Zicasso Trips of a Lifetime Itineraries

My husband and I, along with our 2 children (age 20 and 17), enjoyed a wonderful Italian vacation booked through Zicasso and this travel agency.  Our travel consultants listened to my ideas and arranged for us a fantastic custom itinerary.   They stayed within the budget allotted, offered choices for beautiful hotels and private tours, and made several revisions as per our request.  We departed from New York on our 25th anniversary, and spent 10 days traveling the country within the month of November.  This off-season time proved to be a great decision as reservations were easy to obtain, crowds were minimal (mostly all locals), and the weather was conducive for walking and sightseeing (average 60 degrees F).  Transportation and the personal drivers were top notch; with Mercedes SUVs or minivans to take my family from Milan-Chianti-Florence-Verona-Venice and then the high speed train down to Rome.  Accommodations arranged for us were phenomenal!  We stayed in a 12th century castle in Chianti, in the heart of the city center in Florence, and near the Spanish Steps in Rome.  The personal tour guides were friendly and knowledgable, and were happy to recommend eateries preferred by locals.  All in all, everything was flawless. We plan to return some day to see the Amalfi coast, Positano and Capri.  We would absolutely recommend these travel consultants, and the travel company team to anyone who is looking for a personalized Italian vacation.

When we inquired about a trip on Zicasso, they told us a few companies would reach out to us with different offers on our desired location. It only took one reply back from this agent for me to know that we would have a more personable experience with this travel agency. (Mainly because he was straight up with us concerning itinerary ideas, especially regarding weather and how it is unpredictable in March. He patiently worked with my fiance and me for quite a while before we approved the final itinerary filled with transportation to and from hotels, private tours (some meant to be small group, but we ended up being only ones), and pre-planned relaxing train-rides. There wasn’t a moment of our trip that we had to worry or even think about- really. Our first stop was Rome, where we spent 3 days. Upon arrival at the airport in Rome, we had a driver waiting for us, which was a huge relief since we were tired and last thing we wanted to stress about was how to get to our hotel. Our local point-of-contact for the agency also called once we arrived to make sure we had everything we needed. He was great! Once we reached our hotel, we slept off the jet-lag and then our holiday started. March is the early beginning of the tourist season, so we were able to do many things without waiting. Not saying it was empty, but we had room on the sidewalks and were in and out of restaurants in no time at all. I also highly recommend planning free days in each city, as you will want to look around for yourself and take your time in certain parts. Even if you spend a week in every city, you always leave feeling like you needed much more time, as there is so much to do and so little time in a day. We spent 3 days/4 nights in Florence. It was in Florence that we were able to easily tour a good bit of what Tuscany has to offer. Through tours our agent set up for us, we visited the beautiful cities of Siena, San Gimignano (Our Favorite), Lucca, Pisa, and the Chianti Region. We tasted sooooo many wonderful wines and privately ate at local restaurants for lunch. We also took a short train ride to Venice for a day trip, as I craved a gondola ride. Everything was planned so perfectly. The minute we stepped off the train in Venezia our guide to get us to our marked location was there with a water taxi to take us to St Mark’s Square. There, she directed us to our gondola and we spent the day wondering around Venice until meeting up back with her and the water taxi to take us back to the train station. After Florence, we traveled to Sorrento (our other favorite!) along the Amalfi Coast. It was magical and the weather was perfect. We had our own boat to visit the grottos (no wait for the Blue Grotto either!) and to the Isle of Capri; and although most of the shops were closed on the isle (early season still), it was beautiful and we were able to relax on the beach. We saw Pompeii and even hiked up Mount Vesuvius. Sorrento was a quaint and charming city and we made friends with quite a few locals. We truly had a wonderful honeymoon and I would recommend this agency to everyone. We could not be happier!

We had a really great vacation in spain.  We are active group  of 4 60 somethings from the US. We selected our itinerary with our Spain travel agent's help.  We had 2 wk and we wanted to "see" and "taste" spain.. appreciating its culture, history, art.  We wanted a well organized tour, customized around our interests. 

We landed in Barcelona, were met w/ our driver at the airport, had guides for walking tours of the cities and 2 for eating tours in Sevilla and San Sebastien. They were wonderful.. informative and an oppty to talk about life in Spain today .   We traveled by plane over big distances ( barcelona to grenada; sevilla to bilbao) and train from san sebastian to madrid.. a relaxing 5 hr view of the country .   We used audioguides for most museums, but would have preferred  a guide especially for the Prado which is enormous and confusing in layout. . The city guides were well educated  locals for the most part.. the food guides were especially helpful and fun and let us to tastes and places we could not find on our own.   We rented a car to explore the countryside in the north, but it proved to be a very bad idea ( which i take responsiblity for).. GPS was not much help when all the names are foreign and the maps do not extend across borders.. so if you rent a car, bring detailed maps and a navigator ( not the driver). Or get a driver which is what our agent recommended and we declined, thinking it would be a way of saving $$.

Based on our budget  we had nice charming hotels centrally located that included breakfast.  One meal a day was generally included in very good restaurants that simply brought us food ( we rarely ordered off the menu)The food and wines were excellent..all were unique--in some it was their charm, in others the food and in others the view.  We did not have a bad meal in spain.. and when it was less than great, it was usually our doing.

Invariably in a such a trip there are a few mishaps.. but they were addressed by our travel agency's most helpful staff member--- who made himself available full time by cell phone.  Our final interary with tickets were to arrive at our first apt .. but were delayed a few days.. Our agent was on it and the courier co. was made aware of the urgency and came thru and no harm or delays resulted

 One restaurant misunderstood about our prepaid arrangements,  and sat us in their restaurant instead of the bar ( it was supposed to be tapas).. once we paid the bill and i contacted our agent,  the restaurant refunded the $$ we paid and accepted the prepaid price and apologized. 

The only concern i had up front turned out to be unfounded.  I was worried about dealing with a foreign travel company and paying for the trip in cash in full 60 prior .  It was helpful to me to talk to another American couple who had just returned from their trip,  and they provided the reassurance I needed.   We are happy to provide such similar references if needed. 

We can't say enough good things about our Spain travel agency.. they read us completely correctly and they delivered on the tour we wanted.. our expectations were exceeded in almost every aspect of the trip and we'd do it again this company.

Thanks for helping me organize my family (of 10 with diverse age from 15 to 63) trip to Italy, from Dec 17 to Dec 31. Whilst different member of my family have different expectation and requirement, I would like to comment you and your team on having planned an excellent trip that not only met each and everyone's interest and expectation but truly exceeded it.

Your planning have brought us to the lovely cities of Parma, Modena, Florence, Orvieto, Civita Di Bagnoregio, Naples, Rome, Venice, Cortina d'Amprezzo and back to our starting point Milan. Throughout the trip, we have a well balance itinerary that covered

- beautiful churches such as the Duomo in Milan, Rome, Florence,

- archeological site like Pompeii, Colosseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon, Pisa, Verona (learning more about romeo and Juliet)

- great local eating places (recommended by the guides you chose)

- lovely country side and unique sight in San Gimignano, Civita Di Bagnoregio, Orvieto, Lake Como,

- great gallery likes Uffizi, Academia

- Interesting activity such as Snow Mobile excursion in Cortina, Learning Cooking 

- Shopping activities

With so much, yet your team immaculate planning never have us rushing from sight to sight, we were both able to enjoy and learn as much as we can of each sight and at times added more activities.

The team of guides you chose, have truly turn stone and history into exciting stories that the provided the group deeper understanding of the sights we visited and saw. Really like to thank each on of them like our guides in Florence, Pisa, San Gimignano, Orvieto and Civita Di Bagnoregio, Naples and Pompeii, Rome, Verona, Venice and Milan.

But most importantly, thank you for getting our driver, he truly ensure our comfort whilst driving steadily through jams on our way to Naple and snow storm on our way to Cortina d Amprezzo and also took very good care of us ensuring we know what to do where we have no guides and leaving us clear instruction when we needed help. He is truly a wonder.

I will definitely tell my friends heading to Italy about this company.... A wonderfully great experience.

Milbery P. My husband and I had the most amazing experience visiting the Amalfi Coast; it was a dream come true. Everything went without a hitch; from the hotels, the tours & the guides, and the transfers, we couldn't be more pleased with this trip and the great itinerary put together by Franca and the team. We visited, Napoli, Sorrento, Pompeii, Capri, Amalfi, Ravello, Positano & Minori. We couldn't have covered this much territory without their help. The trip was packed with the most incredible activities and locations. This was a Bucket List trip that was finally realized thanks to the great work of this travel company.

July 2023 trip to Southern Italy

My husband and I went on a wonderful trip to New Zealand visiting both North and South Island. The trip was originally planned for 2021 but had to be postponed until this year. I prefer working with an agent, and Lindsay from our travel agency was extremely responsive, offering helpful options and suggestions. Even though the time we spent on the North Island was right after the torrential rains, we modified the itinerary to spend four days in the Taupo area and two days in Rotorua.

We hiked in the Tongariro National Park and part of the Great Lake Pathway, sailed to view the Maori Rock Carvings, and visited Orakei Korako geothermal pools and Huka Falls in the Lake Taupo area. In Rotorua, we relaxed in the mineral pools of the spa and enjoyed the indigenous Maori experience at Te Puia.

The next 12 days were spent on the South Island where we had sunny and warm weather! One of our favorite places was Abel Tasman Park where we went kayaking and hiked the beautiful Coast Trek. We continued our adventures with a memorable heli-hiking experience on the Tasman Glacier in the Mt. Cook region, followed by visiting the unique blue penguins and Royal Albatrosses on the Otago Peninsula and enjoyed a hike and cruise on the famous Milford Sound in Fiordland National Park.

We ended our journey with three days in the Lake Wanaka area where we kayaked, hiked, and visited some of the region's famous wineries.