Southern Italy tour

I have no reason to doubt the quality of the Smithsonian tours. Although I haven't taken one, I was signed up for one to India departing next month, which obviously isn't happening.

This seems to be the tour you are considering: https://www.smithsonianjourneys.org/tours/sicily-amalfi-coast/itinerary/

I don't think four nights (only three full days) in Taormina would give you much of a look at Sicily. It's a large island that needs a lot more time than that. Even Rick's tour, I feel, is a bit too short. The Smithsonian tours stays in Taormina (definitely the high-rent district, gorgeous but full of boutiques) and goes to Mt. Etna and Agrigento. While those are worthwhile destinations--probably on most visitors' lists, I would be especially disappointed to miss Siracusa, the Baroque towns in the southeast and Palermo.

I like Puglia a lot. While more time would be great, two nights in Matera (which is in Basilicata rather than Puglia) and three nights in Puglia isn't too bad since you'll benefit from the efficiencies of having dedicated transportation and a tour leader. I do like Lecce a lot.

The number of hotel changes on this tour is reasonable, and I agree that it should feel less hectic. But the Sicilian portion would leave me unhappy. It just so happens that the Smithsonian has chosen three destinations not very important to me, which of course doesn't help.

Why not take a look at Odysses Unlimited. (https://odysseys-unlimited.com)

They have two tours in that area:

Southern Italy and Sicily

Sicily.

I took the Southern Italy and Sicily tour. It was excellent. (I liked the itinerary because it included Puglia.)

I had planned to go back to Sicily on my own to see some of the areas we didn't see on the tour but it had to be postponed.

What you could do is after the Village Italy tour fly from Milan to Palermo, visit Palermo on your own, and then take the train across the island to Taormina where the tour begins.

The prices in the catalog include airfare from the U.S. but you just have to call to ge the land price.

I've taken both RS tours and Odysses. Both have pluses and minuses compared to the each other. If you want more information, send me a PM.

I don't think that Rick has said that his tours will start as soon as this September (only 7 short months away) so I'd advise before you give Smithsonian any money you be sure you can get your money back - same with flights and hotels. Last year many (most) people got vouchers for future travel rather than cash back and many had to work really hard to get a true refund.

The UK has had a very good vaccination rate but even here we are not expecting European travel with any degree of certainty this year.

I hope it works out for you....

lmshep1, my husband and I are also hoping to take the South Italy tour this fall. I don't think the pace and demand look any worse than any other multi-city tours RS offers. We have not taken the Greece tour, which I have heard (for what it's worth) may well be the most challenging RS tour, but we didn't find the Sicily tour particularly demanding.

I think if you've managed five RS tours, you should have no trouble with the Sicily tour; I can't speak to the South Italy tour, since we haven't taken it yet.

By the way, the Village Italy tour is wonderful. It may well be my favorite of the 14 tours we've taken. Maybe.

In 2013 we did pretty much what you propose - Southern Italy followed by Village Italy tours. We were 70ish at the time and did not find either tour to be too strenuous. As always RS tours give you ample free time to either rest or pursue your own activities. We consider both of these tours to be among the best RS tours we have taken. They really do give you a good sense of what Italy is like. The contrasts between southern and northern Italian life style and culture are interesting and it is good to experience this on a single trip.

We have not taken the Sicily tours (Covid you know) but we share the concerns expressed about the pace of that tour. Should we ever do it we would likely stay an additional week or two.

Good luck, hope you are able to do this in 2021.

Robbie

We did the RS Best of South Italy tour in 2015. It was our first RS tour and our first ever group tour. Until that tour we were dedicated independent travelers, and I have to say that we were blown away. Our tour guide, Ann had grown up in Chicago and she went to Italy to learn Italian and then made Italy her home. Her Italian was superb and she was so relatable. We found the itinerary amazing! While my husband found Vieste to be special, I fell in love with Matera. We both truly loved the Amalfi coast. We found the pace to be comfortable and not overly demanding. Without a doubt, this tour is a favorite.

We’ve done both RS Southern Italy and RS Greece and Greece is definitely the more physically intense. We did RS Southern Italy in 2019 and several of the tour members had knee injuries, but no one seemed to have any trouble keeping up. One thing we appreciate about the RS tours is that even if you’ve been in a city before, each tour explores a different area. Our first trip, Heart of Italy, did the Forum, the Colosseum and the Vatican with accommodations near Piazza Della Republica in Rome. With Southern Italy, we stayed in Rome’s Trastevere area and explored the Capitoline, the Jewish Ghetto and Trastevere. Lecce draws lots of raves, , but you don’t get Naples, which we loved.

We’ve never done a Smithsonian tour, but it looks like it would be a great time. We have done Odysseys Unlimited, which we will probably move to when we can no longer hoist luggage ourselves.
Something that we find important is the location of hotels. I didn’t check to see if Smithsonian listed their hotels, but central location is really important to our added enjoyment. In comparing then and now Odysseys Unlimited hotels in Lisbon, they have moved farther from the center than when we went. Just something to consider when you’re making decisions.