Milan for Seniors: 7-Day Tour in the Fashion Capital

Zicasso's travel company helped us plan an amazing 10-day trip to northern Italy. We traveled to Milan, Cinque Terre, Lake Como, and departed from Venice. She booked us into wonderful four-star local hotels and curated unique experiences to make our vacation richer and memorable.

The highlights included:

The culinary walking tour in Milan with a private host who was knowledgeable about the local cuisine and Milanese history and culture.

The pesto-making class in Vernazza (Cinque Terre). We were the only ones in the class. We made pesto in the traditional way, with mortar and pestle, and sampled local wines and cheeses. Our instructor was fantastic.

The private boat trip around Lake Como for an up-close look at the amazing beauty of the lake and the opulent villas.

The walking tour in Venice with a guide who took us off the beaten path and enriched our knowledge of Venetian history and culture.

Our travel agent arranged the transfers between locations. Our drivers were on time and professional. The hotels were clean, comfortable, and every one had delicious breakfast buffets. I am in love with cappuccino!

All in all, this style of vacation cost more than I would have normally spent if I had done it all myself, but it was worth it. If I subtract the stress saved from not having to arrange transportation myself (worrying about time tables, how to get to and from train stations with luggage and kids, etc) and add in the richness that the unique experiences she arranged added to the trip, it more than made up for the cost. I also took joy in knowing she was using local vendors and hotels to support the local economy (as opposed to me booking with a bid brand just because I am familiar with them).

The trip was planned perfectly. It was exactly what we wanted. Hotels and restaurants were great. We recommend staying at the Spluga Hotel in Lake Como, Piccola Vela in Lake Garda, and Gran Duca di York in Milan. Great hotels, wonderful stay, and great locations.

Overall, this trip was fantastic!! Everything was arranged for us to the point that we just had to show up and someone took care of us from there. Before departure, all of our vouchers were sent to us along with a detailed itinerary of each day and activity, down to the name of the person picking us up. If something changed, our travel agent thoughtfully texted us the new information. Yes, texted us, because we were provided with a phone that contained our itinerary and all of our vouchers along with a GPS program in case we got lost. We used the GPS a lot! If there were any issues I could easily call our agent or text him and he answered immediately, always!

All of our pick-ups were on time and in very comfortable cars with water provided. All of the drivers were extremely professional in their demeanor and appearance.

We also loved our guides in every city. I never imagined that this would be so intimate. I have only ever been in group tours where you get a headset and there are 25 or more people. There were 3 of us on this trip and it was the 3 of us with the guide. This allowed for questions and explanations that you could easily hear and understand.

The hotels, with the exception of Como, were superb with our favorite being in Florence at the Hotel Santa Maria Novella. Breakfast was always included and it was beautiful as well as delicious! I was sorry that we had booked Como. We had no activities planned there and I am not sure why so we were on our own. I also think it was the wrong time of year (March) to be going there as nothing was in bloom and there was a lot closed. Our guide in Milan told us that we could have done it as a day trip and she could have accompanied us. Oh well, this was the only piece that was not perfect, yet we still enjoyed it. It is a lovely little city on the lake. We took a water boat to Bellagio and walked around and then decided to take a local bus back. It was actually more scenic than the water boat.

The only other disconnect we had was the first day. We arrived at the hotel at 7am after a very long flight and our room was not ready. It took 3 hours to get something ready and it was not what we had booked but that was okay. In retrospect it might have been good to send us out on a city tour by car or bus to give us the big picture view and to kill time. Instead we sat in the warm lobby waiting and waiting.

As I said before, overall this was a fabulous trip. Being able to customize exactly where you want to go is invaluable. Working with our travel agent on getting our activities just right was so easy too. And being taking care of as we were was priceless!

Our travel company was very good and we have no concerns highly recommending them.   We would definitley use them again.   We had private drivers and guides during our entire 21 day trip.   Every one of them was on time and professional.  We only had one issue with one driver.   All the rest were fantastic.  The driver in question did not know the roads and had to turn around twice and bacially start over from our hotel.   Then we got lost when we finally arrived (45 minutes late) at our destination.   But he was so nice and apologetic, that we felt bad for him.

We loved the all the hotels except the one in the Piedmonte wine region.   It was a very nice room but the location was too isolated and no real view.  We had to eat at the hotel or take a long and pricey cab ride to Alba.   The food was delicious but the main restaruant did not change their menu in spite of them telling us it would be another menu.   And it was somewhat limited menu.   But they did serve us so many extra intriguing small bites (like French Laundry in Napa but at a much better price).

The other hotel rooms were just spectacular.   Especially our hotels in Stresa, Lake Como, and Santa Margarita.   The hotels in Paris and Milan were very good with great locations but cannot compare to the others.

We took 3 private boats tours.   All were fantastic.   And all the private tours and guides were amazing except the day in Lugano.   We should have been told that everything is closed on Sunday but the churches.  We could have easily changed days.   And also we had a 8 hour tour but the guide was only with us 2 hours and that was the confused driver so we had no idea how to fill the rest of our time.   Luckily the guide decided to go back to Como with us and told us what to do and see so that worked out.   However, if we would have know, we would not have gone to Lugano.   We hate to waste time in a car.   That is another reason we did not like the hotel in Piedmonte wine area.   We had to drive an hour or so to get to our winery tours or towns.   

The Effiel tower dinner was fantastic but we had no view.   That was very disapointing as we were celbrating our 50th wedding anniversary.

And lastly in Milan, we were expecting to see the "Last Supper" painting.   The guide told us that day we did not have tickets.   The two things I said I wanted to see there was the Dumo and the painting.   And I told them that early on in our planning.  Somehow that information was not gicen to us.  Our guide was extremly knowledgeable of her city.  We did not know that we had to catch a cab back to our hotel.  Since it was our last day, we had just enough euros left for the guide's tip.   So she received a smaller one than we plannedbecuase we had to pay for the cab.   At no other time on the trip, we were responsible for getting back to the hotel on our own.