rick steve's tour of Venice, Florence and Rome in 10 days

suzanne, Although I haven't taken that particular tour, I'll be embarking on my fifth RS tour later this year and I'm sure the V/F/R tour would be awesome! I don't think you'd be disappointed. Happy travels!

Have you read the tour member feedback for this tour? (click on "tours" above, then find the link to tour member feedback). Plenty of advice, comments, and opinions on this. I've done the RS 17 day Italy tour and loved every minute and then some.

We have this same RS tour booked for sept/oct. We chose a tour, even though we have traveled independently in other countries. I think having a tour guide will enrich the experience for us. I also am reading the RS Art & History 101 book and love it. It is much more meaningful to understand what your are seeing and know the history behind it. I did read the reviews by previous travelers, and they were all good.

I bought Rick's complete DVD set last year and it contains a 45 minute DVD that follows a tour group on a 21-day tour from Amsterdam to Rome to Paris, and it includes their experiences in Venice, Florence and Rome. The purpose of the DVD is to show the Rick Steves style of touring, complete with a naration by Rick and the tour guide. Having been to Florence and Rome independently I can tell you that their experiences in those two cities were excellent. You said you've been to Italy before but not on a tour, but not where. If not these three cities and you don't mind being in a group it looks interesting. I would imagine that if you contacted Rick's office they would send you the DVD. It's great entertainment and you get a lot of comments by the tourists about their experience. It is all by bus, although the tour members only fill about half the capacity of the bus. Gook luck.

To get the free tour DVD Jim is referring to, click the tour tab at the top of the page and click Free DVD.

I took this tour last year and had been to all three of these cities previously on my own. Rick Steves' tours are fast-paced, do cover alot and you really learn about art & art history. The itineraries on the tour tab, the feedback link and the scrapbooks published from the annual scrapbook contest give a good overview of what to expect. The local guides are excellent and add to the experience. If you like to start out slowly each morning, the tours may not be for you. The average meeting time to start out is around 8:30 a.m. I recommend arriving in Venice a couple days early and leaving Rome a couple days after the tour ends. My favorite experience was stopping near Orvieto on the way to Rome for a tour of a wine estate and a tasting. I have been on several RS tours and have noticed the amount of free time is being shortened recently to pack in more 'tour time.' I enjoy the mix of group time and free time and hope they don't continue that trend.

I took this tour a few years ago with five friends. We chose to do a RS tour (it was our first one) so that we could drink in the history, scenery and paintings without having to have our noses in the guide books. The tour guide just pours out the information and its so helpful in a country like Italy which is full of history. We have taken many trips to other parts of Europe on our own. In Italy, we felt the need for the guide in those three major cities and are glad we did so.