Here’s my overall thoughts on the tour. I’ll do a day by day for those who care with photos once I get them sorted.
Physical Demands: First off, Tauck isn’t kidding this is a 3/3 tour. You will be walking long distances, uphill and on rough surfaces and standing for long periods. The stone stairs down to the Blue Grotto, Pompeii’s stone streets, quaint Italian hilltop villages like Assisi. This was our 11th Tauck tour and easily to most physically demanding. Add to that the first 3 days (including the optional Capri excursion) all had early starts where we barely had time for a quick breakfast before leaving. After that the starts got more reasonable.
Itinerary. If your heart beats fondly for cathedrals and museums this is the tour for you. In filling out our comment card I realized that what we most enjoyed were more scenic sights – the Blue Grotto, the Amalfi coast, the boat ride along Cinque Terre, the (hard won) views from the hilltop villages and the water and boats around Venice. I also realized that we didn’t have a single unique cultural experience that Tauck usually includes like a visit to a farm or local business. While I know this tour is the favorite of many, I’m not sure it was the best choice for us.
Hotels. The hotels (hotel rooms) were a mix. If you look at the Classic sized tour and the Small Group you’ll note that they use different hotels. Before booking I spent time reviewing each hotel and decided we were fine with those in the larger group. I still think they were but the rooms allotted by the hotels were not always great. In Sorrento we actually stayed in the Small Group hotel the Grand Hotel La Favorita. We were pleasantly surprised to be allotted a junior suite with private balcony. That was the high point. In Rome the InterContinental was very nice though the rooms a bit small – totally what I would expect in a big city hotel. Then we went to Perugia. The town is up on a hilltop with lovely views of the countryside. You can imagine our dismay when we were directed to the basement in a suite consisting of a windowless living area, small windowless bath and bedroom with a small window looking at a tree. After talking to others in our group we went to the front desk and requested a different room. Our bellboy was behind the counter and chuckled asking us if we didn’t like room 52. Not sure his boss appreciated his input but did in fact move us to a very nice suite on the top floor with wonderful views of the country. Up next was Pisa for one night in a small room with a tub, no shower or shower curtain. I managed to hose down the bathroom. The Westin in Florence is right on the river with a rooftop bar/restaurant and 171 rooms/suites. I didn’t necessarily expect rooms with prime views but everyone got rooms overlooking the interior airshaft. Looking at the fire maps they have about 6 of these rooms per floor and obviously have decided to allot them to Tauck. The Danieli in Venice we liked in spite of the quirky layout connecting two old buildings together and requiring a combination of stairs and elevator to get to your room. It’s a bit of a grande dame right on the waterfront. We had a small room with a French balcony looking at the Doge Palace/Jail. Breakfast is in the rooftop restaurant. Sadly due to cooler temps we ate indoors.
Weather. We had much warmer weather than expected. I’d thought 70s with the possibility of rain. We several times were in the 80s and never saw anything more than clouds. Thankfully all the hotels had good AC.
Food. Tauck included loads of meals for this tour and often more than we wanted to eat. Generally good especially the dinners where we had our pick of 3 courses from the menu. Lunch tended to be a preset meal. One thing I found interesting was the lack of diversity of cuisines in Italy. Anywhere else we’ve been you could find just about any type of food – Italian, Mexican, Thai, burgers, etc. Italy – at least the places we were – really didn’t have much diversity. It could be awhile before I can eat pizza or pasta.
Classic vs Small Group. I’m not always convinced the small group price tag is worth it but for this tour I think it would be given the length of the tour, the number of sights visited, coordinating meals, etc I believe would go much better with a smaller group.
Travel Post Covid. After our experience on this tour, reading posts here on the forum and on the Tauck Travelers facebook page, I don’t believe the travel industry has recovered well from covid. Added to that is that demand – especially this year – is more than the system can support well. In the past when visiting Rome, the travel groups got skip the line entry into the St Peters Basilica. The Vatican has ended that and the groups had to wait in the same line with the rest. Yes, unexpected things can happen on tour like one of our days was totally thrown off due to a major traffic accident. Disappointing but not Tauck’s fault. However, our schedule in Florence was rearranged and those who were supposed to have dinner in the hotel’s rooftop restaurant instead went to a different hotel. No explanation of why. This happened to us on our Week in Scotland tour’s Farewell dinner – an inferior meal at the Intercontinental instead of the Balmoral.
