11-Day Luxury Wine Tour of Tuscany

~~OUR STORYBOOK VACATION CREATED BY ZICASSO

The most beautiful vacation was created for my husband and me by this agent, partner of Zicasso. At our initial contact with Zicasso, we advised them of our dream vacation which we wanted in the Tuscany and Umbria regions of Italy.  Very soon thereafter we received an e-mail from our agent wanting to know what we wanted to see and do on this vacation.  We provided a short list of our desires and she got to work.She contacted us by phone from Florence, Italy where she is located and spent 45 minutes getting to know us and detailing the itinerary with us.  That was only the beginning!Within a few days, she set up the itinerary which was perfect for us.  We began our journey by flying to Venice (a gondola ride was scheduled, of course).  A couple of days later, took a train to Florence (beautiful experience, because our reservations and tickets were already in hand).  A private driver met us at the platform and took us to our hotel).  A few more days and we were off by rented car (already paid for and ready to go thanks to our agent) and drove off to other parts of Tuscany (Radda in Chianti, Montalcino, Bevagna and the small villages along the way of Volterra, San Gimignano, Siena, Val d’Orcia area with the beautiful Abbey of Sant’ Antimo and listening to the spiritual and beautiful Gregorian chants during Mass, followed by our next stop in the Umbria region - Cortona, and staying in Bevagna.  Of course, we cannot forget our inspirational visit to Assisi with a private guide.  Everything was perfectly orchestrated by our agent.  The train, the car, the hotels, the private tour guides, the tickets, were all taken care of. She also provided her emergency number should there have been any problem at all.We are so happy we chose this wonderful travel agency and, we must say, most dedicated and pleasant agent, to handle this dream vacation for us.  One which we will remember forever!!Thank you – BRAVO!!!

Sincerely,

Veronica and Leonard B

I can not say enough good words for the team of agents at this travel company. We are a family of 5 from North Carolina who took our first trip to Italy.  The expert guidance from this company that we received put us in a fabulous itinerary with comfortable and well located hotels and with the most the most knowledgable and amazing tour guides.  They also arranged all of our transfers which allowed us to really enjoy our time without the worry of getting from place to place. Our trip started in Venice (sadly we missed a day due to the airlines, our travel agents helped us with obtaining refunds for a missed mask making class.)  We highly recommend the hotel due to its location near Piazza San Marco and the wonderful outdoor seating for breakfast. From Venice we took the train to Florence and stayed at a hotel on Santa Maria Novella square.  Our highlights in Florence were the "Gastronomic Tour".  Our guide took us to a wonderful bakery where we met the owner and sampled the finest pastry in Florence.  From there we explored the local markets with prearranged samplings of different cheeses, prosciutto, salami, olives and wine!  

Our travel company arranged for a driver to take us to Al Gelso Bianco Agriturismo in the Chianti region where we had a cooking class making pasta, focaccia and much more followed by a wine tasting.  Following our meal, our driver took us to  San Gimignano, a lovely medieval village.

Our last day in Florence ended with a sunset Barchetto tour on the Arno. Serendipitously our tour was at the exact time as the final concert on the water during Italian brass week, 3 boats held an orchestra while we are on the only other boat on the river with crowds watching from the Ponte Vecchio bridge and the shores.  Amazing! 

Our journey ended in Rome, staying at a hotel that was 5 stars and centrally located.  Our guide was simply the most knowledgeable and engaging person you could ever hope for.

Simply put, we could not have put together a trip like this without the help of this travel team!!!!  Simply the best!

Our travel agent put together a wonderful itinerary for our 11 days in Italy.   We were 2 over sixty women traveling to Italy for the first time.  We arrived in Venice for a 2 day stay and our hotel on the Grand Canal was breathtaking.  We had a small group tour of Venice and our guide was excellent.  We then travelled to Florence by train for a 3 night stay.  Again, our accommodations were superb.  Our agent arranged a pasta making class for us on the first night which was so much fun.  She also arranged 2 days of private tours with our wonderful guide.  Then on to Tuscany for 2 days where we were able to visit 2 wineries as well as spend time in San Gimignano and Siena.  Our overnight  accommodations in Tuscany were in Radda, a lovely countryside town.  Our drivers were wonderful and personable as was our guide in Siena.  Then on to Rome by train.  Our agent arranged a small group twilight tour of Rome, a small group tour of the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and the Colosseum, a small group twilight food tour of the Trastevere region of Rome (a must do in my book) and a private tour of the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica.  Our agent did a wonderful job orchestrating everything without any snafus.  It was a wonderful trip.  I only wish I could have stayed longer.....bit there is always next time.

We went from Rome (overnight) - Pompeii - Sorrento - Amalfi Coast - Naples - Rome - Florence (day trip to Pisa - San Gimignano)- Venice - Milan back to Rome to fly out. This trip was all about convenience and exploring for us. We had never been to Italy before and we were going to be there for 3 weeks! We wanted to ensure that we could see as much as possible but at the same time really get to absorb and enjoy the culture instead of trying to figure out small details. Our itinerary was done really well and all of our guides were top quality - for example one of our food tour guides was a culinary chef professor instead and our other guide had her masters in art etc instead of it being random experience people. We really enjoyed the private guides as it's more intimate and the small 4-6 group guides. We had a cooking class in Sorrento at an organic farm where the views and the food was breathtaking! We also went wine tasting at Capannelle Winery in the Tuscan Valley which was unreal. All of these places are even more beautiful then the pictures which I didn't think was possible. San Gimignano was unreal - it's this little hilltop town with all this culture. That was our favourite spot in the 3 weeks we were in Italy. 

I was really hesitant to deal with someone across the world and to pay them to plan our trip but our agent was a dream to work with. She was easily accessible as I emailed her very often and got responses almost immediately, and easily made modifications if and when required. She arranged everything from private drivers, guides, train tickets, hotels in the heart of the cities we went too. We would have had no idea if we had booked on our own as we would be going based on the internet alone. We quickly realized how valuable it was to have someone who is well versed in the place of your travels. We were also able to walk and explore everywhere by ourselves. It was a really good mix of leisure and adventures as it was worry free travelling. As they say - the only way to get over a vacation is to start thinking of your next one! We are definitely going to use Zicasso's services again. 

We had a wonderful family vacation to the Amalfi Coast, Rome, Florence and Tuscany and I would highly recommend this travel agency.    Our agent did a terrific job planning a comprehensive itinerary for our family of five which included my husband, me and our three children (college and high school age) to share history, art, culture and faith in the beautiful country of Italy.   In terms of our hotels, we loved the location, the service, and the absolutely spectacular views in Amalfi, Florence and Tuscany.  The hotels were incredibly good values, too, for luxury accommodations.   Our guides were fantastic - all of them had their PhD's - Archaeology in Rome, Art History in Florence and Anthropology in Siena. Their knowledge, story-telling skills and fluency with English made our tours a highlight of our trip. We love the ease of all of our local transportation information including all of our private transfers.  During our trip, we had a few minor issues come up and our agent responded to my texts within minutes and the issues were very promptly resolved.  I was amazed how our agent was able to simplify the whole planning process to deliver a once in a lifetime family vacation.