really difficult to find our rooms...finally one of the housekeeping staff took pity on several of us and showed us the way. I do understand what MikeHenderson said about the darkness, but I found that kind of charming. And the furnishings of the Metropole are much more ornate, which is not to my taste, but a welcome contrast to the ultramodernism of our hotel in Rovinj. I did appreciate being able to walk from both hotels to wander around the touristy and not-so-touristy areas.
I think our group from the 3rd - 10th also would have preferred staying on the Main island versus the Marriott. The tour overall was great. It mainly highlighted the landmarks of the cities visited and left you wanting more or to definitely return.
I wish i added more days at the FRONT and BACK end.
Returned late Friday June 24 from our Italia Bella tour. Will try not to repeat what others already shared. Overall, ALL was very good and all our family members had a great experience. Tour was well organized and TD Joseph was Super.
Joseph is a very caring person and was great with the young travelers that ages ranged from 11 to 19. More than half of our group had scheduled this tour for 2 years ago.
Temperatures were very high and Heat was especially extreme in Venice. Several of our group experienced “slip&falls and Heat issues. TD Joseph was “on top” of all these and handled in a very professional manner.
We were shocked by the lack of masks by just about everyone while we were in Italy. We felt “out-of-place” wearing a mask and, sorry to say, we reluctantly “joined the crowd “.
Lastly, I’ve read several comments about the San Clemente Hotel in Venice Tauck used for this tour. I agree it’s not convenient to Venice and is a long boat ride to and from. Having a swimming pool doesn’t make it more desirable for this tour. However, it’s definitely a great facility with very nice amenities. While the Staff was very nice, the staffing #s may be inadequate and training of new staff might be an issue.
Definitely agree with Johnwvu that the San Clemente was a great facility with very nice amenities. Our problem was not with the hotel itself just the necessity of traveling half an hour each way to get to Venice mainland while following a time schedule.
OK, let me share my personal reaction to the San Clemente. Other than the final dinner outdoors, there was nothing that I liked about this hotel. The first problem was we were assured we would have connecting rooms. When they assigned the rooms in the lobby, the clerk said they were connecting. Not so. Had to walk the long hallways back to the reception and wait until they found two connecting rooms. The rooms were on the 1st floor, which was ok, but our A/C was barely working. It was fine in the connecting room, so we knew there was a problem. Tried to call the reception to complain, but the buttons on the phone didn't work. Had to go into the adjoining room to call reception to complain, but the call was ignored. An hour later I went to the desk to complain and was assured they would take care of it. We went out on the Pirate Ship that evening and came back to a hot room. Called (again from the kids' phone) and asked for ice. Difficult request as we never got ice, even after going to the desk to ask. Other than the phone and A/C, the shower knob was broken and I had to fix it myself. The toilet in the kids' room only had one of the two flush paddles working; no big deal. The final straw was on our last day at the hotel. We had a 5:00 flight home and they charged about 300 Euros to keep one room for an extra two hours. I guess that wasn't the last; lunch that day at the hotel was a disaster. We came back from a hot Venice morning around noon and went into the bar/dining room for food. Almost 45 minutes later, 3 hamburgers arrived, but they forgot my wife's salad. That was a fast 20 minutes more. I agree with the thoughts that a hotel on the Island would be better (much better) but this place was a big zero for me. I might add that coming back to the hotel the first day was a minor disaster at the dock as more people wanted the boat than could be taken on that trip. Another reason to stay on the island. My wife and I have traveled extensively for the past 40 years and I rate this hotel at the bottom of what we have experienced.
Comments
Sandman, how are the Young Travelers' dynamics? Unfortunately it took until Day 7 to be comfortable with each other to then be able to say good bye by Day 8 :-(
I wish i added 1 more day in Venice.
Why did someone flag your comment Alan? What you said is true and great advice.
A certain person always flags Alan’s comments
There was a better interaction among the "young travelers" on a prior Bridges Alps tour. They seem more comfortable with each other as we move along with the tour. Today, almost all the kids hung out in the back of the bus coming back from Pisa. Joseph, our TD, is doing a good job of creating harmony among the kids. For anyone reading this who will be taking the tour, I recommend "Il Profeta" for your free dinner night in Florence. It is only a short walk from the Excelsior Hotel and Claudio, the owner, will welcome you like a lost friend.
British - They like to flag you a lot too 🤭
Sandman, just checked website of restaurant II Profeta. There are no reservations available during June or July. Did you make a reservation or “walk in “? We begin this tour on Friday June 17. Our free dinner night in Florence is next Monday June 20.
Thanks very much for your tour experiences updates.
Sometimes the hotel concierge can arrange securing restaurant reservations even when the website indicates fully booked.
I’ll Profeta is a small restaurant and is one of the restaurants the Classic Italy groups has dinner at while in Florence. It doesn’t surprise me there are no reservations. Wonder if you told them you’re on a Tauck tour if that might help? I don’t think you can have a bad meal in Italy. All the little restaurants you pass by walking around are all good. Best tomatoes in the world.
Johnwvu, if you get back to me today, I can call the restaurant directly. Just tell me what time and how many. If I don't hear back from you, email Claudio, the owner. at info@ristoranteilprofeta.com and tell him you are with Tauck and that the group he had last night from Florida recommended you.
I'm sure many places look very similar, but Il Profeta looks like the place we ate during Classic, Small Groups in 2016, but it is farther from the Brunelleschi Hotel than I remember. Where we ate was so small that we had to split our small group in two, with half going one night and the other half the next. But, as many have said, it is hard to go wrong anywhere in Italy.
Sandman, thanks for your follow up and offer for restaurant help. Continue to enjoy your tour and we’ll follow up with restaurant.
Sandman, thoughts of your trip? Did your young travellers enjoy?
Good morning. Just got back yesterday from our Italia Bella trip. We had our 15 year old grandson with us. Our tour guide was Christina. She continually added surprises and she and our whole group were all very pleasant. Everything ran like clockwork(even when a 2 1/2 hour bus ride turned into a 5 hour bus ride due to traffic conditions). The young adults got together in the back of the bus and played cards and games.
The young travelers on our tour ranged in age from 8-19. Everyone bonded and a great time was had by all.
It was very hot and there was A LOT of walking. Comfortable footwear and a hand fan are important. Of course be prepared to drink LOTS of water.
I’m half asleep now but will try and add more later. Be prepared to have an informative and
Wonderful trip😊😊
Wanted to make sure that whoever gets Christina should know that she was GREAT and you are in for a FANTASTIC trip
We are back for a week now and reflecting upon the trip, it was great; to sum it up. Joseph was or TD and he was young and related to the kids very well. Anyone that has joseph on a future trip, say hi from the family with the Gluten-free traveler. Joseph went out of his way to ensure our GF grandchild was accommodated at every food stop. The trip moves quickly and there is little downtime. Not that happy with the San Clemente Palace as I would have preferred a hotel on mainland Venice, but the tour works with this place and it was good for our farewell dinner. We skipped the morning walk in Florence in favor of our own walk and shopping; much more appealing to our two teenage grandkids. Look for "Subdued" in Rome or Florence if you have teenage girls and they will go crazy for this Italian-only brand. Their stuff is appealing to the teens; not available in the US, and reasonably priced. (One in Rome and three in Florence.) My advice is to just go with the flow as it goes by so fast. Enjoy!
We, and most of our tour, group totally were not happy with being off Venice mainland.
We had to catch the last boat back to San Clemente at 11:30pm which meant stopping whatever lovely things we were doing in Venice.
We also had to follow the times of boats leaving San Clemente and returning to San Clemente spending about half an hour each way in traveling.
We have stayed on mainland Venice previously and what a pleasure to just walk from your hotel.
Also, the farewell dinners were beautifully done at the hotels we were at (every bit as nice as at the San Clemente).
Wow, San Clemente and Kempinski are out in the middle of the lagoon, though the Marriott is even farther out!!
I know the shuttle is free, but what would a water taxi from Piazza San Marco cost?
At least 80 to 85 euros if you miss the boat and have to take a taxi
I haven’t been to Venice for over forty years and that was a day trip. Of course, we should have been in 2020! So I have no idea about the hotels or their quality or where they are. What I constantly read here is that people want to stay in super luxurious hotels that basically they only have time to sleep in….so that is what Tauck are now providing. We have found ourselves in these hotels a couple of times now at the end of tours when we stay on at the end of the tour and it is an absolute pain both to do more site seeing and costly. Our most recent tour was a $50 ride into town to go to dinner. When we first started touring with Tauck, it was not like this. A first Italy tour for example, we stayed mostly in charming family run hotels that made you know you were in a foreign country, that is not what most people traveling with Tauck appear to want these days so Tauck gives them what they want and so have to charge more for the tours.
Don’t mind the charge but would be willing to pay more for convenience.
We have done this exact tour twice before and both times we stayed IN VENICE in luxurious hotels. Did not have to sacrifice one for the other.
The adult tours to Venice (not Bridges) still stay in Venice and still include a gondola ride.
We were told they switched the bridges because the San Clemente has a pool for the young adults. That is nice but not enough reason to be 30 minutes off Venice mainland. And the pool closes at 6 or 6:30!
In 2016 our tour stayed in the Bauer Hotel which was nice. The best part- it was on a canal (what hotel isn't?!?
), actually the intersection of a smaller canal (rio di San Moise) and the Grand Canal, just a few blocks from St. Marks Square.
On our first Tauck tour in 2006 we stayed at the Danieli in Venice. It was wonderful.
At the end of the Tauck Adriatic tour, we stayed at the Metropole. My wife loved the hotel, me, not so much. They kept the hotel dark - I mean really dark. I think they were trying to make it like it was before electricity. The lobby was so dark they had to put a reading light over any notices and the restaurant menu. The hallways were dark enough that you could trip over something because you didn't see it. They had physical keys for the rooms, so you had to go to the desk and request your key when you came back to the hotel. I object to this because of safety. Someone could ask for my key, and a woman traveling alone has to announce her room number at the desk.
The rooms were well lit, but the bathrooms were very small, with only a tub shower. And they only had a partial glass on the tub so a significant amount of shower water would get on the floor.
The hotel did face the Giudecca Canal (the canal the cruise ships use), but there were only a few rooms that had a view of it. They did have fast Internet access.
I would certainly choose some other hotel if we went back.
Your hotel appears to be about the same distance from St. Marks Square, in the opposite direction, as the Bauer which was also a bit dark, though not as much as you describe. The breakfast room overlooked the Grand Canal. Our room was at the opposite end of the hotel from the canal, but had a nice balcony that overlooked a small piazza (Campo di Moisè), the adjacent Chiesa di San Moisè (we could almost reach out and touch it!), and a gondola station. Across the piazza was one of the narrow streets that lead to St. Marks. The opposite side of the Piazza and the street were lined with shops selling the cheap stuff- Versace, Prada, Cartier, Jimmy Choo, Louis Vuitton
I'm lucky my wife is not a shopper! 
I've stayed at both the Danieli and the Metropole with Tauck. I prefer the latter. The Danieli was so spread out, it was really difficult to find our rooms...finally one of the housekeeping staff took pity on several of us and showed us the way. I do understand what MikeHenderson said about the darkness, but I found that kind of charming. And the furnishings of the Metropole are much more ornate, which is not to my taste, but a welcome contrast to the ultramodernism of our hotel in Rovinj. I did appreciate being able to walk from both hotels to wander around the touristy and not-so-touristy areas.
I think I would be very happy at the Daniela 😊
I think our group from the 3rd - 10th also would have preferred staying on the Main island versus the Marriott. The tour overall was great. It mainly highlighted the landmarks of the cities visited and left you wanting more or to definitely return.
I wish i added more days at the FRONT and BACK end.
Returned late Friday June 24 from our Italia Bella tour. Will try not to repeat what others already shared. Overall, ALL was very good and all our family members had a great experience. Tour was well organized and TD Joseph was Super.
Joseph is a very caring person and was great with the young travelers that ages ranged from 11 to 19. More than half of our group had scheduled this tour for 2 years ago.
Temperatures were very high and Heat was especially extreme in Venice. Several of our group experienced “slip&falls and Heat issues. TD Joseph was “on top” of all these and handled in a very professional manner.
We were shocked by the lack of masks by just about everyone while we were in Italy. We felt “out-of-place” wearing a mask and, sorry to say, we reluctantly “joined the crowd “.
Lastly, I’ve read several comments about the San Clemente Hotel in Venice Tauck used for this tour. I agree it’s not convenient to Venice and is a long boat ride to and from. Having a swimming pool doesn’t make it more desirable for this tour. However, it’s definitely a great facility with very nice amenities. While the Staff was very nice, the staffing #s may be inadequate and training of new staff might be an issue.
Definitely agree with Johnwvu that the San Clemente was a great facility with very nice amenities. Our problem was not with the hotel itself just the necessity of traveling half an hour each way to get to Venice mainland while following a time schedule.
OK, let me share my personal reaction to the San Clemente. Other than the final dinner outdoors, there was nothing that I liked about this hotel. The first problem was we were assured we would have connecting rooms. When they assigned the rooms in the lobby, the clerk said they were connecting. Not so. Had to walk the long hallways back to the reception and wait until they found two connecting rooms. The rooms were on the 1st floor, which was ok, but our A/C was barely working. It was fine in the connecting room, so we knew there was a problem. Tried to call the reception to complain, but the buttons on the phone didn't work. Had to go into the adjoining room to call reception to complain, but the call was ignored. An hour later I went to the desk to complain and was assured they would take care of it. We went out on the Pirate Ship that evening and came back to a hot room. Called (again from the kids' phone) and asked for ice. Difficult request as we never got ice, even after going to the desk to ask. Other than the phone and A/C, the shower knob was broken and I had to fix it myself. The toilet in the kids' room only had one of the two flush paddles working; no big deal. The final straw was on our last day at the hotel. We had a 5:00 flight home and they charged about 300 Euros to keep one room for an extra two hours. I guess that wasn't the last; lunch that day at the hotel was a disaster. We came back from a hot Venice morning around noon and went into the bar/dining room for food. Almost 45 minutes later, 3 hamburgers arrived, but they forgot my wife's salad. That was a fast 20 minutes more. I agree with the thoughts that a hotel on the Island would be better (much better) but this place was a big zero for me. I might add that coming back to the hotel the first day was a minor disaster at the dock as more people wanted the boat than could be taken on that trip. Another reason to stay on the island. My wife and I have traveled extensively for the past 40 years and I rate this hotel at the bottom of what we have experienced.