Heart of Italy in 9 days OR My Way Italy in 13 Days Tour?

I've done Heart of Italy but not a My Way tour. I see the My Way tour goes to Venice, Varenna and Assisi whereas the Heart of Italy stays 2 nights in Volterra. I loved Volterra!

I don't think you could go wrong with either. I think it just depends on whether you want the advantage of a guide or want to do more planning on your own. I love the guides and for me feel they add so much to the experience.

FWIW I did not think Heart of Italy was as demanding as another RS tour I've been on. (21 Day Best of Europe was the most demanding.) To me, Rome is very demanding - there is a lot of walking and lots of steps so whether you do it with a guide or on your own this city is going to be taxing. The strenuousness of the My Way is going to depend on how much you do. There was free time in each city so we still had time to explore on our own after spending time with the group.

Thanks Pam...was enough time spent in Rome or did it hit all the high points in the time allowed?

Pam, what month did you do the Heart of Italy?

I would look at it also of what cities do you want to visit and the itinerary in each place. The my way tour you get Venice, the Italian lakes with Varenna and Assisi. While the heart of italy you'll get Lucca and Volterra instead of the other places. The rest seem common. I've haven't done Rick's tours so can't answer that, i've traveled with his books on our to places.

None of the offered tours has the perfect itinerary. On the Heart of Italy tour do like all the stops BUT would miss the lakes and Venice.

Why not take the RS Heart of Italy tour and then on your own, take a train to Venice and explore the lakes for 3-4 days? Just a thought.

We have done 8 RS tours, one of them being Heart of Italy. We did not find this tour overly strenuous. At the time my husband was 83 and I was 76 and we had no problems with the activities. If you are in good health and reasonable good shape you shouldn't have a problem. We really enjoyed this tour as we have all the tours we have taken. We leave in two weeks on our 9th RS tour. Can't wait.

Linda,
That is a good thought. If we did take a train to Venice than to the lakes where would the most logical airline departure city be, Milan?

Rosemary, Thanks for your comments. My wife and I are in reasonably good shape (just returned from the gym). I just had some concern when it listed that tour as one of the most strenuous. Of course that can mean something different to each person. What were some of your other favorite tours and which tour are you going on next? Thanks.

Both Venice and Milan have flights to the US. It used to be Milan was the cheapest but I helped 2 friends book trips for September and both of them are flying into Venice which was a little cheaper then Milan this year.

If you do the Heart of Italy tour you can easily visit Varenna and Venice on your own. Varenna is 1 hr easy train ride from Milan. Volterra is more accessible by Bus and Car so it's best to do that on the tour. The tour ends in Florence so you can either do 1 of 2 things.

1) Train Florence to Venice and stay a few days. Then Train Venice to Milan, change trains to Varenna and end your trip on the lakes. Depending what time yflights are would determine if you can stay the last night at Varenna or in Milan.

2) Train florence to Milan and change trains to Varenna. Stay a few days in Varenna. Train back to Milan and change to Venice. Stay your final days in venice and fly home from venice.

I would recommend a guided tour over a My Way tour, we have done both. The My Way guided don't offer much help.

Doug, what Robert said. Either itinerary would work. I love Italy and can't wait to get back

Linda

To answer your question, I did the Heart of Italy the 3rd week of May in 2014. I went with a family group and that was the earliest we could go as one of the kids was in college and had finals up until then. I thought Rome was very hot but I'm from N. Idaho so I don't tolerate the heat very well. Volterra, Monterosso and Florence were very comfortable. We had heavy rain in Florence and that made me realize that I ~always~ need to pack a waterproof jacket.

As far as the days in Rome, we arrived late Friday afternoon for our tour which started on a Sunday. We had a full day and a part of another day on our own in Rome which was good. On the tour we had the arrival evening orientation walk and dinner, then the full day the next day and had the morning at the Colosseum and Forum before we left Rome. We must have stopped on the way to Volterra for lunch at one of the AutoGrilles on the highway. That in and of itself was a fun experience!

One thing I did since there were 5 of us is that I booked a shuttle from the Airport. By the time I booked there were no regular shuttles left so I booked the VIP shuttle which included a tour of the city for 1.5 hours. It was really fun altho the rush hour traffic was heart stopping. My brother had called shotgun and was sorry, lol. The driver was great. Spoke good English, took us to some cool overlooks. I stupidly thought it might help orient us but it in no way helped with that as we seemingly zig-zagged and criss-crossed the city.

I will tell you that in Rome my nephews walked my feet off. I did not have a pedometer but based on how my feet felt I think we went 10-12 miles on both the full day we had on our own as well as on the full tour day. At that time we did the Vatican/St Peters in the AM, then in the afternoon the nephews and I walked to the San Clemente Basilica and then headed out to find the Aventine keyhole which we had seen on the shuttle tour.

I would definitely recommend a couple of days ahead in Rome and also at least a day or 2 in Florence afterward if you have the time to spend.

Thank you Pam. You provided some good detail...