italy tours

Italy is amazing!

Couple of questions, though. Is this your first trip to Italy? AND how much time do you have for a tour?

How long? Time of year? single, couple? Price?? Need a tad bit more information. Just about any tour in Italy will cover history, museums, culture, food, beauty, etc. Since you are on the Rick Steves' site have you look at his tours? Do any appeal to you?

This is my very first trip to Italy. My grandfather was born in Palermo, but I wasn't to thrilled with the itinerary of Sicily. I can take a 2 or 3 wk tour. I want to experience Italy and the beauty.

I have looked at all the Italy tours. single. price doesn't matter. turning 60 soon and I am very active.

Well, I did the Heart of Italy in 2013 as my first RS tour, first visit to Italy and a return to European travel after many years. I traveled with my brother, SIL and their 2 adult sons. One of the boys had very limited time off so that's why we chose the shorter Heart of Italy.

The next year I did Village Italy with brother and SIL which was really terrific.

I loved both of these tours and would easily have gone as a solo participant. I've done 8 RS tours altogether, 5 of them solo.

I also have my eye on the Best of Italy. I want to see Lake Como, Otzi the Iceman and the Dolomites. The Southern Italy one is interesting to me because I think it might be to slightly less touristy sights as you come down the east side of Southern Italy. To me this one is going to be hot so I'd need to do it either early or late in the season.

That is not much information on ruling out any! However, if you have the time and budget is not an issue, I would probably choose the Best of Italy because in the case of RS tours, longer is better. It will be a great introduction to the history and culture of Italy as well as having a good mix of big cities, smaller towns, some more rural areas and the beach/resort vibe of the Cinque Terre. I realized after I did the Germany, Austria, Switzerland tour last Fall that I tend to enjoy the smaller towns more than the larger ones.

I have also done some Road Scholar tours altho none to Italy. None of their Italian itineraries really catch my imagination but you might look and see if any are of interest to you. I find the Rick Steves tour members are a bit more independent, less likely to complain and easier to flex. I have, however done 8 Road Scholar tours mostly on itineraries Rick doesn't offer. I do find, like Rick's tours, they are upfront about what they provide and their instructor/guides are of equal quality with Rick's (excellent, in other words!)

If you do FB, you might want to follow Sarah Murdoch who is one of Rick's Italy guides. She is guiding a trip right now and is posting gorgeous pictures as usual! https://www.facebook.com/adventureswithsarah/ Her blog: http://adventureswithsarah.net/

PS I am not a shill for RS but would happily be a product tester for his tours, hahaha!!

I am not sure what you want or mean by "experience Italy and the beauty." Tours and tour group by their nature tend to isolate you on a bus and in a group with an arranged schedule. That solves a lot of problems - transportation, lodging, food, but you do have the schedule to maintain. IMO - but it also because we have travel extensively (and on a few tours) - if you want to experience the culture, you park yourself somewhere for a couple days, wonder the streets with no plan, sit in the sidewalk cafes and watch the people - both tourist and locals. There after a couple of days move via train to another interesting location and repeat. With a low key schedule you can hit a museum or two, take a day trip into the countryside, visit the TI and arrange local tours at your pace and interests. I would pick three or four places and spend four or five days in each. Recently we went to London for six nights with no plan in place. Spent three nights in the same pub with the same waiter. Did the same in Edinburgh a couple of years ago.

We absolutely loved the Best of Italy tour. It covers both history, museums, culture, and the beauty of the country. We were blown away by the 2 nights in the Alpi de Suisi, the Cinque Terre oceanside scenery and the beautiful Italian countryside that we travelled thru on the coach. So much history to learn about and marvel at in Florence and Rome. RS tour guides as well as local guides offer so much cultural and historical information as you tour the various sites. Our tour companions were all people that I would like to spend time with again. We also loved Sicily which we travelled to independently for 10 nights. You are lucky to have roots in Sicily. I suggest that you choose the RS tour that appeals to you the most; then fly to Palermo, Catania or Trapani and explore Sicily on your own. By then, if you've first experienced an RS tour you'll have learned so much about how public transportation works etc. that you'll be comfortable travelling on your own. Others on this forum recommend a Sicily website which I'm sure one of them will post here.

Thank you everyone for such wonderful feedback. its so nice to hear from previous RS travelers. so much to think about. you all gave some great thoughts.......thank you! Love to hear the experiences of other world travelers! I have been to Europe...Ireland, England, Scotland. And my daughter in law is from Russia...so I spent 4 weeks in northern Russia a few years back.. Crazy when someone doesn't know what language you are speaking! Fun times! Looking forward to my travels to Italy...I will probably pick 'the Best of Italy'....can't go wrong with that!!

My husband and I have travelled in Europe and Asia on our own. Also in Europe we have taken 7 RS tours. Our first with RS was Village Italy and we loved it and have recommended it many times. We love sitting in the cities and small villages at cafes and people watching. Doing this is fun, but you don't always get to visit and talk with locals doing this. With the RS tours, especially the ones that go to villages there are many cultural experiences where you interact with the locals and small family owned businesses. Village Italy has some small family owned wineries, olive oil farms, a family owned pottery workshop where we got to watch every process and meet the artisans that have been painting there for their lifetime, and a great truffle hunt, and evening with the family. Most of these are truly out in the countryside and great fun.
Each time you get to a new location there is a local guide that takes you around and you get a lot of information about the local area. Yes, when you change locations you are tied to their schedule, but there is a great amount of free time to explore on your own. The local guides are a great resource for this.
The RS guides that travel with you have all been great in our experience and we would travel with them again! Every tour we have taken has had some singles on the tour and they have been welcomed and friendly. Whatever you decide, I hope you have a great time!

My wife and I took RS 17 Day Best of Italy tour and it was the best vacation that we have taken. I have posted two 10 minute videos on YouTube. Links to the videos can be found on my profile if you click on my name. I think you will be surprised at the variety of the sites you will be seeing on this tour.

I think the Best of Italy tour will be a great introduction to that gorgeous country! The reason I was asking if this would be your first trip there is because I think that Rome and Florence and Venice are great for that initial impression. This tour covers so much more! I hope you'll come back and say how you enjoyed it when you return from your adventure!

I'm going on the Italian Treasures tour through Nada's Italy next May. It's very pricey compared to other tours but they are very small which means more personal attention. I've done a bunch of research and have never seen one bad thing about them! Check it out..nadasitaly.com