Italy Culture & Gastronomy Itinerary: Rome, Florence, and the Amalfi Coast

Train to Pompeii was fine and our driver was familiar with the area.  While we enjoyed the tour of Pompeii, we felt a bit rushed and while we understand the lack of historical artifacts, which for safety reason are in the Napoli Museum, the tour wasn't totally what we expected.   Also, we were surprised and disappointed that there was little mention of the Roman aqueduct system.  A tour of the museum would have completed our visit to Pompeii.

On the Amalfi Coast our hotel was a beautiful place to stay with the balcony and the stunning views overlooking the water, the hills, homes and all the activity.  Our guide gave us good tour of the coast and knew great places for photography and where there were less crowds.

Our only suggestion would be to have had the two planned meals -a lovely full course lunch in the13th century Norman tower along the coast and then later that evening the masterful prepared and served several course dinner at Don Alfresco followed by a tour of the kitchen, the wine cellar and the well now used to cool the cheese.  Too much for one day! We would suggest one meal on our free day and then the dinner on our final night and this would have been more enjoyable. Please note that we did not have the tasting of limoncello in a family run store nor we were not able to have the Buffalo Mozzarella tasting at local farm; both these had been listed in our itinerary. 

We certainly will recommend Zicasso to any of our private touring friends and this travel agency to those traveling to Italy.

Our 13 day trip to Italy covered 3 days in Rome, with private tours of Vatican City, Heart of the City Tour, Coliseum and Forum, and a walking food tour of Testaverde.  The small group tours were well worth the cost.  For all but the walking food tour, and another couple on the Coliseum/Forum tour, it was just the two of us.  The history and the insight provided us was phenomenal.  Each guide was extremely knowledgeable, professional and friendly.  (We saw many other 25-40 group tours where people were rushed from one sight to another and couldn't hear what was being said.)  Next, we spent 4 days in Sorrento as our base.  We had a fun personal gelato making class.  We took an 8 hour boat excursion to Capri (10 people on board) which showed beautiful scenery of the island (not a big fan of Capri - too many tourists, and we aren't interested in high end shopping), took a bus to beautiful, romantic POSITANO which was one of our favorite cities.  The bus experience was exciting on its own.  Also we found an Opera which we attended in Sorrento.  Great planning too, because we took a great personal tour of Pompeii on our way from the Naples train to Sorrento.  We had great transfers through out, which helped ease stress for us traveling alone.  Next we traveled to Montepulciano for 3 nights.  Wonderful fast speed train experience from Rome-Naples and return.  In Rome we rented a car for Tuscany, and while in town traffic was a challenge, we loved exploring the countryside.  In Tuscany, we took a personal cooking class with Chef Mimmo at Villa Cicolino.  He's an excellent chef, and with his assistant, Lia, we learned a lot while having fun.  We drove to our other favorite city, PIENZA, which was charming, beautiful, clean, full of friendly people and pride everywhere.  We also traveled to Siena, which unlike many other travelers, was not one of our favorites. 

Our agent's selection of special hotels for us was perfect.  We stayed at a hotel in Rome five minutes from the Colliseum.  It is a small boutique hotel with a European flair - old turned into modern with padded linen fabric walls, hardwood floors, and a granite bathroom with modern fixtures.  Breakfast is to die for, with outstanding personal service, fruit filled croissants, coffee cakes, prosciutto and ham, fresh squeezed orange juice, fresh cut fruits, and made to order cappuccino.  In Sorrento we had a balcony overlooking the Bay of Naples, and breezes throughout the night.  It's history includes guests such as Keats, Scott, Longfellow, and buffet breakfasts were plentiful.  In Tuscany we stayed at Villa Cicolina which was as beautiful as it sounds.  Old country charm, infinity pool and hot tub, wonderful breakfast buffets and an outstanding chef.  Quaint atmosphere surrounded by breathtaking views, and close to many little towns to explore.

We loved getting a taste of life in Italy in each of these three regions and have many wonderful memories of our trip.

Once, we arrived in Venice, our contact met us at the airport to guide us to our hotel.  I highly recommend it since it's not an easy place to navigate on your own the first day.  After checking in, we met our tour guide for our first guided tour.  It was a walking tour of city of canals.  Just beautiful!  Next morning, we met our guide again but for Burano & Murano.  We loved the different pace of these islands.  After completing our tour we met our instructor at his glass blowing studio for a hands on experience, just lovely, follow by a Gondolier Class and Food Tour.  It was perfect way to finish the day.  On the third day, we took a one hour train ride to Verona, birth place of Romeo and Juliet.  Our tour guide met us and showed us around town and its history.  It was an wonderful place to visit.  Upon returning from Verona, we had the evening to ourselves.  We started out walking around to explore.  Needless to say we got lost but that was for the best.  It gave us the opportunity to explore the city and see how the locals lived.  

Florence was our second stop.  We met our guide for the tour of the city including Santa Croce church.  Following day we visited the Accademia Gallery & Uffizzi Museum which is a must when in Florence.  On the third day, we had a lovely day trip to Pisa.  Little bit of a bus ride but wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Sorrento was next on the agenda.  But first, we stopped at Pompeii.  Our guide, an archaeologist, met us and gave us the tour of the city once buried in ashes.  What a great experience!  Our guide was so enthused to share his knowledge that we felt as if we were living in Pompeii at its height.  Afterwards, we had lunch at a wine farm on Mt. Vesuvius.  Lovely family run vineyard.  The whole day was outstanding.  For the second and third day, we decided to see the coast by sea and land.  Both were different and both were gorgeous.  Visited Capri and swam in golf of Naples first by sea then drove to different towns along the coast including Positano, Amalfi, and Revello on the second.  It was a nice relaxing break.   

Our final destination was Rome.  We had an general overview tour of the city on the first day.  It was good in a sense it gave us time to get our baring straight.  The second day we met our guide for the tour of the Vatican.  You can visit the Vatican a dozens of times and still not have enough time to see all it has to offer.  In the evening, we had the Colosseum tour.  Definitely one of the highlights.  The last day we had all to ourselves.  We ended up walking around to visit the Spanish steps the Trevi fountain and many more.  We wanted to take in as much as possible.  Even though the trip was 2 weeks, it was too short.  By the end of the trip, our whole family fell in love with this county and we all looked at each other and said can we live here.

Overall, it was an outstanding trip that we can not even begin to describe.   Without the help of our agency, I don't think it would've been possible.  They made sure that every little details were taking care of.  For anyone, who's interested in Italy, please look up this company.  

We had a wonderful family trip to Italy.  We had a small group of 7 travelling. It was the first overseas trip for my 3 nieces.   Our agent was fantastic.   She was very responsive to our needs and planned an itinerary that was full of guided tours, but left plenty of time to explore on our own. We went to Rome, Pompeii, Amalfi, Florence and Venice.  The hotels in the 3 cities were all in good locations for walking.  All of the guides that provided the private tours for our little group were all very knowledgeable and friendly.  It was nice having private tours with skip the line access to the museums.   The only negative thing I can say is that the Vatican Museum was very over crowded and made it hard to see as much as we would have wanted to see.  However, that does not reflect negatively on our agent or the company since that is out of their control.  We still enjoyed visiting the Vatican and Museum and is a must see for anyone going to Rome.

On the recommendation of our agent, we drove down to the Amalfi Coast after our visit to Pompeii.   That was well worth it.  That area is so beautiful and we all agreed we would like to spend more time there. 

We had beautiful weather the first half of the trip.   However, upon arrival in Florence and Venice, the weather did not cooperate and we had rain and cooler temperatures.  We had not packed for that type of weather, so we were all a little chilly the last couple of days.  However, we did not let that dampen our enthusiasm or keep us from getting out and seeing things.  I will definitely pack better in the future.  

Overall, I was very pleased with our agent and the services our agents provided.  Everything went flawlessly and effortlessly for us thanks to our Italy travel agents. We would definitely use their services again if/when we go back to Italy.