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Week in Venice, Florence and Rome July 2013
Hi,
My husband & I will be taking this tour in July (7/7/13) and were hoping for some feedback from others who have taken it already, how was the tour, the hotels, the sights? Any info would be great! Also looking to get some chatter going with anyone else on the trip, it looks like its almost sold out so we can't be the only ones on this website:)
Thanks!
My husband & I will be taking this tour in July (7/7/13) and were hoping for some feedback from others who have taken it already, how was the tour, the hotels, the sights? Any info would be great! Also looking to get some chatter going with anyone else on the trip, it looks like its almost sold out so we can't be the only ones on this website:)
Thanks!
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My wife and I took the week in Venice, Florence, & Rome tour in October 2011 and overall it was a very nice trip. I'm glad we decided to arrive one day earlier in Venice and stayed five extra days in Rome as the tour allows for only a brief visit of several major attractions. The two nights in Rome during the tour doesn't allow sufficient time to see all of the major attractions and we were thankful we stayed the extra five days in Rome. I've noted below several of the pros and cons of this tour:
Pros:
1) The hotels were centrally located and the quality of the hotels was excellent in comparison to other nearby hotels. They were high quality hotels and we felt safe at night taking walks to and from the hotels. At the hotel in Venice, don't forget to lock the doors with your key as the doors don't lock automatically when you close the door. You should have seen the expression on their faces when we mentioned this issue to several people on our tour during dinner (they obviously didn't lock their doors).
2) There is no waiting in lines to enter the sights or attractions which is absolutely wonderful. You bypass all of the lines and enter the attractions upon arrival. We wouldn't have enjoyed waiting in line for two or three hours to see any of the attractions no matter how old or nice it was.
3) The after hours tour of the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums was memorable although another tour group was in the Chapel during our visit. I'm glad we stayed in Rome the extra days and booked the "Scavi tour" with the Vatican which was absolutely amazing. If interested, you'll need to reserve the Scavi tour in advance with the Vatican directly as Tauck doesn't offer this tour.
4) The meals included with the tour were very good. Our favorite dinner was at the Antico Martini restaurant in Venice.
5) The trains while traveling to each city including the use of buses from the hotels to the attractions was very good.
6) The gondola ride in Venice was excellent and very memorable.
7) We stayed in Italy for two weeks during October and the weather was absolutely wonderful (no rain and very comfortable temperatures).
Cons:
1) Far too much free time. Tauck (including the tour director) needs to do a better job of offering optional excursions after each scheduled tour of events each day. We were on our own to plan and fill the rest of the day following the scheduled tour each day which wasted a lot of precious time.
2) There may be reasons for this, but it seemed unnecessary to have us wake up so early each morning for breakfast so that we could meet in the lobby at 8:00 a.m. or 8:30 a.m. and the tour usually ended by noon or 1:00 pm each day.
3) Our tour director could have been much better. Our tour director seemed burnt out and mentioned several times she was working 90 days straight during our tour. Following our tour of scheduled attractions each day, we usually didn't see her the rest of the day or evening. Unless you were fortunate to run into her, she didn't provide optional excursions during free time nor did she provide directions and suggestions for dinner in the evening.
4) On our way to and from Tuscany for the cellar and wine tour, there was a U.S. WWII memorial and many of us requested to stop briefly and visit this site. For reasons unknown, our tour director snapped at us and said "absolutely not, don't bother asking me again". We were furious with her and couldn't understand why we couldn't visit this site as it was clearly visible from the main road. It seemed very important to her that we arrive back at our hotel by 3:00 pm but we had nothing scheduled the rest of the day or evening. In addition, I'm not sure why Tauck bothers to mention the monastery as you're unable to enter the monastery (very disappointing).
5) Since you spend quite a bit of time with 35-40 other people, you're bound to find several people that are annoying, aren't pleased with anything, or find it necessary to brag about how much money they have, where they've been, and all of their material possessions. Since there are different ages and people from different states and countries, you'll more than likely find a couple or two that you get along with and can enjoy your free time with.
Hopefully, the above provides you some useful information and other people will add several points that I may have overlooked. Have a wonderful trip!
Thanks for all your other info DJMaci!
My husband and I took this tour in March and had a wonderful time. Some old friends joined us and all four of us were new to Tauck. The other people on the tour, the Tour Director, the local guides were great fun to be with and kept the group smiling. Our Director always checked in to see what we needed, if anything, and how he could help with restaurant rez, suggestions for outings, etc. It was his suggestion to stop at the above-mentioned Memorial and we were delighted. Our group had spent time in Florence learning about mosaics and pietra dura, so we were thrilled to see artists installing an enormous mosaic of the US troop movements and campaigns in Italy at the Memorial that day.
We arrived a day and half early in Venice, which worked out well. First night, we attended a performance of Opera's well-known arias, a "Greatest Hits", of sorts. None of us are very acquainted with opera, but we loved the performances, and staying out kept us from going to sleep too early -- we got right on to Italian time by the next day.
Florence was wonderful and our local guide, Fabiana, a highlight of the trip. My husband hiked up to the top of whatever domes he could find, and I perused the Parfumerias! We also stayed a couple extra days in Rome, hired a driver for a day on Amalfi Coast, (Thanks to assistance of TD Andrea, marvellous!), and savored a final afternoon of just "walking around".
The only negative of the trip was our check-in and boarding experience at the Rome airport on our return, but at that point we were on our own, not with the group.
We're still murmuring... "Italy was a dream..."