Heart of Italy - October 23-31

I'm not on your tour but this was my first RS tour as well and it is an excellent introduction!

I hope you'll be able to arrive in Rome a night or two (at least) ahead of the tour! First, this tour is busy and you'll want to hit the ground running the evening it starts so it's better to be over jet lag by then! Second, there is SO much to see in Rome that the tour just hits a few of the highlights leaving you a gracious plenty to see on your own! If you have the time and budget, add a day or two in Florence at the end!

You'll get the first and last tour hotels right away so if you are going to add extra nights go ahead and book. There is another thread going currently where someone has had the tour office change the last tour hotel. He'd book a non-refundable rate and is kind of stuck changing hotels at the end. No big deal but do consider booking a refundable rate for extra nights before or after.

You'll get a free tour kit which will include a guidebook and a moneybelt. They don't ship these until you have made your final payment, so it's about 2 months out from travel.

Thanks for the info. I’m hungry for information.
😁😁😁

You may want to check out previous trip reports on the forum and scrapbooks. The RS Audio Europe has lots of good information too. Lots of information to add to your excitement.
Keep asking questions too. If I learned nothing else prepping for my trip, it was that the people on RS Forum are very nice and helpful. But I did learn a lot and felt prepared, so much so that we did 10 days on our own and even renting a car for a side trip to Calabria, then a train trip from Naples to Venice.
Try to learn a few Italian words. It helps during your free time. I used YouTube to pick up 15 words. Because I’m language tone deaf it took my 6 months to learn those.g But I could ask where the bathroom was and order coffee. Buon Viaggio!

The Rick Steves guidebooks at my local library are also very popular! Often there are waiting lists, especially for newer editions. Sometimes older editions are "on-hand" and I can use those for some things, such as guided walks, that won't have changed much.

I've used his books for years for my independent travel. This spring I'll take my first RS tour, to Tallinn, Helsinki and St Petersburg. I don't know how it was handled in prior years; we were able to "order" our (free) tour kit, including the guide book, 30 days after our initial deposit - essentially when that money became non-refundable.

"Thanks for the info. I’m hungry for information."

Hahaha....of course you are! We've all been there, done that, continue to be there and do that, lol!!

Reviewing scrapbooks is a great idea! Here is the link to the contest page with the current scrapbooks there plus a link to the archived scrapbooks.

https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/scrapbooks

I sincerely appreciate all the replies. Everyone has been extremely nice. Thank you all!

My daughter and I are doing this same tour. I began a thread asking about monastery stays. After reading this thread it's encouraging me to scale it down and not try to do too much. It's tempting to want to see as much as possible. I'd love suggestions on a good plan before and after the tour. We'll arrive in Rome 4 days before and have 4 days after. What would be highlights to see beyond the tour??? Thank you! And I agree! You are all so kind and helpful!

@thekirchners, the Heart of Italy sees the Vatican Museums and St Peter's Basilica on the full day with free time in the afternoon. On your departure day to Volterra you'll spend the AM on a tour of the Colosseum and Forum before you head out of town to lunch. You'll also walk thru the old area and see the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Piazza Navona and the Fountain of the 4 Rivers by Bernini. You'll probably see the Spanish Steps as well.

So....there are tons of things to see that are not covered and it really depends on what is of interest to you. Your Italy guide book will be helpful with this.

Your arrival afternoon, I'd try to stay outside in the sunlight to help with adjustment to jet lag. Our tour stayed at Hotel Sonya and we wound up walking down to the Colosseum area, wandering around there outside because wow...can you believe it, you're here?

Then, some things that were of interest to me:

Basilica San Clemente - lower levels go down to an excavation of a Temple to Mithras
Capitoline Museum
Church of San Pietro in Vincoli - Michelangelo's Moses is here as well as supposedly the chains that bound Saint Peter.
Galleria Borghese
National Museum of Rome (includes the Baths of Diocletian)
Aventine Keyhole - I booked a sightseeing tour on the way from the airport to the hotel and he took us to the Aventine Keyhole. My nephews and I went back to find it and we did. Walked up thru the Rose Gardens on the side of the hill facing the Circus, then at the top. Cool view and we enjoyed the walk! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_del_Priorato_di_Malta

There are dozens of other sites that might be more interesting to you!

This was my first RS trip and I did not do enough planning ahead of time. I was traveling with other family and we'd have done better to have had a plan for our days before the tour. Lesson learned and I have done a lot more research for subsequent tours!