Please sign in to post.

Pre- and post- travel Village Italy tour Oct. 2024

Posted by on

Hi.

I am a solo on the tour and will be working half days on weekdays prior and after. As such, I am trying to narrow down good hub cities/villages from which I can sight-see in the mornings. And of course, weekends are my best times not to transfer between locations to maximize play time.

I am AOK with splitting up the weeks… meaning 1st Sat night in X location, stay through Tues or Wed. Then move on to Y location for a few nights.

I keep returning to France - Avignon, Colmar, Amboise.
And also just traveling in Italy - Verona, Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Florence, Trieste, all sound great. Upon reading the forums, Salerno also came up,

My logistical parameters.
- I fly into Paris overnight arriving Oct 5 early.
- Tour is 14-27 Oct.
- I want to be in or near Padua the morning of Oct 14.
- I have to fly back to Boston no later than Nov 4. I do.
- I do not have a flight home yet.
- Paris still has cheap flights for me so Colmar is on the list for an-
after trip ide.
- I may and can fly out of Italy or Paris.

I do not want to rent a car. I really wanted to go to Dordogne region
but the forum replies on public transportation caused me to wise up
on that idea. Lascaux, etc. although a dream, will be another trip it
seems.

I love train travel and am keen for a beautiful train journey - longer is fine.

I enjoy walking, architecture, castles, history, cathedrals, food markets, nature, gardens, rolling hills, mountain views, ocean, tours, biking. These are just background… I don’t need them all of course.

In Italy, I have only been to Rome (RS tour) and Venice. In France I enjoyed a bike tour in Provence (this meant I went inside few sights. I have been to Paris and an overnight in Strasbourg (lovely).

Suggestions?
Thank you in advance!
Anne

Posted by
3 posts

Thank you for that idea. I will check it out.

The tour ends in Orta San Giulio on the shores of Lake Orta (Milan's closest airport, Malpensa, is 45 minutes away by taxi).

Posted by
1986 posts

I'd concentrate on Italy this time and do some day trips. For instance, start your stay in Venice even though you've been there, but there's never enough Venice. I checked and day trips to Verona and Bologna are both possible from there and it would cut down on the number of hotel changes, etc. your 1st few days as you adjust to jet lag. Then at the end you could remain in Lake Orta to see more of this lovely area & then spend time in Milan before going home. I would suggest your next tour be the Loire to the South of France tour. I took this last fall (my 10th Rick tour as a solo) and enjoyed it so much. It hits many of the places on your wish list. I particularly liked our stays in Sarlat and Carcassonne. After the tour I stayed on in Nice for a couple days, then took train to Aix en Provence and bus to Avignon, then TGV to CDG airport and home. BTW, Village Italy was my 1st Rick tour and it's still one of my favorites.

Posted by
14612 posts

I'd recommend going in to Padua 1-2 days early. I went from Venice the day the tour started and then realized there was a LOT in Padua to see and do. This was "early" in my "tour career", hahahah so just didn't get it yet.

I love starting out in Paris. It is easy to fly EasyJet from Paris to Venice so perhaps a few nights there before your extra nights in Padua.

I did Village Italy with my brother and SIL. I organized us for another night in Orta San Giulio and that was a mistake. We were done with it by noon of the departure day for the tour and should have gone on to Milan that day.

You may want to do a night or two in Milan if you are interested in The Last Supper and the Duomo there. Then there is a high speed train from Milan to Paris if you want a longer train journey.

Posted by
14612 posts

Oh, I thought of something else. Since you like tours, you might look at the Road Scholar Bordeaux and SW France tour. I did it in October 2021 and it was really an awesome tour. I pick tours now based on the itinerary. Road Scholar is similar to Rick's tours, although some of the travelers are not as independent as you find on Rick's tours.

https://www.roadscholar.org/find-an-adventure/14253/Southwest-France-Bordeaux-and-the-Perigord

Here is a trip report. Some of it is irrelevant now as it was my first trip after the main pandemic just when France was opening back up to tourism. The tour does 3 caves (Rouffignac, Lascaux IV and Pech Merle - which was my fav) plus a sinkhole/cave system called La Gouffre Padirac.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-9-21-10-24-paris-road-scholar-tour-of-sw-france-paris-lol

As a solo traveler and not wanting to try and arrange transportation to all these different areas, I loved this tour. It got me to the caves plus some other really interesting sites! Another forum member, Valerie, also did this tour on the tour departure right ahead of mine.

Posted by
3 posts

Thank you everyone! I booked additional pre-tour days in Padua and researched all the other ideas. The Switzerland locations - I had no idea about those beautiful areas.

Pam I looked at your RS tours and looks perfect. Thanks for the nudge to review them again.

Add Reply

Please do not reply to violations of our Community Guidelines.