Opulence of Venetian Republic: A Luxurious Vacation in Veneto Region

Locations Visited: Venice, Verona, Florence, San Gimignano, Siena, Pienze, Rome, Pompeii, Positano

My husband and I planned this trip for our 10-year anniversary. I’m a person with high expectation and this travel agency exceeded all my expectations. The entire trip was dream.

We opted for personalized tours and transport for 95% of our trip. All of our drivers were wonderful. They arrived on time and made sure we made it to all of our destinations without issue. They had the contact information for the tour guides we were meeting. Upon arrival to our first hotel, a local cell phone and gift were given to us. Having the iPhone during our trip made any needed communication with our agent and his team a breeze. In addition, we used the phone apps for navigation throughout the cities we visited. We made a last-minute request for an additional private transport, and our agent was able to make it happen. We greatly appreciated their customer service.

We participated in a several unique experiences while in Italy. We went truffle hunting in Pienza, which was amazing. After, we were served a meal that highlighted truffles and the cheeses made locally. In addition, we did a cooking day in Rome. This was a private cooking class where we made pasta, several sauces, and appetizers. The one disappointment is that we never received the recipes from the chef (we were told by the chef that they would be emailed to us). However, this is a knock on the chef and not our travel agent. Once the class was done, we were served a meal in a private garden area. Lastly, we did a food walking tour in Rome. This was an amazing way to find local cuisine that we wouldn’t have known about otherwise. A wonderful experience.

All of our tour guides were excellent. They were knowledgeable, friendly, and familiar with the cities. We had one guide that really went into the details and reasons for expressions in the art. We didn’t care for that, but we didn’t specify that ahead of time or to the guide. It was wonderful seeing her excitement and passion for all of the amazing working works of art and sculpture that we saw.

Overall, I would highly recommend this travel agent and his team if you are traveling to Italy!! You will not be disappointed. We gave him our wish list of activities, accommodation preferences, etc. ahead of time and he made sure we got them all! Thank you for such a wonderful and memorable trip. If we are able to return to Italy, you will be hearing from us.

We booked a trip to Italy with this travel company.  We chose this travel specialist after interviewing a couple of different agencies.  We like to travel and explore places independently, with some private touring and guides that are flexible.

Our travel specialist listened carefully and came up with a plan that was more our style of traveling.   We chose from a few hotels in each area and he arranged for tours and when we had some last minute ideas, he was mostly able to accommodate us including a guide who got us into the Florence Academia to see the statue of David.   It would have been helpful to know about the need for advance tickets to get in there as well as the Duomo, something that would have been helpful in our travels.  

Our travel specialist set us up for a pasta cooking class which was in the chef's home with another family which was a fund night.  We had dinner and wine with the chef, his assistant and the other family and it was awesome.

We first went to Florence and stayed in a newly refurbished hotel, which was wonderful.  A guide took us the day we arrived to see the David and we had a wonderful first day.  Our second and third days were well planned with enough freedom to see the city on our own.   We were unable to see the Duomo because we were unaware of the need for advanced tickets as mentioned earlier.  We did see the Duomo in Sienna which was worth it so it kind of made up for what we missed in Florence.

We then went to Tuscany and stayed in a low key resort with a farm, animals where they made wine and grew olives.  It was in the town of San Gimigiarno, This was one of our travel specialist's recommendations and it was a good one.  We asked for advice on touring Tuscany and followed his advice as we visited a few towns.   He made sure we had a van for our luggage and getting our car in Florence was not a big deal.

We finished our three days and then dropped off the car and headed for Venice.   We had a problem on the train where apparently our ticket was cancelled as someone was sitting in our seat.   A tour guide we had in Venice suggested that the high speed trains sometimes do this to people, and it was not likely our agents fault.  After we paid for four new tickets, our travel specialist's staff received a copy of my receipt and said they would take care of it and reimburse us for it.  It all worked out ok and the train conductor found us a somewhat upgraded area in another car.

Got to Venice and our travel specialist arranged for our water transfer to and from the hotel which was nicely located.   We arranged through him to get tickets for Doges palace and for the basilica in advance.  This was after I had asked prior to leaving, since it is difficult to see these sites without advance purchase.  Our travel specialist had arranged for us to take a Gondola Ride the first day but we ended up going the second day due to scheduling.   The change was arranged by a woman he hired to give us a tour

The final day, we had cancelled a gondola rowing lesson since it was a little too touristy for our tastes and instead went to the Jewish ghetto that morning.  

In the afternoon, he set us up for a tour of Burano, Murano and Toriccello, three islands next to Venice. Personally, we would have preferred a more private tour of Burano and perhaps Toricello.  Burano is beautiful, Toricello is basically a park that has some older historical churches and buildings.  

Murano is home to the Murano glass factory and we were shuttled into a glass blowing demo and then their store, never really seeing the island. Alittle too touristy for us, would have preferred a more personal and less rushed experience.

Here is  a  feedback provided to the travel agency who arranged the trip:

"Well as far as going to normal life… it is hard at least for me. Had a  wonderful time an  no matter what you say you guys in Italy have much less hectic lifestyle at least when looked from outside.It was our 4th trip to Italy but first one to the northern part (been just in Venice 2 years ago) and we are definitely coming back – need more time in  Verona, Vicenza and first and foremost in  Padua- we fell in love with this city.The entire tour was organized well – personally we do not like to sit and relax so we went to La Scala for Maria Agresta concert ( I am an opera buff and Sabina finally starts to love it too), and enjoyed immensely exhibition of Paolo Veronese in Verona – it is once in the lifetime possibility to see so many pieces of art of the same artist at the same place- especially wonderful is to follow an artist throughout his life through  his works! Your suggestion in terms of renting a car was excellent. We were offered by another Italian agency similar itinerary but mode of transport suggested was a train – good thing we did not book with them as there would be a lot of wasted time for transfers not to mention a pain of getting from the train station to the hotels etc.Guides were very good- personally I enjoyed our guide in Padova the best as being an history of art specialist she was in excellent position to talk about it. We also loved our guide in Vicenza – very knowledgeable and  fun person to be around. Our guide in Verona had lots of class and it was real pleasure  to listen to her English! Our guide in Milan was very competent  - I remember this particular tour least ( jet lag).  I  believe that the tours could be easily extended to 4 hours with a break for coffee and gelato! But again it is our personal preference – we are just always on the move and try to absorb as much as possible on the first visit- if we love the place we come back to get it to know more, and this is what we definitely plan to do with these 3 cities!I also believe that in the future you can suggest to your potential clients events worth while attending while on the tour ( i.e. like Veronese exhibition)- most people here in the States are rather lazy and too laid back to do the research on their own. And we are all in need of becoming more culture oriented in US.Hotels were great- I would be too cheap to book them on my own( after all you just sleep  and have breakfast in them) but they made my wife very happy! And if she is happy so am I!!!Pictures – well might be a problem- my camera’s autofocus died on arrival to Milan so had to take the pics the old way with manual focusing so let’s see …

A.. Almost forgot-In Milan there was virtually no chance to see Last Supper so either you could let future clients know to book it ahead of time or make it a part of a tour ( but it  would be difficult given walking distance).

Best wishes and Regards,

Piotr"

Guiliana of this Italy travel agency did a magnificent job of selecting locations and hotels, and had generally excellent restaurant suggestions. The 3 hotels we especially enjoyed were Hotel Il Portichetto by Lake Como, Locanda La Corte in Venice, and Opera Relais De Charme in Verona. The staff and service were great and the locations were convenient. She was hugely responsive, helping us make last minute changes, and available to help each day via email and phone (when we needed her)

Overall Trip was excellent- travel tips were extremely helpful and suggested activities helped very much.  We followed there travel suggestions and were very satisfied. 

Some specific comments;

Rome-  Hotel was great, excellent breakfast (best we had) -  Tour guide for Forum  was very good, guy for vatican talked a little to much but didn't say much, didn't use suggested restaurants just picked out roadside cafe's and it worked great.  

Positano-  Hotel very good although shower did not drain and even after repeated requests no body fixed it. Breakfast very good ( second best) and mornings on the porch were priceless.  Used suggested restaurant, a bit pricey but good ( we typically prefer more casual dinners and stayed on our own for dinner locations after that) - trip to Capri was good (crowds made it a bit difficult to get going) lot of climbing. Ravello was cool but public bus wasted a lot of time and wasn't comfortable at all-  some direction might have helped.

Pompeii- we should have prepared more to get more out of it

Florence-  really need time, but that was our fault-  room location wasn't bad but a little bland-  it worked though, nothing exciting.  Replacement tour guide worked out very well- very knowledgeable.   Food tour was excellent.

 Car rental-  worked excellent - really glad we did it 

Abbey - interesting but 3 nights there was to much-  frankly bed was terrible (felt like it was from the middle ages) breakfast just OK and it was always a long drive back-  we did quite a bit in those three days but found that driving back and forth to the abbey took a LOT of time.  Tasting dinner OK- we would have preferred just ordering off the menu.  Would have liked to see Sienna or other locations more. Frankly we didn't plan well and tracked over the same roads many times. Cooking class was excellent-very much worth it.

Opera 2 -  excellent, views great, interesting location- two days is right.  Tasting dinner was OK? but given the choice we would do something else.  Ferrari museums were just good, Lamborghini facility was much better.

Venice- amazing place and crowded.  Took some time to drop the car and find the two locations to validate the travel transit tickets , especially the place for the transfer back to airport- office is in the train station and poorly marked. took a bit of time. Hotel was great- once we found it- maps and google map on phone don't work well as you probably know. Did what we could in a day and half (Murano glass tour was excellent- people were great) 

Trip home long but uneventful-  thanks for a great trip we will always remember.   Joe S